Study on Effects of Operating Parameters on a Water-Cooled Loop Thermosyphon System under Partial Server Utilization

Sikai Zou (), Chang Yue (), Ting Xiao, Xingyi Ma and Yiwei Wang
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Sikai Zou: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, East China JiaoTong University, Nanchang 330013, China
Chang Yue: School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China
Ting Xiao: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, East China JiaoTong University, Nanchang 330013, China
Xingyi Ma: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, East China JiaoTong University, Nanchang 330013, China
Yiwei Wang: School of Civil Engineering and Architecture, East China JiaoTong University, Nanchang 330013, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 17, 1-20

Abstract: During the operation of a data center, servers are gradually installed in racks, causing most racks to work under a low heating load for a long time and affecting the cooling efficiency of the loop thermosyphon system (LTS). Thus, the effects of operating parameters on the thermal performance should be investigated. In this study, a water-cooled LTS was experimentally investigated under different airflow rates and heating loads. The results show that the additional liquid refrigerant reduced the heat transfer performance and aggravated a drop in cooling capacity when the airflow rate and heating load were decreased. To further reveal the effects of the operating parameters on the thermal performance and cooling efficiency, a steady-state distributed-parameter model was developed and validated based on the experimental data. The results show that the excessive cooling capacity was reduced by decreasing the airflow rate according to the upper limit of the server exhaust air temperature under partial server utilization. The excessive cooling capacity was reduced by 14.5–52.1% under 5–56.5% server utilization. To further reduce the excessive cooling capacity while ensuring thermal security, the water side operating parameters (including the supply chilled water temperature and water flow rate) were adjusted according to the upper limit of the rack’s average outlet air temperature, which reduced the excessive cooling capacity by more than 23.8% under partial server utilization.

Keywords: building energy saving; loop thermosyphon system; thermal performance; data center (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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