Hot water cooled heat sinks for efficient data center cooling: Towards electronic cooling with high exergetic utility

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.