Data Center Liquid Cooling Systems and Technologies

Data center liquid cooling is a cooling method that uses flowing liquid to transfer the heat generated by the internal components of the computer to the outside of the computer to ensure that the computer works within a safe temperature range. The data center cooling system is divided into primary cooling (IT equipment cooling) and secondary cooling (heat dissipation process). The liquid cooling usually mentioned is used in the primary cooling process, while the secondary cooling process mostly adopts the traditional air cooling mode.

The traditional air-cooling mode of the data center, by closing the hot and cold aisles, using terminal air conditioners, inter-row air conditioners and other facilities to take away the heat generated by IT equipment through the wind, so as to ensure that the IT equipment is in an optimal working environment. With the continuous upgrading of technology and industrial technologies such as AI and large-scale models, as well as the continuous improvement of computing power and computing requirements of IT equipment, the disadvantages of the air-cooled mode have become increasingly prominent. The thermal conductivity of liquid is 25 times that of air, and instead of air, liquid directly cools IT equipment, which can greatly improve heat dissipation efficiency.

Public data shows that the cooling efficiency of liquid cooling is at least 15% to 20% higher than that of air cooling. Liquid cooling technology has developed rapidly in recent years due to its advantages such as efficient heat dissipation, and will also strongly promote the realization of the “double carbon” goal of data centers.

The inevitability of technology development and upgrading in the liquid cooling industry

1) Liquid-cooled servers are rapidly iterating

As an upstream data center enterprise, the development of IT equipment is closely related to the data center. For example, immersion liquid cooling requires a sealed cabin to store coolant, and IT equipment usually needs to be customized to meet the compatibility with coolant. Therefore, the large-scale implementation of liquid cooling technology in data centers will inevitably require the in-depth cooperation of IT manufacturers. According to public data, my country’s liquid-cooled server shipments in the past three years accounted for less than 5% of the total number of servers. From 2022 to the present, mainstream IT equipment manufacturers have publicly stated that they will increase research and development efforts and speed up product iterations, which will also accelerate the large-scale implementation of liquid cooling in data centers.

2) Liquid cooling is more suitable for IT equipment than air cooling

Taking immersion liquid cooling as an example, compared with air cooling technology, it can not only greatly reduce the impact of humidity, vibration, dust particles, etc. on IT equipment, but also reduce the noise generated by 20 to 35 decibels compared with air cooling. The production environment will become more stable and comfortable, and the efficiency and stability of IT equipment will be effectively improved.