Numerical investigation on cooling performance of phase change assisted direct ventilation system for data center

IF 5 2区工程技术 Q1 ENGINEERING, MECHANICAL

International Journal of Thermal Sciences Pub Date : 2025-09-11 DOI:10.1016/j.ijthermalsci.2025.110295

Lingyan Yang , Zujing Zhang , Jiri Zhou , Ruiyong Mao , Hongwei Wu , Xing Liang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Traditional data centers often use mechanical cooling systems, leading to high energy consumption and waste of natural cooling resources. Thus, a novel phase change ventilation device that combines natural cooling with phase change storage has been designed to maintain continuous natural cooling of the data center by storing cold energy from the natural cold air using phase change plates (PCPs), and eliminate the reliance on mechanical refrigeration in traditional data centers and achieving energy savings. In this study, the cooling performance of the proposed device is numerically analyzed and the feasibility of the model is verified by experiments, filling the research gap in data centers for this method. Considering main effectors, i.e., the inlet air velocity (IAV), inlet air temperature (IAT), phase change plate thickness (PCPT), phase change temperature (PCT), and thermal conductivity of encapsulation material (TCEM) on the cooling performance of the device. The results show that: (1) Phase change ventilation device can reduce the IAT of 34 °C by an average of 2.53 °C within 8 h (2) When the IAV increases from 1 m/s to 4 m/s, the average cooling performance of the phase change ventilation device decreases by 62.93 %. (3) In the phase change latent heat stage, the temperature difference (TD) of phase change ventilation device decreases almost linearly over time. (4) The significance analysis of orthogonal experiment shows the impact of various factors on the cooling performance of phase change ventilation device as follows: IAV > IAT > PCPT > PCT > TCEM.

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数据中心相变辅助直接通风系统冷却性能的数值研究

传统数据中心通常采用机械冷却系统，能耗高，浪费了自然冷却资源。因此，设计了一种自然冷却与相变存储相结合的新型相变通风装置，利用相变板（pcp）储存自然冷空气中的冷能量，保持数据中心的连续自然冷却，消除了传统数据中心对机械制冷的依赖，实现了节能。在本研究中，对所提出的设备的冷却性能进行了数值分析，并通过实验验证了模型的可行性，填补了数据中心对该方法的研究空白。考虑进风速度（IAV）、进风温度（IAT）、相变板厚度（PCPT）、相变温度（PCT）、封装材料导热系数（TCEM）等主要影响因素对器件冷却性能的影响。结果表明：(1)相变通风装置可在8 h内将34℃的IAT平均降低2.53℃；(2)当IAV从1m /s增加到4m /s时，相变通风装置的平均制冷性能下降62.93%。(3)在相变潜热阶段，相变通风装置的温差（TD）随时间几乎呈线性减小。(4)正交试验显著性分析表明，各因素对相变通风装置制冷性能的影响如下：IAV >； IAT > PCPT > PCT >； TCEM。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

International Journal of Thermal Sciences 工程技术-工程：机械

CiteScore

8.10

自引率

11.10%

发文量

531

审稿时长

55 days

期刊介绍： The International Journal of Thermal Sciences is a journal devoted to the publication of fundamental studies on the physics of transfer processes in general, with an emphasis on thermal aspects and also applied research on various processes, energy systems and the environment. Articles are published in English and French, and are subject to peer review. The fundamental subjects considered within the scope of the journal are: * Heat and relevant mass transfer at all scales (nano, micro and macro) and in all types of material (heterogeneous, composites, biological,...) and fluid flow * Forced, natural or mixed convection in reactive or non-reactive media * Single or multi–phase fluid flow with or without phase change * Near–and far–field radiative heat transfer * Combined modes of heat transfer in complex systems (for example, plasmas, biological, geological,...) * Multiscale modelling The applied research topics include: * Heat exchangers, heat pipes, cooling processes * Transport phenomena taking place in industrial processes (chemical, food and agricultural, metallurgical, space and aeronautical, automobile industries) * Nano–and micro–technology for energy, space, biosystems and devices * Heat transport analysis in advanced systems * Impact of energy–related processes on environment, and emerging energy systems The study of thermophysical properties of materials and fluids, thermal measurement techniques, inverse methods, and the developments of experimental methods are within the scope of the International Journal of Thermal Sciences which also covers the modelling, and numerical methods applied to thermal transfer.