Immersion Liquid-Cooling Flow Layout for Uniform Server Node Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing immersion liquid-cooling systems face significant flow rate disparities and temperature differences among device nodes, leading to inefficient heat dissipation and increased energy consumption due to the need for higher pump power to compensate for flow path resistance variations.
Innovation Solution
An immersion liquid-cooling system with a liquid distributor and collector arranged at the sides of the heat-exchange cavity, featuring flow channels that connect in a one-to-one correspondence, along with a heat exchanger and flow homogenizer to manage cooling liquid distribution and temperature equalization, ensuring uniform flow rates and temperature specifications across device nodes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If liquid flows from the bottom of the immersion heat-exchange cavity through vertical liquid-cooling servers, then heat dissipation is achieved, but the flow path difference between device nodes reaches two orders of magnitude causing unequal flow rates
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the heat exchange cavity into multiple independent heat exchange units, each with its own liquid inlet and outlet. This segmentation ensures that each device node receives cooling liquid through a dedicated flow path, eliminating the two-orders-of-magnitude flow path difference that occurred in the traditional single-flow-path design where liquid entered from the bottom and exited from the top.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from a vertical bottom-to-top flow arrangement to a lateral left-to-right flow arrangement through the heat exchange cavity. By changing the flow direction to horizontal and distributing liquid through side inlets to multiple units simultaneously, the system achieves comparable flow paths for all device nodes, resolving the flow rate uniformity issue.
2Productivity
If the flow rate of circulating pump is increased to increase flow rate in remote device nodes, then flow rate difference is reduced, but power consumption and PUE increase
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the system into multiple independent heat exchange units with separate flow paths, each unit receives optimized cooling liquid flow directly from side inlets. This eliminates the need to increase overall pump power to compensate for remote nodes, as each node has its own dedicated flow path with minimal resistance difference.
Solution Approach 2:
Each heat exchange unit is designed with local flow optimization, where cooling liquid is delivered directly to each unit's inlet from the side. This localized delivery ensures that each device node receives appropriate flow rates based on its specific heat dissipation needs, rather than using a high-flow-rate setting for all nodes to compensate for the worst-case scenario.
3Adaptability or versatility
If cloud native system architecture with decoupled units is adopted, then system flexibility and application optimization are improved, but power consumption and temperature specifications of different device nodes vary greatly
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments the heat exchange cavity into multiple independent heat exchange units, each capable of handling different device nodes with varying power consumption and temperature requirements. This modular segmentation allows each unit to be independently optimized for its specific thermal load while maintaining overall system flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
Each heat exchange unit is designed with localized flow and temperature control capabilities, allowing different temperature specifications and flow rates to be applied to different units based on the specific requirements of the device nodes they serve. This local quality approach maintains system flexibility while achieving temperature uniformity within each unit.
4Device complexity
If traditional single flow path design is used, then system structure is simple, but on-way resistance loss varies by two orders of magnitude among device nodes
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the heat exchange cavity into multiple independent units, each with its own liquid inlet and outlet. This segmentation creates multiple parallel flow paths of comparable length, eliminating the two-orders-of-magnitude resistance loss variation that occurred in the single flow path design where liquid traveled from bottom to top through all devices sequentially.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system enhances heat dissipation efficiency, reduces energy consumption, and coordinates differentiated flow rate requirements, achieving uniform cooling across device nodes with varying temperature specifications.
Implementation Method 1
the heat produced by the operation of the server is taken away by the circulation of the cooling liquid
Implementation Method 2
a heat exchanger and flow homogenizer to manage cooling liquid distribution and temperature equalization
Data Source
AI summary
An immersion liquid-cooling system and method, and a server are disclosed. The immersion liquid-cooling system includes a liquid distributor and a liquid collector, arranged at two sides of the immersion heat-exchange cavity, wherein the liquid distributor, the liquid collector and the immersion heat-exchange cavity being each provided with a plurality of flow channels, flow channel outlets of the liquid distributor being connected with flow channel inlets of the immersion heat-exchange cavity in a one-to-one correspondence manner, and flow channel outlets of the immersion heat-exchange cavity being connected with flow channel inlets of the liquid collector in a one-to-one correspondence manner; and cooling liquid distributed by the flow channels of the liquid distributor flowing out of the flow channels of the liquid collector along the flow channels of the immersion heat-exchange cavity to form liquid-cooling flow channels.