A Customized Approach To Help Data Centers Embrace Liquid Cooling

Things are heating up for data centers.

The rise of artificial intelligence calls for more powerful graphics processing units and central processing units that generate more heat than older chips. While the last generation of GPUs and CPUs could be sufficiently cooled with traditional air cooling systems, this new generation needs something different.

“Traditional air cooling systems just can't remove the heat fast enough, so that means your computers can't operate at the levels that they're expected to and you don't get the performance out of your data center that you need,” Nortek Data Center Cooling Chief Technology Officer Thomas Steen said.

The solution is systems using liquid coolant instead of air to remove heat from chips, he said. Some operators have been hesitant to adopt this new technology, however, due to a combination of misconceptions about liquid cooling and uncertainty over the best installation methods.

Steen spoke with Bisnow and broke down some key things that data center operators should know about liquid cooling.

The Water Usage Myth

One common misconception about liquid cooling is that it uses more water than air cooling systems. This is a major concern for data center operators, who are already under pressure to reduce their facilities’ water usage.

Steen said liquid cooling is a closed-loop system, so it is constantly reusing liquid, not taking more. In these systems, contained fluid goes between the computer chip itself and a coolant distribution unit. That unit removes the heat from the fluid, transfers the heat to another fluid that's also in a closed-loop system, and then the cooled fluid moves back to the chip to repeat the process.

He added that implementing liquid cooling for GPUs and CPUs does not make an air cooling system obsolete. Data centers typically employ a combination of air and liquid cooling, using liquid to take away that major heat source coming from the chips, while the rest of the electronics and other heat-generating sources within a rack are handled with traditional air cooling.

One Size Does Not Fit All 

When it comes to liquid cooling systems, a customized solution is best, Steen said.

“The rack that you're using for your compute can be different for every data center, and often, the liquid cooling system that goes with those compute systems is precertified for each of them, so they're different,” he said. “You're going to have a different expected flow rate and a different expected entering and leaving temperature into the rack.” 

This is why it’s impossible to have a one-size-fits-all approach, Steen said, when all of those parameters change depending on what type of GPUs and CPUs are being installed. 

Owners design their facilities to use a certain amount of air-handling and liquid cooling systems, with a specific capacity, flow rate, footprint, power and cost — and everyone will require a different solution, Steen said. This means they need suppliers to give them the custom and semicustom systems and equipment that will allow their unique design to operate optimally.

This is where Nortek DCC’s C-Force comes in. This elite team of data center specialists is built to move as fast as the industry does, with the flexibility and agility to meet customers wherever they are in their journey.

“Our customers are trying to be fully optimized, and in order to get there, they need us to provide exactly what they need to make the most efficient data center possible,” Steen said. “They're not looking for something off the shelf from us. They're looking for the exact design they need, and we embrace that as an organization.”

The C-Force team partners with customers throughout the entire life cycle of a data center, from the design phase to building a prototype that is tested in Nortek DCC’s thermal lab to production, deployment, service and operations. The team has deep domain expertise in data center commissioning and equipment and works shoulder to shoulder with customers to ensure the equipment is optimized for every project’s unique specifications, Steen said.

“It's a seamless process from initial relationship to order, design, build, shipment and commissioning,” he said. “We're there with them every step of the way, and we evolve with them as their needs evolve.”

Steen gave an example of one Nortek DCC client, a large hyperscale data center. The C-Force team developed deep relationships with their procurement and engineering teams to understand exactly how their data centers will be built and how Nortek DCC’s equipment is to be used. The team has been given very specific product specifications that they design around, and they check in with the client regularly to make sure they are meeting their needs.

“We're hosting this customer in our lab, going through all the details of the sequence of operations that they need and making sure it meets or exceeds all of their performance requirements,” he said. “When it passes that test, we launch right into production, and we support them in the installation at their data center.”

The goal is to ensure that clients have the flexibility to get exactly what they need, on time, Steen said.

This article was produced in collaboration between Nortek and Studio B. Bisnow news staff was not involved in the production of this content.

Studio B is Bisnow’s in-house content and design studio. To learn more about how Studio B can help your team, reach out to studio@bisnow.com.