Open Access

ARTICLE

HOT WATER COOLED HEAT SINKS FOR EFFICIENT DATA CENTER COOLING: TOWARDS ELECTRONIC COOLING WITH HIGH EXERGETIC UTILITY

Peter Kasten^a, Severin Zimmermann^a, Manish K. Tiwari^a, Bruno Michel^b, Dimos Poulikakos^a,*

a Laboratory of Thermodynamics in Emerging Technologies, ETH Zurich, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
b Advanced Thermal Packaging, IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, 8803 Rueschlikon, Switzerland

* Corresponding Author: Email: , Ph.: +41 44 632 2738, Fax: +41 44 632 11 76

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2010, 1(2), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.5098/hmt.v1.2.3006

Abstract

Electronic data center cooling using hot water is proposed for high system exergetic utility. The proof-of-principle is provided by numerically modeling a manifold micro-channel heat sink for cooling microprocessors of a data center. An easily achievable 0.5l/min per chip water flow, with 60°C inlet water temperature, is found sufficient to address the typical data center thermal loads. A maximum temperature difference of ~8°C was found between the solid and liquid, confirming small exergetic destruction due to heat transport across a temperature differential. The high water outlet temperature from the heat sink opens the possibility of waste heat recovery applications.

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