As the performance levels and rack power densities of modern computing equipment climb, more companies transition from air to liquid cooling, since liquid offers a more efficient method of transferring heat. Despite some concern about mixing liquid and electronics, liquid cooling technology has evolved to make such concerns more obsolete.
Water at standard conditions is far better at conducting heat per unit volume than air, which means liquid cooling increases both cooling effectiveness and energy efficiency for data centers that employ it. Plus, it's easier to manage than high volumes of air. ASHRAE Technical Comittee 9.9 has even added another liquid cooling classification to standardize the breadth of liquid cooling applications.
Liquid cooling refers to any practice where liquid enters a cabinet to carry away heat, even when combined with air movement. There are two fundamental classifications of liquid cooling: Direct, where liquid actually cools the server and/or components, and close-coupled, where air cools the server and/or components but the heat is rejected to a liquid stream.
These two classifications can be broken down further into several variations:
High-density computing hardware that uses direct liquid cooling requires constant fluid circulation through a power failure. High-performance devices enter self-protective thermal shutdown within seconds if cooling is interrupted. Such devices often require chilled water storage -- which can sometimes use the residual from large header pipes -- and ancilliary pumps on uninterruptible power supply (UPS) backup.
RDHx units might not always require backup pumps since the enire room remains at server inlet temperature. Depending on the size of the room, the air temperature can remain within ASHRAE's allowable limits until generators start. Use rapid restart chillers to resume cooling quickly after restoring power.
Most liquid-cooled devices are both high performance and mission-critical, so ensure power and cooling are redundant. Design double-ended piping by including isolation valves that isolate segments for maintenance without losing liquid flow through the rest of the cooling loop.
Electrical design is equally important. Many liquid-cooled devices shut down within seconds if cooling fails, so keep backup pumps and door fans on UPS. Keep any mechanical portions on a separate, redundant UPS circuit.
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