Compact heat exchanger design and energy efficiency optimization for data centre cooling application

In this paper, design optimization of the compact heat exchanger in a proposed liquid cooling system has been carried out and discussed. This proposed liquid cooling system is targeted to be implemented to the high performance severs for data center application. The objective of the design optimization is to maximize the efficiency of the compact heat exchanger with limited size/space. Meanwhile, the heat transfer capability of the heat exchanger is another target which has been set for the design optimization. In this study, the allowable dimensions, heat transfer specifications and design requirements of the proposed heat exchanger are firstly defined. Then the flow configuration, numbers and dimensions of the liquid flow channels inside the heat exchanger are identified as the design parameters. A systematic design and optimization method which integrates the advanced modelling & simulation capabilities with design of experiments (DOE) techniques for heat exchanger efficiency improvement is explored. Furthermore, thermal and fluid flow field over the proposed heat exchanger designs are simulated and analyzed by utilizing a commercial software. Lastly, the optimized results are interpreted and discussed, and guidelines for the efficiency improvement of liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger have been extracted and summarized.