Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Two-Phase On-Chip Cooling Systems for Green Data Centers

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Energy Efficient Thermal Management of Data Centers

  • 2440 Accesses

Abstract

Cooling of data centers is estimated to have an annual electricity cost of 1.4 billion dollars in the USA and 3.6 billion dollars worldwide. Currently, refrigerated air is the most widely used means of cooling data center’s servers. According to recent articles published at the ASHRAE Winter Annual Meeting at Dallas, typically 40% or more of the refrigerated airflow bypasses the server racks in data centers. The cost of energy to operate a server for 4 years is now on the same order as the initial cost to purchase the server itself, meaning that the choice of future servers should be evaluated on their total 4-year cost, not just their initial cost. Based on the above issues, thermal designers of data centers and server manufacturers now seem to agree that there is an immediate need to improve the server cooling process, especially considering that modern data centers require the dissipation of 5–15 MW of heat, and the fact that 40–45% of the total energy consumed in a data center is for the cooling of servers. Thus, the manner in which servers are cooled and the potential of recovery of the dissipated heat are all more important, if one wishes to reduce the overall CO2 footprint of the data center. Recent publications show the development of primarily four competing technologies for cooling chips: microchannel single-phase (water) flow, porous media flow, jet impingement cooling and microchannel two-phase flow. The first three technologies are characterized negatively for the relatively high pumping power to keep the temperature gradient in the fluid from inlet to outlet within acceptable limits, i.e., to minimize the axial temperature gradient along the chip and the associated differential expansion of the thermal interface material with the silicon created by it. Two-phase flow in microchannels, i.e., evaporation of dielectric refrigerants, is a promising solution, despite the higher complexity involved. The present chapter presents the thermo-hydrodynamic fundamentals of such a new green technology. Two potential cooling cycles making use of microchannel evaporators are also demonstrated. A case study was developed showing the main advantages of each cycle, and a comparison between single-phase (water and brine) and two-phase (HFC134a and HFO1234ze) cooling is given. Finally, an additional case study demonstrating a potential application for the waste heat of data centers is developed. The main aspects considered were reduction of CO2 footprint, increase of efficiency (data centers and secondary application of waste heat), and economic gains.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 129.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 169.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  1. Koomy JG (2007) Estimating regional power consumption by servers: a technical note. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Oakland, CA

    Google Scholar 

  2. Saini M, Webb RL (2003) Heat rejection limits of air cooled plane fin heat sinks for computer cooling. IEEE Trans Compon Packag Technol 26(1):71–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Samadiani E, Joshi S, Mistree F (2008) The thermal design of a next generation data center: a conceptual exposition. J Electron Pack 130: 041104-1–041104-8

    Google Scholar 

  4. Agostini B, Fabbri M, Park JE, Wojtan L, Thome JR, Michel B (2007) State-of-the-art of high heat flux cooling technologies. Heat Transfer Eng 28:258–281

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Leonard PL, Phillips AL (2005) The thermal bus opportunity – a quantum leap in data center cooling potential. In: ASHRAE transactions, Denver, CO, 2005

    Google Scholar 

  6. Gosney WB (1982) Principles of refrigeration, 1st edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  7. Montreal, The Montreal protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer. 2000, United Nations Environment Programme: Nairobi, Kenya

    Google Scholar 

  8. Kyoto, Kyoto protocol to the United Nations framework convention on climate change. 1998, United Nations: New York, USA

    Google Scholar 

  9. Calm J (2008) The next generation of refrigerants – historical review, considerations, and outlook. Int J Refrig 31:1123–1133

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Calm J (2006) Comparative efficiencies and implications for greenhouse gas emissions of chiller refrigerants. Int J Refrig 29:833–841

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Nielsen O, Javadi M, Sulbaek M, Hurley M, Wallington T, Singh R (2007) Atmospheric chemistry of CF3CF = CH2: kinetics and mechanisms of gas-phase reactions with CL atoms, OH radicals, and O3. Chem Phys Lett 439:18–22

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Søndergaard R, Nielsen O, Hurley M, Wallington T, Singh R (2007) Atmospheric chemistry of trans-CF3CH = CHF: kinetics of the gas-phase reactions with Cl atoms, OH radicals, and O3. Chem Phys Lett 443:199–204

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Brown J, Zilio C, Cavallini A (2010) Thermodynamic properties of eight fluorinated olefins. Int J Refrig 33:235–241

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Directive 2006/40/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 May 2006 relating to emissions from air-conditioning systems in motor vehicles and amending Council Directive 70/156/EEC. 2006

    Google Scholar 

  15. Thome JR (2010) Wolverine engineering databook III. Available from: http://www.wlv.com

  16. Morini GL (2006) Scaling effects for liquid flows in microchannels. Heat Transfer Eng 27:64–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Revellin R, Dupont V, Ursenbacher T, Thome JR, Zun I (2006) Characterization of two-phase flows in microchannels: optical measurement technique and flow parameter results for R-134a in a 0.5 mm channel. Int J Multiphase Flow 32:755–774

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  18. Ong CL (2010) Macro-to-microchannel transition in two-phase flow and evaporation, In: Heat and Mass Transfer Laboratory (LTCM). École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne: Lausanne

    Google Scholar 

  19. Lazarek GM, Black SH (1982) Evaporating heat transfer, pressure drop and critical heat flux in a small vertical tube with R-113. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 25:945–960

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Tran TN, Wambsganss MW, France DM (1996) Small circular and rectangular channel boiling with two refrigerants. Int J Multiphase Flow 22:485–498

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  21. Zhang W, Hibiki T, Mishima K (2004) Correlation for flow boiling heat transfer in mini-channels. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 47:5749–5763

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Kandlikar SG, Balasubramanian P (2004) An extension of the flow boiling correlation to transition, laminar, and deep laminar flows in minichannels and microchannels. Heat Transfer Eng 25:86–93

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Jacobi AM, Thome JR (2002) Heat transfer model for evaporation of elongated bubble flows in microchannels. J Heat Transfer-Transact ASME 124(6):1131–1136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Thome JR, Dupont V, Jacobi AM (2004) Heat transfer model for evaporation in microchannels. Part I: presentation of the model. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 47:3375–3385

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  25. Dupont V, Thome JR, Jacobi AM (2004) Heat transfer model for evaporation in microchannels, part II: comparison with the database. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 47:3387–3401

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  26. Ong CL, Thome JR (2011) Macro-to-microchannel transition in two-phase flow, part 2: flow boiling heat transfer and critical heat flux. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 35(6):873–886

    Google Scholar 

  27. Agostini B, Thome JR, Fabbri M, Michel B, Calmi D, Kloter U (2008) High heat flux flow boiling in silicon multi-microchannels – part II: heat transfer characteristics of refrigerant R245fa. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 51(21–22):5415–5425

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  28. Costa-Patry E, Olivier JA, Michel B, Thome JR (2011) Two-phase flow of refrigerants in 85 μm-wide multi-microchannels, part II: heat transfer with 35 local heaters. Int J Heat Fluid Flow 32(2):464–476

    Google Scholar 

  29. Ong CL, Thome JR (2011) Macro-to-microchannel transition in two-phase flow: part 1 – two-phase flow patterns and film thickness measurements. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 35:37–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Cioncolini A, Thome JR (2011) Algebraic turbulence modeling in adiabatic and evaporating annular flows. Int J Heat Fluid Flow, in review

    Google Scholar 

  31. Ribatski G, Wojtan L, Thome JR (2006) An analysis of experimental data and prediction methods for two-phase frictional pressure drop and flow boiling heat transfer in micro-scale channels. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 31:1–19

    Article  Google Scholar 

  32. Cicchitti A, Lombardi C, Silvestri M, Soldaini G, Zavattarelli R (1960) Two-phase cooling experiments – pressure drop, heat transfer and burnout measurements. Energia Nucleare 7:407–425

    Google Scholar 

  33. Müller-Steinhagen H, Heck K (1986) A simple friction pressure drop correlation for two-phase flow in pipes. Chem Eng Process 20:297–308

    Article  Google Scholar 

  34. Mishima K, Hibiki T (1996) Some characteristics of air-water two-phase flow in small diameter vertical tubes. Int J Multiphase Flow 22:703–712

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  35. Revellin R, Thome JR (2007) Adiabatic two-phase frictional pressure drops in microchannels. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 31(7):673–685

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. McAdams WH, Woods WK, Bryan RL (1942) Vaporization inside horizontal tubes – II – benzene-oil mixtures. Transaction of the ASME 64:193

    Google Scholar 

  37. Cioncolini A, Thome JR, Lombardi C (2009) Unified macro-to-microscale method to predict two-phase frictional pressure drops of annular flows. Int J Multiphase Flow 35:1138–1148

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Garimella S, Killion JD, Coleman JW (2002) An experimental validated model for two-phase pressure drop in the intermittent flow for circular channel. J Fluid Eng 124:205–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  39. Revellin R, Thome JR (2008) An analytical model for the prediction of the critical heat flux in heated microchannels. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 51:1216–1225

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  40. Wojtan L, Revellin R, Thome JR (2006) Investigation of saturated critical heat flux in a single uniformly heated microchannel. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 30:765–774

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Lazarek GM, Black SH (1982) Evaporating heat transfer, pressure drop and critical heat flux in a small vertical tube with R-113. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 25(7):945–960

    Article  Google Scholar 

  42. Bowers MB, Mudawar I (1994) High flux boiling in low flow rate, low pressure drop mini-channel and micro-channel heat sinks. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 37:321–332

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Qu W, Mudawar I (2004) Measurement and correlation of critical heat flux in two-phase micro-channel heat sink. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 47:2045–2059

    Article  Google Scholar 

  44. Agostini B, Revellin R, Thome JR, Fabbri M, Michel B, Calmi D, Kloter U (2008) High heat flux flow boiling in silicon multi-microchannels: part III. Saturated critical heat flux of R236fa and two-phase pressure drops. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 41:5426–5442

    Article  Google Scholar 

  45. Ong CL (2010) Macro-to-microchannel transition in two-phase flow and evaporation. Ph.D. Thesis, EPFL: Lausanne

    Google Scholar 

  46. Mauro AW, Thome JR, Toto D, Vanoli GP (2010) Saturated critical heat flux in a multi-microchannel heat sink fed by a split flow system. Exp Therm Fluid Sci 34:81–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  47. Park JE (2008) Critical heat flux in multi-microchannel copper elements with low pressure refrigerants. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

    Google Scholar 

  48. Karajgikar S, Agonafer D, Ghose K, Sammakia B, Amon C, Refai-Ahmed G (2010) Multi-objective optimization to improve both thermal and device performance of a nonuniformly powered micro-architecture. J Electron Packag 132:81–87

    Article  Google Scholar 

  49. Bar-Cohen A, Kraus A, Davidson S (1983) Thermal frontiers in the design and packaging of microelectronic equipment. Mech Eng 105(6):53–59

    Google Scholar 

  50. Borkar S, Karnik T, Narendra S, Tschanz J, Keshavarzi A, De V (2003) Parameter variations and impact on circuits and microarchitecture. In: DAC’03 40th annual design automation conference, 2003

    Google Scholar 

  51. Agostini B, Thome JR (2005) Comparison of an extended database for flow boiling heat transfer coefficient in multi-microchannels elements with the three-zone model. In: Proceedings of ECI international conference on heat transfer and fluid flow in microscale, Castelvecchio Pascoli, Italy, 2005

    Google Scholar 

  52. Costa-Patry E, Olivier JA, Paredes S, Thome JR (2010) Hot-spot self-cooling effects on two-phase flow of R245fa in 85 μm-wide multi-microchannels. In: 16th International workshop on thermal investigations of ICs and systems, Spain, 2010

    Google Scholar 

  53. Costa-Patry E, Nebuloni S, Olivier JA, Thome JR (2011) On-chip two-phase cooling with refrigerant in 85 μm-wide multi-microchannel evaporator under hot-spot conditions. IEEE Trans Compon Packag Technol. DOI: 10.1109/TCPMT.2011.2173572

    Google Scholar 

  54. Madhour Y, Olivier JA, Costa-Patry E, Paredes S, Michel B, Thome JR (2011) Flow boiling of R134a in a multi-microchannel heat sink with hotspot heaters for energy-efficient microelectronic CPU cooling applications. IEEE Trans Compon Packag and Manufac Technol 1(6): 873–883

    Google Scholar 

  55. Marcinichen JB, Olivier JA, Thome JR (2011) Reasons to use two-phase refrigerant cooling. In: ElectronicsCooling. Available from: http://www.electronics-cooling.com/

  56. Marcinichen JB, Thome JR, Michel B (2010) Cooling of microprocessors with micro-evaporation: a novel two-phase cooling cycle. Int J Refrig 33(7):1264–1276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  57. IBM BladeCenter QS22: overview. Available from: http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/bladecenter/hardware/servers/qs22/

  58. Meyer JP, Olivier JA (2010) Transitional flow inside enhanced tubes for fully developed and developing flow with different types of inlet disturbances: Part II–heat transfer. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 54(7–8):1587–1597

    Google Scholar 

  59. Meyer JP, Olivier JA (2010) Transitional flow inside enhanced tubes for fully developed and developing flow with different types of inlet disturbances: Part I – Adiabatic pressure drops. Int J Heat Mass Transfer 54(7–8):1598–1607

    Google Scholar 

  60. Cavallini A, Del Col D, Doretti L, Longo GA, Rossetto L (2000) Heat transfer and pressure drop during condensation of refrigerants inside horizontal enhanced tubes. Int J Refrig 23:4–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  61. Dittus FW, Boelter LMK (1930) Publications on engineering, vol 2. University of California, Berkeley, p 443

    Google Scholar 

  62. Blasius H (1913) Das Ähnlichkeitsgesetz bei Reibungsvorgängen in Flussigkeiten. 1913: Fors-chg. Arb. Ing. -Wes., 131 Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  63. Ravigururajan TS, Bergles AE (1985) General correlations for pressure drop and heat transfer for single-phase turbulent flow in internally ribbed tubes. Augmentation of heat transfer in energy systems, vol. 52, pp 9–20

    Google Scholar 

  64. Azzi A, Alger USTHB, Friedel L (2005) Two-phase upward flow 90o bend pressure loss model. Forschung im Ingenieurwesen, vol. 69, pp 120–130

    Google Scholar 

  65. Taitel Y, Bornea D, Dukler AE (1980) Modelling flow pattern transitions for steady upward gas-liquid flow in vertical tubes. AIChE J 26(3):345–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  66. Barnea D, Shoham O, Taitel Y (1982) Flow pattern transition for vertical downward two phase flow. Chem Eng Sci 37(5):741–744

    Article  Google Scholar 

  67. Barnea A (1986) Transition from annular flow and from dispersed bubble flow – unified models for the whole range of pipe inclinations. Int J Multiphase Flow 12(5):733–744

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  68. Liu D, Wang S (2008) Flow pattern and pressure drop of upward two-phase flow in vertical capillaries. Ind Eng Chem Res 47:243–255

    Article  Google Scholar 

  69. Perez-Tellez C (2003) Improved bottomhole pressure control for underbalanced drilling operations. Ph.D. Thesis, Louisiana State University

    Google Scholar 

  70. Spedding PL, Benard E, McNally GM (2004) Fluid flow through 90 degree bends. Dev Chem Eng Mineral Process 12:107–128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  71. Azzi A, Friedel L, Belaadi S (2000) Two-phase gas/liquid flow pressure loss in bends. Forschung im Ingenieurwesen, vol. 65, pp 309–318

    Google Scholar 

  72. ASHRAE (1997) Pipe sizing. In: ASHRAE Handbook – Fundamentals

    Google Scholar 

  73. Oliphant RJ (2003) Causes of copper corrosion in plumbing systems. A review of current knowledge, Bucks, UK

    Google Scholar 

  74. Larson JB (2009) America’s Energy Security Trust Fund Act of 2009. H.R. 1337

    Google Scholar 

  75. Ishimine J, Ohba Y, Ikeda S, Suzuki M (2009) Improving IDC cooling and air conditioning efficiency. FUJITSU Sci Tech J 45:123–133

    Google Scholar 

  76. Marcinichen JB, Thome JR (2010) Refrigerated cooling of microprocessors with micro-evaporation/new novel two-phase cooling cycles: a green steady-state simulation code. In: 13th Brazilian congress of thermal sciences and engineering. Uberlândia, MG, Brazil, 2010

    Google Scholar 

  77. Wikipedia. Carbon tax, The Free Encyclopedia, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carbon_tax%26oldid=374709823. Retrieved 08:12, 26 July 2010

  78. Nordhaus W (2008) A question of balance – weighing the options of global warming policies. Yale University Press, New Haven, CT

    Google Scholar 

  79. Mitchel RL (2010) Carbon tax could whack data centers. Computerworld, http://blogs.computerworld.com/16128/carbon_tax_could_whack_data_centers

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Heat and Mass Transfer (LTCM), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Station 9, CH-1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    John R. Thome, Jackson B. Marcinichen & Jonathan A. Olivier

Authors
  1. John R. Thome
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Jackson B. Marcinichen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Jonathan A. Olivier
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John R. Thome .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. George W. Woodruff School of, Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ferst Dr. 771, Atlanta, 30332, Georgia, USA

    Yogendra Joshi

  2. George W. Woodruff School of, Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Ferst Dr. 771, Atlanta, 30332, Georgia, USA

    Pramod Kumar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Thome, J.R., Marcinichen, J.B., Olivier, J.A. (2012). Two-Phase On-Chip Cooling Systems for Green Data Centers. In: Joshi, Y., Kumar, P. (eds) Energy Efficient Thermal Management of Data Centers. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7124-1_12

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7124-1_12

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4419-7123-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4419-7124-1

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation