A liquid-cooled computer server designed in the UK is being tested at the University of Leeds.
The claim is the system which effectively immerses the components of the server in liquid is more energy efficient than air-cooled systems which require fans.
Its designers calculate that the server cuts energy consumption for cooling by between 80% and 97%.
UK start-up Iceotope designed and built the server working with team of researchers led by Dr Jon Summers from the University of Leeds’ School of Mechanical Engineering.
“The basic principle of the design has many applications and, while a few years away, there is no reason why every home shouldn't make better use of the surplus heat from consumer electronics, imagine having your PC or TV plumbed into the central heating system," said Peter Hopton, Iceotope’s chief technology officer and originator of the Iceotope concept.
Start-ups to follow in 2013 - Iceotope
The first production system has now been installed at the University after two years of testing prototypes.
The team from Leeds used computational fluid dynamics to model how the coolant flows through the new server’s components.
The non-flammable liquid coolant, called 3M Novec, can be in direct contact with electronics because it does not conduct electricity.
“The liquid we are using is extraordinary stuff. You could throw your mobile phone in a tub of it and the phone would work perfectly,” said Summers.
“The important thing for the future of computing and the internet is that it is more than 1,000 times more effective at carrying heat than air," said Summers.
A low energy pump, located at the bottom of the cabinet, is used to pump a secondary coolant (water) to the top where it cascades down throughout all 48 modules due to gravity.
The secondary coolant terminates at heat exchangers within the cabinet for transfer of heat to a third and final coolant, on an external loop, taking the heat away for external cooling or reuse.
The third coolant can be drawn from “grey water” sources such as rainwater or river water, further reducing the environmental impact of the server.
The output water can reach temperatures of up to 50°C, which can be used for heating.
The cooling system uses just 80W of power to remove the heat from computers drawing up to 20kW.
“The fact that this system is completely enclosed raises a host of possibilities. It does not interact with its environment in the way an air-cooled server does, so you could put it in an extreme environment like the desert,” said Dr Nikil Kapur, from the University of Leeds’ School of Mechanical Engineering.
