Numerical Analysis of Oil Immersion Cooling of a Server Using Mineral Oil and Al2O3 Nanofluid

Abstract

Increased demand for computer applications has manifested a rise in data generation, resulting in high Power Density and Heat Generation of servers and their components, requiring efficient thermal management. Due to the low heat carrying capacity of air, air cooling is not an efficient method of data center cooling. Hence, the liquid immersion cooling method has emerged as a prominent method, where the server is directly immersed in a dielectric liquid. The thermal conductivity of the dielectric liquids is drastically increased with the introduction of non-metallic nanoparticles of size between 1 to 150 nm, which has proven to be the best method. To maintain the dielectric feature of the liquid, non-metallic nanoparticles can be added. Alumina nanoparticles with a mean size of 80 nm and a mass concentration of 0 to 5% with mineral oil are used in the present study. The properties of the mixture were calculated based on the theoretical formula and it was a function of temperature. Heat transfer and effect of the nanoparticle concentration on the junction temperature of the processors using CFD techniques were simulated on an open commute server with two processors in a row. The junction temperature was studied for different flow rates of 0.5, 1, 2, and 3 LPM, at inlet temperatures of 25, 35, and 45 degrees Celsius. The chosen heatsink geometries were: Parallel plate, Pin fin, and Plate fin heatsinks.