Close cooling tower for data center Part.I -- HuaTal Cooling Tower

The internal space of data center is limited, so while the data center fills up as much space as possible with equipment, the huge density means huge energy consumption, as well as huge heat emissions. Since electronics cannot withstand high temperatures, the redundant heat must be removed from the space, and it is almost impossible to discharge such amount of redundant heat through the normal cooling solution. In the today's advanced data centers, the application of closed cooling tower is inevitable.

If the heat source in the data center is equally distributed, cooling the facilities will be relatively easy. But due to the architecture issue of the server rack, it will cause many heat sources that difficult to cooled them down. Through air conditioning, the overall cooling effect of the data center can be achieved, but both the purchase cost and the daily operation and management costs are high. This approach can also lead to excessive cooling in some areas, resulting energy waste. Good airflow control technology can help to solve this problem, but if the power density exceeds a certain limit, even a sophisticated air-conditioning and cooling solution is not enough to protect sensitive IT devices.

As the power density increases, same does the heat amounts. So what would be cost effective and not burdensome to the data center? Air-based closed water cooling tower is a good solution because it is ubiquitous and does not harm any equipment. The problem is that air is a poor conductor of heat. For example, in the cold winter, you will feel the metal exposed in the outdoor is colder than the air, this is because the metal is a good conductor of heat, it takes more heat from your hands than the air. On the other hand, air is a good thermal insulator relative to metals, but even then it can't hold a lot of heat compared to other materials. Water, for example, takes more heat away than other materials when it is used for cooling.