Graduation Semester and Year

Summer 2024

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering

Department

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

First Advisor

Dereje Agonafer

Second Advisor

Abdolhossein Haji-Sheikh

Third Advisor

Pardeep Shahi

Abstract

The transistor density of CPUs and GPUs has significantly grown due to the growing computational demands of general computing and artificial intelligence. This has resulted in comparatively greater heat fluxes from these components that necessitate cooling solutions with higher thermal dissipation power (TDP). As a result, conventional air cooling is no longer adequate. A proposed solution to the cooling problem is to use cutting-edge direct-to-chip (DTC) liquid cooling using a cold plate method which offers far greater TDP and can increase the energy efficiency of high-performance computing (HPC) systems. This research compares several Propylene Glycol (PG) based single-phase coolant liquids in DTC setups. These coolants contain additives that can inhibit bio growth and reduce corrosion, but at the possible expanse of thermal performance. Following ASHRAE guidelines, this work compares the thermal efficiency, wettability, and environmental impact of these different additives. The DTC setup utilized a single cold plate on a thermal test vehicle (TTV) that was instrumented with various temperature and pressure monitors. For each coolant, the flow rate and coolant temperature were varied for a wider dataset. A thorough evaluation of the thermal resistance (Rth) and pressure drop (∆P) versus coolant flowrate and inlet temperature was conducted to illustrate sensitivity to these parameters. The result of this evaluation shows how well these coolants perform in different conditions, helping us choose the best one. This work aids in addressing solutions to the significant heat fluxes from modern CPUs and GPUs and in advancing thermal management strategies in HPC systems.

Keywords

Data Center, Thermal Resistance, Pressure drop, Direct to Chip liquid cooling, Power Density

License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Available for download on Wednesday, August 12, 2026

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