The 2021 case study by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory succinctly outlines the latest in the innovative "warm-water" approach at Sandia. That approach saves a great deal of energy but also addresses one of the key barriers to liquid cooling - fear of leaks - by maintaining the liquid cooling system at negative pressure; no water can escape lines in the racks in the event of a modest puncture. Studies of the system demonstrate its capability of keeping the HPC central processing units at temperatures under 50°C (122°F) while maintaining a very low power draw within a highly redundant/resilient system design. Each liquid cooling distribution unit draws 3.4 kW under full load, representing only 1.6% of the system’s total power. This is a large improvement as compared to earlier water-cooled system designs, which completely shut down with the loss of water flow.
Authors:
Otto Van Geet and David Sickinger
Abstract:
A novel liquid cooling system provides reliable, resilient, and energy-efficient cooling for high-performance computing (HPC) systems at Sandia National Laboratories.