A European research project has demonstrated a new 3D printed cooling solution that is said to significantly reduce energy in data centres and high-performance computers.
The cooling component is the result of the recently concluded DKK 10 million AM2PC project led by Danish Technological Institute and Heatflow with Open Engineering and Fraunhofer IWU.
Cooling infrastructure is one of the major energy consumers in a data centre, while GPU power consumption has risen substantially, driving the need for more efficient cooling solutions. The additively manufactured aluminium part uses passive two-phase cooling and achieved a cooling capacity of 600 watts in tests, superseding its original target by 50%. This two-phase process with coolant requires no pumps, meaning there’s no energy consumption for heat removal. Evaporation is also much more efficient than traditional cooling with air and liquid, so the amount of heat removed from the computer chip is much higher. According to a press release, the evaporator component is said to be a central factor and has ‘succeeded beyond all expectations’, a key outcome being its ability to remove heat at temperatures between 60-80 degrees Celsius. These higher temperatures, which outperform traditional air cooling methods, can be further applied to district heating and neighbouring industrial processes, without additional energy input.
“We are seeing a development where the power density in servers is increasing faster than ever before, and traditional air cooling is simply no longer sufficient. With our two-phase solution, we can remove heat passively without pumps or fans, which significantly reduces the energy consumption for cooling,” says Paw Mortensen, CEO of Heatflow, who led the AM2PC project.
The findings also noted the potential environmental benefits derived from 3D printing, including its singular material structure used which reduces overall material use and offers easier recycling at the end of its use. Early life cycle analyses indicate that the solution could reduce total emissions by 25–30% per unit.
