Liquid Cooling for Data Center

Data centers consume large amounts of electricity, a significant part of which goes to cooling information technology equipment. Advanced technologies such as the cloud hosting, internet of things, artificial intelligence and machine learning require high computing power for high performance and short processing times. Such increased computing, data storage and network requirements have led to an increase in the size, density and complexity of servers, data storage and network equipment in the data center, resulting in high heat dissipation. Existing cooling solutions use the circulation of cooled air through the equipment and space of the data center. More efficient cooling can be achieved by using liquid coolant, which absorbs heat thousands of times better per volume unit than air. It can be accomplished either at the level of server, data storage and network equipment racks, or at the level of the information technology equipment itself, primarily processors and memory in servers, as a supplement to conventional air cooling. Applying hybrid cooling (air and liquid cooling) or fully liquid cooling can achieve many benefits. This includes a significant reduction in cooling energy costs, higher power usage efficiency, significantly higher server density with a more pleasant working atmosphere in the data center (less airflow and lower noise levels). Liquid cooling also becomes a preferred solution for power densities that exceed 20-25 kW per rack. Various methods of liquid cooling in the data center are presented. Given the predictions that the power density in data centers will reach 50 kW per rack in the next few years, we can expect a wider use of the mentioned technology and described methods.