An experimental and numerical study on the thermal performance of a loop thermosyphon integrated with latent thermal energy storage for emergency cooling in a data center

Data centers require a set of uninterruptible cooling systems to operate. For uninterruptible cooling, latent thermal energy storage (TES) systems offer an alternative solution in the event of a power outage. In this study, a novel integrated cooling system comprising a loop thermosyphon and latent TES is proposed for emergency cooling. A water-cooled loop thermosyphon was used to absorb the heat dissipated from the servers. In addition, a multi-tube TES unit containing the paraffin RT11HC with a phase transition temperature of 10-12 degrees C was designed as a supplementary cold storage system. To evaluate the thermal characteristics of the emergency cooling system, an experiment was conducted by shutting down the chiller. The results showed that the integrated system could maintain the servers operational for approximately 6 min. Moreover, parametric analysis was performed to extend the emergency cooling time to 15 min. The analysis showed that as the thermal conductivity of the phase change material (PCM) increased to 2 W/(m.degrees C), the cooling capacity met the emergency cooling de -mand within 15 min. The proposed cooling system can act as a reference for the optimal design of emergency cooling systems in data centers. (C) 2022 Published by Elsevier Ltd.