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Immersion cooling has emerged as a promising solution for the escalating thermal management challenges in the contemporary and modern (next generation) data centers, where traditional air-cooling systems are increasingly inadequate due to rising power densities in microprocessors. The evolution of immersion cooling technologies, highlighting their benefits and the challenges associated with their implementation, is explored in this review. Two-phase microchannel cooling has often been cited as a highly efficient alternative, which can help achieve significant energy savings over air cooling. Subsequent studies have expanded on methods like refrigerant touch cooling, thermosiphon systems, and geothermal immersion cooling. All these strategies can help achieve enhanced energy efficiency, reduced operational costs, and improved Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE). Immersion cooling has been demonstrated to support denser CPU packaging and meet the demands of high-performance computing environments. Despite these advantages, challenges persist, including the need for specialized infrastructure, potential risks related to liquid handling, and integration with existing systems. Advances in environmentally friendly cooling fluids and optimized airflow management have begun to mitigate some of these issues. To fully realize the potential of immersion cooling, future research endeavors should focus on developing standardized protocols and best practices to facilitate its widespread adoption. Enhancing the compatibility of cooling fluids with a broader range of hardware components will be crucial, as will designing systems that are easier to integrate with existing data center infrastructure. Exploring hybrid cooling solutions that combine immersion cooling with other efficient methods could offer additional benefits. Further investigation into the long-term reliability, maintenance requirements, and environmental impacts of immersion-cooled systems is essential. Integrating immersion cooling with renewable energy sources and waste heat recovery systems could also enhance sustainability and operational efficiency (e.g., for thermal desalination and wood drying applications). The literature reports can be utilized to identify a clear trend toward adopting immersion cooling as a key strategy for improving energy efficiency and thermal management in data centers. Hence, ongoing research and development efforts need to be redirected to overcoming these remaining obstacles, thus paving the way for more energy efficient data center operations with reduced footprint for water and power consumption in the future; while also improving the sustainability, reliability, robustness, and resilience of these platforms.
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Heat and Mass Transfer in the Food, Energy, and Water Nexus—A Review
Abstract Engineering innovations—including those in heat and mass transfer—are needed to provide food, water, and power to a growing population (i.e., projected to be 9.8 × 109 by 2050) with limited resources. The interweaving of these resources is embodied in the food, energy, and water (FEW) nexus. This review paper focuses on heat and mass transfer applications which involve at least two aspects of the FEW nexus. Energy and water topics include energy extraction of natural gas hydrates and shale gas; power production (e.g., nuclear and solar); power plant cooling (e.g., wet, dry, and hybrid cooling); water desalination and purification; and building energy/water use, including heating, ventilation, air conditioning, and refrigeration technology. Subsequently, this review considers agricultural thermal fluids applications, such as the food and water nexus (e.g., evapotranspiration and evaporation) and the FEW nexus (e.g., greenhouses and food storage, including granaries and freezing/drying). As part of this review, over 100 review papers on thermal and fluid topics relevant to the FEW nexus were tabulated and over 350 research journal articles were discussed. Each section discusses previous research and highlights future opportunities regarding heat and mass transfer research. Several cross-cutting themes emerged from the literature and represent future directions for thermal fluids research: the need for fundamental, thermal fluids knowledge; scaling up from the laboratory to large-scale, integrated systems; increasing economic viability; and increasing efficiency when utilizing resources, especially using waste products.
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- PAR ID:
- 10167647
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Heat Transfer
- Volume:
- 142
- Issue:
- 9
- ISSN:
- 0022-1481
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4047089
