Investigation of Heat Management in High Thermal Density Communication Cabinet by a Rear Door Liquid Cooling System

In this paper, a rear door oil-cooling heat exchanger for data center cabinet-level cooling has been proposed. In order to solve the heat dissipation problem of high heat density data center, this paper applied the mature transformer oil cooling technology to the data room. The heat dissipation of liquid-cooled cabinets and traditional air-cooled cabinets was compared, and the heat dissipation performance of the oil-cooled system was theoretically and experimentally investigated. To investigate the heat dissipation system, the cabinet operating temperature, circulating oil system temperature and cabinet exhaust temperature, cabinet heat density, oil flow rates and fan power were analyzed. It was found that the average cooling efficiency of the liquid-cooled cabinet increased by 66% compared with the average cooling efficiency of the conventional air-cooled cabinet. The operating temperature in air-cooled cabinets is as high as 55 °C, and the operating temperature in liquid-cooled cabinets does not exceed 50 °C. Among which, the maximum heat dissipation efficiency of the liquid-cooled cabinets can reach 58.8%. The oil temperature could reach 46.9 °C after heat exchange, and the exhaust air of the cabinet could reach 42.8 °C, which could be used to prepare domestic water and regenerative desiccant. The results from established calculation model agreed well with the testing results and the model could be used to predict the heat dissipation law of the oil cooling system under different conditions. The research has proposed the potential application of the oil-cooled in cabinet-level cooling, which can help realize saving primary energy and reducing carbon emission.