Approaching the limits of air cooling
China’s datacentre market has been growing at an annual rate of around 30 per cent since 2012, reports the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
Cloud computing, AI and big data are among the megatrends stimulating the growth of the datacentre market. Increases in chip density and computing complexity have created a steady rise in the heat load of computing equipment. Air cooling’s ability to meet this increased demand for heat dissipation is approaching its limit, highlights the brief.
Liquid-cooling technology has long been applied by the aerospace industry, for example in satellites and rocket engines. The technology is finding new application in datacentres thanks to its large heat capacity and efficient heat dissipation, ability to reduce energy consumption and expenditure, and considerable potential to advance climate action.