Simulation Study on Nanofluid Heat Transfer in Immersion Liquid-Cooled Server

Abstract

In order to study the application of nanofluids for enhancing heat transfer in the field of liquid-cooled data centers, a mathematical and physical model of liquid-cooled servers was established in this paper. FC–40 was used as the server cooling liquid base, and simulation studies were conducted on the flow and heat transfer of five types of nanofluid: Cu–FC40, CuO–FC40, Al–FC40, Al2O3–FC40, and TiO2–FC40. The results showed that using Al–FC40 nanofluids as the cooling medium had the best heat transfer effect. Under the same operating conditions, the average Nusselt number Nu and friction resistance coefficient f of five types of nanofluid were analyzed, and the heat transfer state of Al–FC40 nanofluid had the smallest f. Further analysis was conducted on the influence of ‘nanoparticle volume fraction’ α and ‘server inlet flow rate’ u on fluid flow and heat transfer. Our research found that an increase in α and the acceleration of u can effectively reduce the surface temperature of server components. As u increases, Nu gradually increases and f generally decreases, but the amplitude of the increase and decrease becomes smoother.