Graduation Semester and Year

2021

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Dereje Agonafer

Second Advisor

Ratan Kumar

Abstract

Direct-to-chip liquid cooling is one of the most popular methods in data center thermal management when it comes to cooling high chip power densities. A cold plate-based liquid cooling system contains various components such as pumps, data center room, and rack-level manifolds, and server chassis-level manifold. Efficient coolant distribution to the heat-dissipating cold plates plays an important role in both the thermal and hydraulic performance of the server. It is, thus, very important to design and manufacture server chassis manifold geometry that can perform efficiently under the anticipated heat loads and coolant flow rates. In the present thesis, two such server chassis manifolds from two different vendors were characterized using CFD for various coolant inlet temperatures and flow rates. A gird independence study was carried out to select the best possible grid size for accurate results. Temperature-dependent properties of 25% propylene glycol were used to determine the pressure drops at different flow rates and inlet temperatures. The baseline results of manifold pressure drop were also validated with experimental results. Furthermore, the impact of kinks and bends in server manifold connecting pipes on the system pressure drop was also explored. Lastly, the fillet was added on the corners of manifold to see the difference between the pressure drop.

Keywords

CFD, Propylene glycol, Server manifold, Manifol, Data center, Cold plates, Pressure drop, Temperature, Grid independence

Disciplines

Aerospace Engineering | Engineering | Mechanical Engineering

Comments

Degree granted by The University of Texas at Arlington

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