International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

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International Journal of Refrigeration

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrefrig

Thermodynamic analysis for new solutions of data center cooling with

adsorption refrigeration and heat pipe
Analyse thermodynamique de nouvelles solutions de refroidissement des centres de données
avec réfrigérateurs à adsorption et caloduc

Xuekun She a, Xunfeng Li b, c, *, Min Xu b, Jingzhi Zhou b, Junlin Chen b, Xiulan Huai b, c,
Zhixia He a
a
Research Center of Fluid Machinery Engineering and Technology, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
b
Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
c
School of Engineering Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 101408, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: This study investigated the potential of integrating separate heat pipe and adsorption refrigeration systems as a
Data center data center efficient cooling system. Compared to water-cooled data centers, this approach demonstrates
Adsorption refrigeration improved heat transfer efficiency and reduced energy consumption. The effectiveness of heat transfer in this
Waste heat recovery
approach is illustrated by applying exergy and entranspy theories. By conducting numerical simulations across
Entranspy
five representative Chinese cities with different climates, both Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) and key cooling
Mots clés:
system performance indicators are assessed. The analysis reveals that all cities can achieve a PUE below 1.095,
Centre de données
Froid à adsorption
realized a 65.87 % and 13.60 % reduction in cooling system energy consumption and entransy dissipation,
Récupération de chaleur résiduelle respectively. Data centers using mechanical chiller cooling cause a high energy consumption. This paper in­
Capacité potentielle de transfert de chaleur dicates the benefits of integrating heat pipe and adsorption refrigeration systems in reducing energy consumption
and optimizing overall data center performance.

Microsoft Berlin data center, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise UK Winterthur

1. Introduction
The IT equipment in data centers converts almost all the input power
into heat, meanwhile requires additional energy to remove it. To achieve
carbon neutrality goals set by various nations, the industry recognizes
the trend towards developing green and low-carbon data centers.
Energy-saving techniques like free cooling and heat reuse have emerged
as primary strategies in achieving this objective.
Research has shown that use fresh-air can greatly reduce energy
consumption and achieve more than 25 % energy savings (Bostanci and
Nasrazadani, 2019; Wang et al., 2021). Endo et al. (2015) established a
fresh air-cooled data center prototype in the suburbs of Tokyo, which
guarantees the quality of the data center air through filtering devices
and achieves precise control of supply air temperature and humidity
through return air systems and dehumidifiers. Based on one-year oper­
ating test results, its Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) could reach 1.058.
data center, Google Belgium data center, and Yahoo Chicken Coop data
center all have PUE values less than 1.5, because their cooling systems
adopt direct fresh air cooling. In addition to a few fresh air-cooling
methods, the common way to use natural cold sources is through indi­
rect cooling, such as using plate or rotary heat exchanger systems (Bao
et al., 2012;Zhang et al., 2017b), utilizing lake water (Zhang et al.,
2021), and cooling through gravity drives or pump drives heat pipe
(Zhou et al., 2011, 2013; Zhang et al., 2017a). Both plate and rotary heat
exchangers are air-to-air heat exchange systems. Plate heat exchangers
mainly exchange heat between indoor and outdoor environments
through the heat transfer core, while a rotary heat exchanger rotates
within two enclosed air ducts and uses fillers to transfer heat from the
data center’s circulating air to outdoor air. The Dongjiang Lake Data
Center uses lake water as a natural cold source to cool the server rooms.
It acquires cold energy from the lake by using a water-to-water heat
exchanger, stores the cold water in a storage tank, and when there is an

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: lixunfeng@iet.cn (X. Li).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2024.01.016
Received 5 September 2023; Received in revised form 21 December 2023; Accepted 13 January 2024
Available online 15 January 2024
0140-7007/© 2024 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

Nomenclature T temperature (◦ C)
tp cold plate thickness (m)
Abbreviation tw wall temperature (◦ C)
AR adsorption refrigeration u flow velocity (m/s)
COP coefficient of performance W power consumption (kW)
CRAC computer room air conditioner Wabsorp power consumption of the AR (kW)
AEER annual energy efficiency rate Wabsorp pump power consumption of the AR pump (kW)
PUE power usage effectiveness Wcool power consumption of the cooling system (kW)
SHP separated heat pipe Wcooling tower power consumption of the cooling tower (kW)
WCRAC power consumption of CRAC (kW)
Roman symbols Wfan power consumption of fan (kW)
COPabsorp coefficient of performance of AR (kW) WIT power consumed of IT (kW)
cp specific heat at constant pressure (kJ/(kg•K)) WL exergy loss (J)
D pipe diameter (m) WSHP power consumption of SHP (kW)
di pipe inner diameter (m) Z number of tubes per flow path
do pipe outer diameter (m) ΔP pressure drop (kPa)
Ex,CPU exergy content of the CPU (J) ΔT temperature difference between inlet and outlet (◦ C)
Ex,fluid outlet exergy content of the hot fluid outlet (J)
q̇˙Loss heat dissipation loss per unit area of the cold plate (W/m2)
Fi pressure drop dirt correction factor
q̇ ˙
heat flux density (W/m2)
G mass flow (kg/(m2⋅s))
ṡ
˙
heat absorbed by the chip per unit area of the cold plate
H total head (m)
(W/m2)
h latent heat of vaporization (J/kg)
Hch static head (m) Greek symbol
HR heating value ratio η efficiency of pump or fan
kp cold plate thermal conductivity (W/(m⋅◦ C)) ξe local resistance coefficient of sudden expansion
lc effective length of the tube (m) ξc local resistance coefficient of sudden contraction
m mass flow rate (kg/s) ξelbow local resistance coefficient of right-angle elbow
N number of flow path ξt local resistance coefficient of three-way
P0 saturated vapor pressure (kPa) ξf local resistance coefficient of ball valve
q flow rate (m3/s) λ friction coefficient
Q heat or cooling capacity (kW) λw thermal conductivity, W/(m⋅K)
Qabsorp cooling capacity generated by AR (kW) γ dirt thermal resistance (m2⋅K/W)
QCRAC heat transfer amount of CRAC (kW) μ dynamic viscosity (Pa⋅s)
Qgen heat captured by water cooling (kW) ρ density, kg/m3
QIT heat generated by IT (kW) Γ entire thermal conductivity region
QSHP heat transfer amount of SHP (kW)
R radius (m)

insufficient amount of cold energy, it uses centrifugal chiller units to
provide cold water. Heat pipe is an efficient heat transfer component
that utilizes the principle of liquid evaporation and absorption of heat at
the low temperature end, and condensation and release of heat at the
high temperature end to achieve rapid and uniform heat transfer. Zhang
et al. (2016) analyzed the energy-saving potential of gravity heat pipes
in telecommunications base stations, and found that in China, the use of
gravity-assisted heat pipe systems can achieve energy savings between
18.7–48.6 %. Wang et al. (2013) conducted experiments with a liquid
pump-driven power heat pipe system in four Chinese cities, and their
findings showed that this system could achieve 46 % energy-saving rate.
Meeting the cooling requirements of data centers using only natural
cooling sources can be challenging. Even data centers that rely on nat­
ural cooling may need supplementary compressor-based systems to meet
their cooling requirements. By implementing waste heat recovery
techniques to dissipate remaining heat, it becomes possible to achieve
free mechanical chiller cooling and reduce energy consumption. Ac­
cording to literature (van de Bor et al., 2015; Yang et al., 2018), waste
heat can be classified into four types: high-grade (> 600 ◦ C),
medium-grade (200–600 ◦ C), low-grade (80–200 ◦ C), and
ultra-low-grade (45–80 ◦ C). Waste heat discharged from data centers is
usually below 40 ◦ C. Oró et al. (2019) recovered waste heat at the
condenser of chiller units to obtain a higher-grade heat, but it still could
not meet the standard of low-grade or even ultra-low-grade waste heat.
As a result, data centers utilize heat pumps to recover waste heat, which
in turn supplies peripheral buildings for heating (Lin et al., 2022).
However, this approach is not applicable in hot seasons or low-latitude
regions. Adsorption cooling offers a waste heat recovery solution by
allowing the cold produced to be sent back to the machine room, so it
does not require heat transportation and climate change considerations.
Unlike conventional cooling systems with compressors, adsorption
cooling utilizes adsorption and desorption processes to achieve refrig­
eration without the use of compressor components. It requires waste
heat at an appropriate temperature (generally above 75 ◦ C) from data
centers to drive the refrigeration process. All the heat is then released to
the outside through the cooling tower. While there are few engineering
applications on the data center adsorption cooling, some articles have
demonstrated the feasibility of this approach through both theory and
experiments (Haywood et al., 2010; Zimmermann et al., 2012; Meyer
et al., 2013; Wilde et al., 2017). Recently, notable advancements have
been made in the study of aluminophosphate adsorption heat trans­
former systems. Driven by 63 ◦ C ultra-low temperature, Liu et al. (2022)
found that EMM-8 adsorption refrigeration system can attain a coeffi­
cient of performance (COP) of 0.85. They successfully produced EMM-8
at 100-kg scale, with speed, affordability, and convenience. These
breakthroughs underscore the vast potential for widespread imple­
mentation and utilization of this technology across various industries.
This article theoretically demonstrates the energy-saving potential of
integrating EMM-8 adsorption refrigeration system and heat pipe system
in data centers. To provide higher quality driving heat for the adsorption

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X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

Fig. 1. Data centers cooling system diagram showing the work and heat flow paths: (a) traditional cold plate water-cooling data center system diagram, (b) SHP-AR
cooling data center system diagram, (c) traditional cold plate water-cooling data center heat flow paths, (d) SHP-AR cooling data center heat flow paths.

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X. She et al.
Fig. 1. (continued).
refrigeration system, hot water cooling is employed in data center.
Additionally, microchannel water-cooled plates are utilized to collect
heat from the CPU, thereby preventing CPU overheating.
The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2 in­
troduces the hybrid cooling system. Section 3 describes the exergy and
entranspy theory, evaluation criteria, and power consumption calcula­
tion method. Section 4 presents details of the results and related dis­
cussions. Finally, the conclusions are presented in Section 5.
2. System description
The heat flux density of different heat-generating components in a
data center varies. For instance, the heat flux density of CPU/GPU can
reach several tens of watts per square centimeter, while that of hard
drives and memory falls within a lower order of magnitude. Due to the
diversity of equipment levels, employing the same cooling strategy
would result in higher energy consumption and give rise to issues such as
noise. This is because to prevent high heat flux density components from
generating hotspots, we have to elevate the cooling energy consumption
per unit of power for low heat flux density components to the same level
of high heat flux density components. In order to maintain the reliability
of high heat flux density devices and reduce the overall cooling energy
consumption of the system, more efficient cooling measures need to be
employed specifically for high-energy consumption components, while
more economical cooling measures can be applied to low-energy con­
sumption components.
The forced convection heat transfer coefficient of air ranges from 20
to 100 W/(m2⋅◦ C), whereas that of water can reach 200–1000 W/
(m2⋅◦ C). For low heat flux density devices, a forced air-cooling strategy
with a lower convective heat transfer coefficient can be adopted. The
air-cooling system has a simple structure, which can reduce the initial
investment and maintenance costs of the data center. High heat flux
density devices can be cooled by water to ensure their operation within a
safe temperature range. Moreover, in terms of waste heat recovery in
data centers, it is easier to obtain high-grade heat energy by using water
cooling to recover the energy from high heat flux density components.
Therefore, by employing water cooling for CPU to recover waste heat
only from the CPU, and air cooling for other components, it is possible to
collect high-grade heat energy and meet the cooling requirements of
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International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356
devices at different energy levels.
Fig. 1. (a) illustrates the cooling scheme of a traditional water-
cooling system. It utilizes a cool water plate to extract heat from the
CPU, which is then dissipated to the external environment through an
cool air compression refrigeration unit. Other components are cooled
using a cold-air compression refrigeration unit. As shown in Fig.1(b), the
cooling circuit is divided into air-cooling and water-cooling circuits. The
air-cooling circuit adopt closed cold-hot channel configuration, while
the water-cooling circuit utilize water-cooled plate to dissipate heat
generated by the CPU. The water-cooling circuit aims to cool the CPU
and provide the driving heat required for the adsorption refrigeration
unit, then the adsorption refrigeration unit supplies cooling capacity to
the air-cooling circuit. The air-cooling circuit is used to cool components
other than the CPU. During this process, the cold air passing through the
server generates hot air at approximately 30–40 ◦ C, which is collected
through the hot channel. Firstly, the hot air passes through gravity heat
pipes, releasing a portion of the heat to lower the temperature. Subse­
quently, the cooled hot air undergoes heat exchange with chilled water
produced by the absorption refrigeration system. However, the heat
transfer capacity of the gravity heat pipes varies with environmental
temperature, necessitating the use of a compression refrigeration system
to ensure a certain range of heat transfer amount for the entire air-
cooling circuit throughout the year. In practical applications, the oper­
ation of the compression refrigeration system can be controlled by
monitoring the supply air temperature. Generally, the ratio of cooling
capacity to power consumption of the compression refrigeration system
is around 5, while the ratio of cooling capacity to power consumption of
the absorption refrigeration system and gravity heat pipes is around 20.
Minimizing the use of compression refrigeration units can achieve the
goal of low-carbon cooling. In the discussed system, the cooling capacity
provided by the separate gravity heat pipe (SHP) and adsorption
refrigeration (AR) accounts for over 70 % of the total annual cooling
capacity of the data center, and in most cities, supplementary cooling
from computer room air conditioners (CRAC) is not required during
winter and only activated in summer.
In conclusion, the combination of this natural cooling system and the
cooling strategy utilizing adsorption refrigeration offers the following
advantages:
X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

1) The adoption of hierarchical cooling meets the cooling requirements where T0 is ambient temperature,◦ C.
of components with different heat flux densities. Similarly, the exergy of the hot fluid outlet is as follows:
2) By collecting CPU heat through water-cooling, it can provide the ( )
required quantity and quality of heat to drive the adsorption refrig­ T0
Ex,fluid outlet = Q 1 − (4)
eration unit. Tfluid outlet
3) Utilizing the absorption refrigeration system and separate gravity
The exergy loss is given by
heat pipe can supply a significant portion of the cooling capacity
( )
needed by the data center, replacing the use of compression refrig­ TCPU − Tfluid outlet
WL = Ex,CPU − Ex,fluid outlet = Q T0 (5)
eration systems, thereby reducing energy consumption in the data TCPU ⋅Tfluid outlet
center.

As shown in Fig. 1(c), the traditional cold plate water-cooled data 3.2. Entranspy analysis
center employs cool-water computer room air conditioner system
(CRAC) and cool-air CRAC to dissipate heat generated by the IT equip­ Conductive and thermal conduction processes share many similar­
ment. Data center heat balance is as follows: ities, but in the thermal conduction process, there is a lack of a physical
quantity corresponding to the electric potential energy in the thermal
QIT = Qgen + QCRAC (1) conduction process. To filled this gap, the concept of entranspy (Guo
QIT refers to the heat generated by IT equipment in data center, et al., 2007) is introduced through analogical reasoning, and has been
which is generally 98 % of the power consumed by the IT equipment widely used.
(WIT), kW; Qgen is the heat exhausted by the water-cooling system, kW;
QCRAC is the heat exhausted by the cool-air CRAC, kW. 3.2.1. Water cold plate heat transfer performance entranspy analysis
In Fig. 1(d), The cooling system for the SHP-AR cooling data center From the three-dimensional steady-state heat conduction differential
includes three components: a separated heat pipe system (SHP), an equation in cartesian coordinate system, the energy conservation
adsorption refrigeration system (AR), and a cool-air CRAC. Unlike the equation of the cold plate thermal conductive section can be obtained.
traditional water-cooled systems use chilled liquid below 20 ◦ C, the [ (
∂ ∂Tp
)
∂
(
∂Tp
)
∂
(
∂Tp
)]
SHP-AR cooling system uses water at 59 ◦ C for CPU cooling. Meanwhile, ṡ˙ − q̇˙Loss + kp tp + tp + tp =0 (6)
∂x ∂x ∂y ∂y ∂z ∂z
a forced air-cooling technique is used for other components. In steady-
state operation, the liquid cooling system extracts heat from the CPU, Tp represents the cold plate temperature,◦ C; kp represents the cold
driving the adsorption refrigeration system in supplying cooling to the plate thermal conductivity, W/(m⋅◦ C); ṡ˙ represents the heat absorbed by
air-cooling system. The air-cooling system cools the remaining compo­ the chip unit area of the cold plate, W/m2; and q̇˙Loss represents the heat
nents with both the SHP and AR. When the cooling capacity proves dissipation loss per unit area of the cold plate, W/m2.
inadequate, CARC provides the remaining cooling capacity. The heat Multiplying both sides of Eqs. (6) by Tp produces the entranspy
generated by IT equipment should be removed by SHP, AR, and CRAC, balance equation for the cold plate thermal conductivity segment.
and the SHP-AR cooling data center heat balance is as follows: ( ) ( )
ṡ˙Tp − hL Tp − T0 Tp − ∇⋅ tp q̇˙Tp + tp q̇˙⋅∇Tp = 0 (7)
QIT = QSHP + Qabsorp + Qgen + QCRAC (2)
where q̇˙ is heat flux density, W/m2.
QSHP is the heat exhausted by the SHP, kW; Qabsorp is the heat
exhausted by the AR, kW; Qgen is the heat exhausted by the water-cooling q̇˙ = − kp ⋅∇Tp (8)
system, as well as the heat that drives the AR, kW.
The Lenovo SR570 server (Watts, 2022) is considered as the standard The first term on the left side of Eqs. (7) is the product of the heat
heat output of data center servers in this paper, it can generate 610 W of absorbed by the cold plate and the cold plate temperature, which rep­
resents the entranspy input of the plate. The second term is the cold plate
heat per server. The SR570 server is equipped with two processors,
generates total heat of 255 W. Each server rack contains 40 servers, so entranspy loss caused by heat dissipation. The third term is the transfer
of entranspy inside the cold plate caused by thermal power input. The
the heat generated by each rack is 24.4 kW, making it a high
heat-density data center. The data center has 100 racks, and the total fourth term is the entranspy dissipation caused by finite temperature
difference heat transfer. Integrating Eqs. (7) over the entire thermal
heat generated can reach 2440 kW. To simplify the computation, the
model is constrained as follows: conductivity region V and using the Gauss theorem transforms it into a
boundary integral expression.
∫ ∫ ∫
1) The load on the model is uniform; [ ( ) ( ) ]
ṡTp − hL Tp − T0 Tp − ∇⋅ tp q̇Tp + tp q̇⋅∇Tp dV = ∯ Γ tp q̇Tp ⋅ndS
2) Only the numerical values under steady-state conditions of the model
are discussed; V

3) There is no heat loss caused by mixing cold and hot air;
4) The rack room is adiabatic to the outside.
3. Derivation and preparation
3.1. Water cold plate heat transfer performance exergy analysis
According to Bejan (1982, 1996), the guiding principle for system
optimization is the minimization of system entropy production. This
theoretical framework emphasizes an analytical approach focused on
reducing available energy loss. The exergy of the CPU can be calculated
through its own Carnot cycle with the ambient.
( )
T0
Ex,CPU = Q 1 − (3)
TCPU
(9)
In Eqs. (9), the subscript Γ represents the cold plate boundary. As
seen from this equation, the entranspy gained by the cold plate, minus
the entranspy lost to environment and the entranspy generated by
conduction inside the cold plate equals to the entranspy exported from
the cold plate boundary.
Considering the cold plate as adiabatic surface with environment, all
the heat absorbed by the cold plate is carried away by convective heat
transfer, and ignore the heat dissipation generated by convective heat
transfer. Therefore, the boundary integral on the right-hand side of Eqs.
(9) equals the fluid entranspy increase, that is:
1 ( 2 )
ΔG = ṁcp Tout − Tin2 = ∯ Γ tp q̇Tp ⋅ndS (10)
2
The expression can be obtained by substituting Eqs. (9) into Eq. (10):

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X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

Fig. 2. Diagram of waste heat recovery system and key pressure drop components.

∫ ∫ ∫
[ ( ) ( ) ] 1 ( 2 ) electrical energy consumed by data center air conditioning systems
ṡTp − hL Tp − T0 Tp − ∇⋅ tp q̇Tp + tp q̇⋅∇Tp dV = ṁcp Tout − Tin2
2 during a year of cooling operations.
V
∑
(11) QIT
AEER = ∑ (13)
Wcold
The meaning of Eq. (11) is that the heat gained by the cold plate in
∑
the heat transfer section is equal to the heat carried away by the fluid. QIT represents the sum of heat generated by IT equipment each day
∑
For different working states of the cold plate, a larger value on the right- throughout the year, kW; Wcold represents the sum of power consumed
hand side indicates better heat collection performance under that state, by cooling equipment each day throughout the year, kW.
which also means that the cold plate can carry away more entranspy,
resulting in a greater increase in the entranspy carried by the fluid. 3.4. Power consumption analysis

3.2.2. Entranspy dissipation and temperature-heat flow chart analysis
In the heat dissipation process of a data center, the amount of heat
input to the cooling system is equal to the amount of heat output from
the cooling system, so the heat dissipation process efficiency cannot be
defined by the amount of heat output/input. For entropy, since entropy
generation makes the output entropy flow larger than the input entropy,
the efficiency will be higher than 100 %, which makes it meaningless in
physics. However, the entranspy has energy characteristics and there is
always dissipation in the process of transmission, the efficiency of the
process can be defined by the entranspy output/input. The entranspy
dissipation becomes a measure of irreversibility. Based on the concept of
entranspy dissipation, a temperature-heat flow chart (T-Q chart) can be
developed to visually and quantitatively represent the irreversibility of
complex heat transfer system.
Chen et al. (2012) and Wu et al. (2014) presented a detailed argu­
ment and derivation of this theory, as well as providing practical ex­
amples for illustration. By applying the T-Q chart, it becomes possible to
develop an effective solution for data center thermal management. This
can be achieved by converting all heat exchange processes into mathe­
matical models based on the principles of entransy theory.
3.3. Evaluation indices
Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) is used as a comprehensive evalu­
ation index for data centers, which defined as the ratio of the power
consumed by the whole data center to that consumed by its IT equip­
ment.
Define heating value ratio (HR) as percentage of CPU heat generation
(Qgen) to server total heat generation (QIT):
Qgen
HR = (14)
QIT
In data centers with less-mechanical cooling or non-mechanical
cooling systems, the primary energy consumption arises from IT sys­
tems, as well as water and air circulation systems. Therefore, the power
consumption of pumps plays a significant role and cannot be dis­
regarded. The power consumption of the cooling system should be
estimated using the following formula:
W = Wabsorp + WSHP + WCRAC + Wfan (15)
The data regarding the performance of a gravity-driven separated
heat pipe system has been obtained from Liu et al. (2017), as referenced
in this study. Under optimal working conditions, the SHP evaporator has
a reported pressure drop of 18.18 Pa with an air flow rate of 3000 m3/h,
while the condenser has a pressure drop of 60.08 Pa with an air flow rate
of 6000 m3/h. The heat transfer amount fluctuated between 3.5 kW and
8 kW, depending on indoor-outdoor temperature difference. The data
regarding the SHP in the reference is obtained from experimental
measurements.
WCRAC will continuously change with the operation of the data
center, though heat balance analysis, its value can be calculated by
following:
QIT − Qabsorp − Qgen − QSHP
WCRAC = (16)
AEER

PUE =
WIT + Wcold
(12) Wfan can be calculated by following:
WIT
ΔP⋅q
Annual Energy Efficiency Ratio (AEER) refers to the ratio between W= (17)
η
the total heat removed from the indoor environment and the total

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X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

Table. 1 10
Verification of numerical model:grid independence cp = 7.64 × 10− T4 − 2.309 × 10− 7 T3 + 3.527 × 10− 5 T2
check − 0.002041T + 4.212 (19)
Grid number Nusselt number
10
1.6 million 13.4819
λw = 9.823 × 10− T4 − 1.685 × 10− 7 T3 − 2.273 × 10− 6 T2
2.1 million 15.0029 − 0.0022T + 0.5506 (20)
4.0 million 15.0332
7.0 million 15.0546
μ = 3.19 × 10− 11 T4 − 8.4 × 10− 9 T3 + 8.91 × 10− 7 T2 − 5.1 × 10− 5 T
+ 0.001786
where W is power consumption, kW; ΔP is the pressure drop, kPa; q is the (21)
flow rate, m3/s; η is the efficiency of the fans or pumps.
In the equation, T represents temperature, C; ρ represents density,
◦
As shown in Fig. 2, the internal pressure drop of the waste heat re­
kg/m3; cp represents specific heat capacity at constant pressure, kJ/
covery system can be divided into three parts: high-temperature circuit
(kg⋅K); λw represents thermal conductivity, W/(m⋅K); μ represents dy­
pressure drop, medium-temperature circuit pressure drop, and low-
namic viscosity, Pa⋅s.
temperature circuit pressure drop. Based on the pressure drop calcula­
During the numerical model verification, the boundary heat flux
tion and Eqs. (17), Wabsorp can be obtained.
density was set to 100 W/cm2, and the inlet Reynolds number ranged
from 139 to 1672. During the grid independence verification, the inlet
3.4.1. High-temperature circuit pressure drop calculation
Reynolds number was kept constant at 400. The water-cooled plate had
Compared to other shapes of microchannel water cold plates, rect­
a width of 231 μm and a depth of 713 μm. As indicated in Table 1, a grid
angular microchannel water cold plates are widely recognized for their
consisting of 4 million cells was adopted for subsequent calculations
advantages of lower pressure drop and higher heat transfer capacity
after confirming grid independence. The numerical model was validated
(Chiu et al., 2011).
using experimental data. Fig. 3 indicates a close resemblance between
Qu et al. (2002) established a microchannel heat sink test bench,
simulation results and the experimental results documented in the paper
which was made of oxygen-free copper and consisted of a series of
of Qu et al. (2002).the largest temperature difference (ΔT) deviation is
rectangular microchannels with a width of 231 μm and a depth of 713
6.67 %, and the smallest ΔT deviation is 0.85 %. The pressure drop
μm. The experiment investigated the effects of Reynolds number on the
showed good agreement with experimental data in the low Reynolds
local and average heat transfer characteristics of the water-cooled plate,
number region (Re < 900). For Re < 900, the largest pressure drop
including temperature, heat flux density, and Nusselt number. Addi­
difference (ΔP) deviation is 9.01 %, and the smallest ΔP deviation is
tionally, the Navier-Stokes equation and energy equation were utilized
1.14 %. This verifies that our numerical simulations can effectively
to predict the heat transfer characteristics of a microchannel heat sink
stand in for physical experiments in low Reynolds number region,
with the same channel size.
providing valuable guidance for this research paper.
In order to validate our numerical simulations, we reproduced the
Wang et al. (2016) conducted numerical simulations to investigate
performance curve of the water-cooled plate using FLUENT and
the impact of the aspect ratio on the flow and heat transfer character­
compared it with the experimental results. Due to the symmetrical
istics of rectangular microchannel water cold plate. At an aspect ratio
structure of this model, in order to simplify the calculation, a single
range of 8.904 to 11.442, the rectangular microchannel revealed the
channel is taken as the research object research object. Considering the
optimal performance. Building upon the aforementioned findings, we
significant variation in inlet and outlet water temperatures at low Rey­
attempted to substitute the heat source with a CPU. Under the optimal
nolds numbers, leading to changes in the physical properties of water, a
microchannel aspect ratio, we calculated the pressure drop and tem­
polynomial interpolation function for water properties was imple­
perature difference at the inlet and outlet of the water-cooled plate.
mented in FLUENT. The interpolation function is applicable within the
These calculations aimed to provide data for subsequent calculations of
temperature range of 0 ◦ C to 80 ◦ C, and the corresponding interpolation
the overall power consumption in data centers.
function is as follows:
As shown in Fig. 4, the chosen cold plate for the data center is a
ρ = − 1.164 × 10− 7 T4 + 3.597 × 10− 5 T3 rectangular shaped microchannel water-cooled plate. Each micro­
(18)
− 0.006362T2 + 0.05464T − 999.8 channel on the plate measures 1.373 mm in height of channels and 0.120
mm in width of channel. The calculation adopted a laminar flow model
with a constant heat flux density condition of 12.25 W/cm2 set at CPU,
and the other boundaries adiabatic. The thermal conductivity of heat

Fig. 3. Verification of numerical model.

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X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

Fig. 4. microchannel heat sink geometry schematic.

Fig. 5. Circulation pipes near racks schematic diagram.

conducting silicone grease was set to 5 W/(m2⋅K), while the inlet Rey­
nolds number was set at 200, water inlet temperature was set at 59 ◦ C.
The simulation used a SIMPLEC algorithm with skewness correction of
1, and default settings were used for everything else. For SR570 servers
equipped with two CPUs, two water cold plate are connected in series for
CPU cooling, and the calculation results are:
1) Average temperature of the two CPU: 64.256 ◦ C, 66.358 ◦ C. Both
these temperatures satisfy the necessary CPU temperature control
requirements;
2) Average temperature of the outlet water: 63.102 ◦ C. In this tem­
perature, EMM-8 adsorption refrigeration system functions at its
optimal COP;
3) Pressure drops of the water-cooling plate: 17.448 kPa;
The outlet water from the water-cooled plate will first pass through
the circulation pipeline near the rack and finally reach the adsorption
bed of the adsorption refrigeration unit for heat exchange. The pressure
drop in the circulation pipeline near the rack is mainly composed of local
losses, which are closely related to the structural design of the pipeline.
As shown in Fig. 5, right-angle bends, sudden expansions, sudden con­
tractions, reducer tee piece, and valves are the main contributing

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X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

Table. 2
0.3164
evaporator and condenser design calculation formula λ= (26)
Re0.25
physical quantity evaporator design condenser design
calculation formulas calculation formulas The total pressure loss of the pipeline can be calculated by the Darcy-
√̅̅̅̅̅ Weisbach formula:
pipe diameter, m ( G
di = 1.128
Zhuang, 2017) uρ ΔP = ρgH (27)
number of tubes per Q0
4
flow path (Yu et al., ρcp ΔT
Z = ∑ L v2 ∑ v2
2019) πd2i u H = Hch + λi + ξj (28)
heat transfer coefficient 0.023Re 0.8 n
Pr λ i
D 2g j
2g
αi =
of fluid in the tube ( di
Yang and Tao, 1998), In Eqs. (27) and Eqs. (28), H represents the total head, composed of
W/(m2⋅K) frictional head loss and local head loss, m; Hch is the static head and is
heat transfer coefficient 3.2(tw − 5)0.82 P0.4 ( ρ2 ghλ3 )0.25
0
0.729 L L 0 m; L is the pipe length, m; v is the flow velocity, m/s; D is the pipe
of fluid outside the μndo Δto
tube (Yang and Tao, diameter, m.
1998), W/(m2⋅K) The pressure drop of the circulating water pipeline near the server
part 1 heat flux density, (tw − 5)3.2(tw − 5)0.82 P0.4
0
( ρ2 ghλ3 )0.25 side can be calculated as 185.268 kPa. For adsorption refrigeration
W/m2 Δto 0.729 L L
μndo Δto units, the piping design of the adsorbent bed heat exchanger can be
part 2 heat flux density, Δtm − (tw − 5) 5.1 − Δto adjusted according to the actual flow rate to maintain the pressure drop
(1 )d δ do
W/m2 (1 )d δ do
within a certain range. In relation to extant commercial products, the in-
o o
+ γi + + γo + γi + + γo
αi di λ dm αi di λ dm
effective length of the F0 tube pressure drop of the adsorbent bed heat exchanger mostly within
lc =
tube (Yu et al., 2019), πdo NZ 30–60 kPa, with 45 kPa being used for calculations. Therefore, the major
m pressure drop in the high temperature circuit can be obtained by sum­
)
flow resistance (Liu, ( [0.3164 l ] G2
Δp = 0.5ρu2
c
N + 1.5(N + 1) + i 4N Fi + ming up the pressure drops across the water-cooling plate, the circu­
2003), Pa Re0.25 di 2ρ
lating water pipeline near the server side, and the adsorption bed,
G2
1.5 i resulting in a value of 247.716 kPa. Referring to the Chinese national
2ρ
standard "Centrifugal pump – Efficiency" (GB/T 13007-2011), centrif­
ugal pump efficiency usually falls between 50 % and 90 %, 70 % is used
components to the losses. After the coolant flows into the main pipe a-b1, here. With the flow rate is 0.0836 m3/s, the required pump power for the
it enters the server through the manifold b1-c and branch pipes bi-ei, high-temperature circuit can be calculated using Eq. (17), resulting in
taking away the CPU heat. Then, it converges in the manifold pipe e1- 29.584 kW.
d and is eventually carried to the adsorption bed heat exchanger through
the main pipe. The main pipe consists of two right-angle bends, a valve, 3.4.2. Medium and low temperature circuit pressure drop calculation
a sudden expansion, and a sudden contraction. At each intersection The fan power consumption per unit of heat released by the cooling
between the manifold pipe and each branch pipe, there is a reducer tee tower is 0.00848 kW (Haywood et al., 2012). Therefore, the power
piece, and each branch pipe is equipped with a sudden expansion, a consumption of the cooling tower fan (Wcooling tower) in the adsorption
sudden contraction and a valve. refrigeration system can be expressed as:
The local resistance coefficient at the sudden expansion can be ( )
calculated by empirical formula (Wu, 2007): Wcooling tower = Qabsorp + Qgen ⋅0.00848 (29)
(
A1
)2 According to Eq. (29), the power consumption of the cooling tower
ξe = 1 − (22) fans is 16.000 kW. Base on Chinese national standard “Unitary air
A2
conditioners” (GB/T 17758-2010), the temperature difference between
where A1 represents the cross-sectional area of a large section and A2 the inlet and outlet water of the cooling tower suggested to be 5 ◦ C. So,
represents the cross-sectional area of a small section. the required flow rate for the cooling tower loop can be calculated using
The local resistance coefficient at the sudden contraction is (Wu, the following formula:
2007): Q
( ) m= (30)
A2 cp ΔT
ξc = 0.5 1 − (23)
A1 Q is the heat that needs to be discharged, kW; cp is specific heat of
The local resistance coefficient of a right-angle elbow is (Wu, 2007): water at constant pressure, kJ/(kg⋅◦ C);△T is the temperature difference
between the inlet and outlet water of the cooling tower,◦ C. The calcu­
ξelbow = 1.31 + 0.13n3.5 (24) lated required flow rate is 325.800 m3/h (0.0905 m3/s).
The low-temperature circuit water side pressure drop is mainly
where n=D/R, D is the diameter of the pipe, m; R is the bending radius of composed of an evaporator and a tubular fin heat exchanger. The
the elbow, m. evaporator provides the cooling capacity while the tube-fin heat
The resistance coefficient of the reducer tee piece is a constant value exchanger releases the cold energy to the IT room. In order to minimize
(Shi et al., al.,2013): ξt =1.5; the valve adopts a ball valve, and the energy consumption and control noise, it is recommended that the air-
resistance coefficient is a constant value (Li et al., 2020): ξf =1.86. The side pressure drop of the air-water tubular fin heat exchanger should
pipe diameter size can be calculated using the following equation: range from 50 to 250 Pa, while the water-side pressure drop should be
√̅̅̅̅̅ below 200 kPa (Kreider et al., 2011). Hence, in this study, we adopt an
q
R= (25) air-side expected pressure drop of 100 Pa and a water-side expected
uπ
pressure drop of 60 kPa.
R represents the pipeline radius, m; qv is the flow rate, m3/s; u is the In medium and low temperature circuit, the key components are the
pipeline flow velocity, m/s. evaporator and condenser. As shown in Table 2, the pressure drop of the
Then calculate the friction coefficient of each pipeline along the way evaporator and condenser can be calculated using empirical formulas,
through the Blasius formula: and the computation methodology is as follows:

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X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

1) Feed in the heat exchange capacity and architectural parameters to

compute the requisite number of tubes per flow path;
2) Assume heat flux density, calculate heat transfer area, determine the
number of flow path;
3) Assuming a wall temperature, the interior and exterior heat flux
densities of the tube can be calculated. By comparing these two heat
flux densities and determining the difference, the wall temperature
can be adjusted iteratively until the heat flux densities are approxi­
mately equal;
4) Calculate the heat transfer area based on the heat transfer coefficient,
compare it with the previously assumed heat transfer area. If they are
similar, output the results, otherwise go back to step 2;
5) Determine the effective length of the tube and calculate the pressure
drop.

Based on Table 2, the pressure drop in the cooling water can be

Fig. 6. Air cooling circuit pressure drop calculation method The optimal air
volume for evaporator of the gravity-driven separated heat pipe, as suggested
by Liu et al. (2017), is 0.833 m3/s. After the collected hot air, the heat pipe cold
wall will serve as a pre-cooling means to initially cool the hot air. cooling ca­
pacity of each heat pipe unit is 3–8 kW, which can provide cooling for one rack
of servers. Considering that there are 100 racks of servers in the data center, a
total of 100 heat pipe units are required as cold walls to cool the hot air.
Consequently, the airflow through each server would be 0.021 m3/s.
calculated as 79.40kpa, and the water-side pump power at the condenser
is 10.21 kW. Additionally, the water-side pressure drop in the chilled
water can be calculated as 75.48kpa, and the pump power is 4.42 kW. To
sum up, the pump power for the medium temperature loop is 26.210
kW, and for the low-temperature loop is 8.030 kW.
The total power consumption of the adsorption refrigeration system
can be obtained using the following equation:
Wabsorp = Wcooling tower + Wabsorp pump (31)

Wabsorp pump is the sum of the pump powers in the low-temperature,

Table. 3 medium temperature, and high-temperature loops of the adsorption
The main pressure drop components of the system and their pressure drop. refrigeration unit, kW.
parameter value The calculation reveals that the energy consumption of the adsorp­
tion refrigeration system is 68.740 kW.
waste heat high temperature water cold-plate pressure 17.448
recovery circuit drop, kPa
system circulating water pipeline near 185.268 3.4.3. Air-cooled circuit pressure drop
the server-side pressure drop, As shown in Fig. 6, The main components that cause pressure drop in
kPa
the air-cooled circuit are servers, SHP evaporator, AR heat exchanger,
adsorption bed pressure drop, 45
kPa
and CRAC heat exchanger.
medium condenser water-side pressure 79.40 The server’s inlet temperature is set at 18 ◦ C, and based on the law of
temperature drop, kPa conservation of energy, the server’s outlet temperature would be 31.96
circuit ◦
C. Zhang (2015) modeled a 1 U server and obtained its impedance
low temperature evaporator water-side 75.48
fitting curve with a fitting curve R2 value of 0.995:
circuit pressure drop, kPa
tubular fin heat exchanger 60
ΔP = 20.556u2 + 12.956u (32)
water-side pressure drop, kPa
air-cooled sever pressure drop, Pa 38.52 ΔP represents pressure drop, Pa; u represents air velocity, m/s.
system SHP pressure drop, Pa 18.18
Based on the optimal air volume, the corresponding pressure drop for
AR pressure drop, Pa 100
the server at the desired airflow can be got by Eq. (32) and is determined
to be 38.52 Pa. For the evaporator of the separated heat pipe, a finned

Fig. 7. The variation of exergy loss for different fluid and fluid temperature with same CPU temperature.

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X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

Fig. 8. The variation of entranspy increase for different fluid and fluid temperature with same CPU temperature.

The cooled air then enters the AR heat exchanger for further tempera­
ture reduction. After passing through the AR heat exchanger, the air in
the data center will be cooled to 18◦ C and return to the server inlet for
the next cycle. If the SHP and AR are insufficient to provide the required
cooling capacity for air circulation, CRAC is activated. In such case, the
outlet temperature of each part depends on the heat exchange capacity
of SHP. The pump power of the CRAC is included in its AEER and is not
separately calculated here. Chinese national standard “Minimum
allowable values of energy efficiency and evaluating values of energy
conservation for centrifugal blower” (GB 28,381–2012) stipulate that
the efficiency of the blower should be higher than 50–70 %, assuming a
fan efficiency of 70 %, the power consumption of the data center’s
air-cooling cycle fan can be calculated using Eq. (17).
Table 3 summarizes the calculations in this section and shows the
pressure drop of each component. From Table 2 and Eqs. (12)–Eq. (31),
the PUE of SHP-AR cooling data center can be expressed as:
QIT
+ Wcooling + Wabsorp + WSHP + WCRAC + Wfan
(33)
tower pump
PUE = 0.98 QIT
0.98

where:
( )
Wcooling tower = 0.00848⋅QIT ⋅HR⋅ COPabsorp + 1 (34)
( )
QIT 1 − HR⋅COPabsorp − HR − QSHP
WCRAC = (35)
AEER
The PUE of traditional water-cooling data center can be expressed as:
QIT
+ WCRAC
PUE = 0.98 QIT
(36)
0.98

where:
∑ Q
WCRAC = i AEER
(37)
i

4. Results and discussion

Fig. 9. The variation of exergy loss and entranspy accumulation for different
water temperature and Reynolds numbers. 4.1. Proof of the efficiency of hot water cooling

tube is used, and the corresponding pressure drop has been provided in The optimal cooling method is obtained by comparing the exergy
the literature (Liu et al., 2017) as 18.18 Pa. Assuming that the separated loss and entranspy accumulation of water-cooled and air-cooled at the
heat pipe provides sufficient cooling capacity, the air temperature after same CPU temperature. Since there is a difference in heat dissipation
passing through the separated heat pipe would be reduced to 26.36 ◦ C. capacity between air and water cooling, the comparison process is

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X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

Fig. 10. T-Q chart for air side entransy dissipation analysis of the two cooling solutions: traditional water-cooled data center and SHP&AR-cooled data center.

limited to high-temperature water and low-temperature air within the

Table. 4 same group. For example, after the system is stabilized, the CPU tem­
air side entransy dissipation of two cooling solutions. perature is 39 ◦ C, but the inlet temperature that requires water cooling is
Two cooling air to chilled chilled water (heat total entransy 35 ◦ C, while the inlet temperature of air-cooling is set to 10 ◦ C. Thus, the
solutions water (heat pipe pipe evaporator) to dissipation, exergy loss and entranspy accumulation of the fluid are calculated.
evaporator) evaporator (outside kW⋅K
As can be seen from the Figs.7 and 8, liquid cooling has smaller
entransy air) entransy
dissipation, kW⋅K dissipation, kW⋅K exergy loss and higher entranspy accumulation for different cooling
media. For different cooling temperatures, high-temperature fluids have
traditional water- 5693.52 10628.69 16322.22
cooled
smaller exergy loss and more entranspy accumulation. This means that
SHP&AR- total 5614.18 8487.57 14101.75 applying high-temperature fluid to the heat exchange process results in
cooled SHP 2352.10 1750.0 4102.10 better performance.
AR 2797.75 5650.45 8448.21 By changing the inlet Reynolds number of the cold plate, we can
CRAC 464.31 1087.11 1551.43
obtain its effect on the exergy loss and entranspy accumulation of the
water in Fig. 9. While ensuring the CPU is at a safe temperature,
reducing flow velocity can not only decrease pressure drop, but also
Table. 5 obtain smaller exergy loss and higher entranspy accumulation, reducing
air side temperature distribution of two cooling solutions. dissipation. This section demonstrates the superiority of using hot water
two cooling solutions chilled water/ evaporator/ IT room hot air to cool a water-cooled plate over using cold water through entropy and
heat pipe outside air temperature,◦ entranspy theory. It is important to note that this theory applies to
evaporator temperature C different heat exchangers and fluids as well, which indicates that cooling
temperature distribution, with hot air is more efficient than cooling with cold air.
distribution,◦ C ◦
C
inlet outlet inlet outlet inlet outlet
4.2. Data centers entransy dissipation analysis on two cooling solutions
traditional water-cooled 21 16 11 11 32 18
SHP&AR-cooled SHP 23.5 23.5 18.5 18.5 32 28.5
AR 21 18 13 13 28.5 20 Traditional water-cooling data center cooling systems use water-
CRAC 16.7 16 11 11 20 18 cooled plates to remove heat from high-heat components, while other
components are still air-cooled. As shown in Fig. 1, without considering
the mixing of cold and hot air, all exhaust hot air from servers is
collected, so the heat transfer process on the air-side of a traditional
Table. 6
Five climatic areas in China water-cooled data center is as follows: heat is transferred from the hot
air to the chilled water, and then from the chilled water to the evapo­
City Latitude and Climate annual average
rator of the compression refrigeration unit. The heat transfer process on
Longitude temperature,◦ C
the air-side of a SHP-AR cooling data center can be divided into three
Harbin 45.801N extremely cold regions 3.878
parts, the first part transfers heat from the hot air to the evaporator of
126.529E
Beijing 39.902N cold regions 11.602 SHP, then from the evaporator of SHP to the outside air. The second part
116.401E transfers heat from the hot air to the chilled water of AR, and then from
Kunming 24.883N mild climate regions 15.696 the chilled water to the evaporator of AR. The third part transfers heat
102.831E from the hot air to the chilled water of CRAC, and then from the chilled
Shanghai 31.232N cold in winters and hot in 17.800
121.469E summers regions
water to the evaporator of CRAC.
Haikou 20.046N warm in winters and hot 25.191 The entransy dissipation analysis on air side heat exchange, transport
110.194E in summers regions and removal for the two cooling solutions is illustrated by the T-Q chart
in Fig. 10. The comparison is limited to the entransy dissipation on the
same heat transfer efficiency, which is represented by the same slope of

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X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

Fig. 11. Hourly ambient temperature changes and monthly heat exchange for a separated heat pipe system and computer room air conditioner system in five
representative cities: (a) Harbin, (b) Beijing, (c) Kunming, (d) Shanghai, and (e) Haikou.

the chilled water temperature change line on the T-Q chart. When the
CPU temperature is the same, the entransy dissipation form CPU to
water should remain constant for both solutions. Thus, the entransy
dissipation on the air side becomes the determining factor for system
performance.
In the T-Q chart, the dotted line represents the temperature of the hot
air, the solid line represents the temperature of the chilled water (in QSHP
part, it refers to the heat pipe evaporator), and the dashed line represents
the temperature of the evaporator of the refrigeration unit (in QSHP part,
it refers to the outside air). The area enclosed by the dotted line and the
solid line represents the entransy dissipation from the hot air to the
chilled water. The area enclosed by the solid line and the dashed line
represents the entransy dissipation from the chilled water to the evap­
orator of the refrigeration unit; the area enclosed by the dotted line and
the dashed line represents the total entransy dissipation from the air to
the evaporator during the heat transfer process. By comparing the areas,

353
X. She et al.
Fig. 11. (continued).
the entransy dissipation of the two cooling solutions can be determined,
with a smaller area indicating less entransy dissipation and less loss of
heat transfer capacity during the heat transfer process. The T-Q chart
also shows the required temperature of the evaporator of different
cooling solutions, which corresponds to the quality of the required
cooling source, and the quality of the required cooling source affects the
power consumption of the refrigeration unit. Tables 4 and 5 list the
temperature distribution and entransy dissipation for each heat transfer
process for the two cooling solutions, respectively. From the analysis of
entransy dissipation, it can be seen that the entransy dissipation from the
chilled water to evaporator in a traditional water-cooled data center is
10,628.69 kW⋅K, accounting for 65.12 % of the total entransy dissipa­
tion. Due to the use of staged cooling, the SHP-AR cooling data center
earns the better thermal performance with a 20.14 % reduction in
entransy dissipation from the chilled water to evaporator, and the
average temperature of the evaporator increases from 11 ◦ C to 14.16 ◦ C,
resulting in a 13.60 % reduction in total entransy dissipation. Theoret­
ically, a higher evaporator temperature indicates reduced energy
consumption.
To sum up, in order to effectively reduce energy consumption and
improve the thermal management efficiency of data centers, the SHP-AR
cooling solution is feasible.
4.3. Energy saving potential of data center
According to the Chinese national standard "Unitary air-conditioners
for computer and data processing room" (GB/T 19413-2010), the AEER
of cold air CRAC and cold water CRAC should be above 3.5 and 3.4,
respectively. In this calculation, both the AEER of cold air and cold water
CRAC are set at 3.5. The most efficient adsorption refrigeration system
in the world, EMM-8 adsorption refrigeration system is being utilized in
this system. It can achieve a COP of 0.85 when the driving temperature is
63 ◦ C (Liu et al., al.,2022). According to experimental data in the
literature (Liu et al., 2017), the COP of the SHP ranges from 3.5 to 8 and
varies depending on the temperature difference between indoor and
outdoor environments.
Based on Chinese national standard “Standard of climatic
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International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356
regionalization for architecture” (GB50178-93), Table 6 lists five typical
climate regions cities in China: Harbin, Beijing, Kunming, Shanghai, and
Haikou. As shown in Fig.11, we obtain local hourly temperature data
and calculate the heat exchange capacity of the thermal management
components through the temperature data. The meteorological data
required for the research is sourced from 2021 shared meteorological
information provided by MERRA-2. Table 7 shows the performance in­
dicators and energy-saving benefits calculation results of SHP-AR cool­
ing data center in different regions. The data highlights the seasonal and
regional differences associated with energy consumption in data centers,
and demonstrated potential for energy savings. Harbin recorded the
lowest PUE of 1.082, while Haikou recorded the highest PUE of 1.095. It
was observed that the percentage of free cooling ranged from 27.089 %
in Haikou to 85.479 % in Harbin. Also, Harbin had the longest free
cooling hours at 7488 h, followed by Kunming with 7064 h. The cooling
system efficiency for data centers operates differently based on the re­
gion and season. The heat exchange of CRAC shows a "summer peak,
winter valley" pattern, and it fluctuates more in areas located at higher
latitudes. This variation is due to the difference in latitude. Furthermore,
the AEER of cooling systems decrease as the latitude of the location
decreases. In terms of energy efficiency, compared to traditional water-
cooling data centers, the optimized data center cooling system has an
energy efficiency rate of 70.567 % in Harbin. Therefore, the establish­
ment of data centers integrating separate heat pipe and adsorption
refrigeration systems can reduce PUE, possibly resulting in lower energy
requirements for cooling purposes.
5. Conclusion
The objective of this study is to propose and optimize data center
cooling systems by combining free cooling and waste heat recovery. The
performance of the SHP-AR cooling data center is numerically investi­
gated, and is applied as the basis for subsequent research. We have
provided a method for calculating the PUE value in hybrid cooled data
centers, and the efficiency of this data center cooling system has been
proven through exergy and entranspy theories. The main results are
concluded as follows:
X. She et al.
Fig. 11. (continued).
1) For CPU cooling, the entranspy accumulation increases and exergy
loss decreases of outlet fluid with the increase of fluid inlet tem­
perature. The entranspy accumulation of water cold plate outlet
almost increases linearly with increasing water inlet temperature.
The decrease of water inlet Reynolds number increases the entranspy
accumulation while improves the efficiency of cold plate.
2) A comparison was made between the cold-plate water-cooling data
center and the SHP-AR cooling data center entranspy dissipation.
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International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356
SHP-AR cooling data center reduced the total entranspy dissipation
by 13.60 %. This reduction in entranspy dissipation, along with the
increased evaporator temperature, indicates potential energy savings
in the cooling system.
3) The SHP-AR cooling data center can achieved a PUE ranging from
1.082 to 1.095. Compare with cold-plate water-cooling data center,
it can save more than 65 % of cooling system electricity in most areas
of China.
X. She et al. International Journal of Refrigeration 160 (2024) 341–356

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Declaration of competing interest Meyer, N., Ries, M., Solbrig, S., Wettig, T., 2013. IDataCool: HPC with hot-water cooling
and energy reuse. Lecture Notes in Computer Science (Including Subseries Lecture
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial Notes in Artificial Intelligence and Lecture Notes in Bioinformatics), p. 7905.
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38750-0_29.
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
Wilde, T.W.T., Ott, M.O.M., Auweter, A.A.A., Meijer, I.M.I., Ruch, P.R.P., Hilger, M.H.M.,
the work reported in this paper. Kuhnert, S.K.S., Huber, H.H.H., 2017. CooLMUC-2: a supercomputing cluster with
heat recovery for adsorption cooling. In: 2017 33rd Thermal Measurement,
Acknowledgement Modeling & Management Symposium (SEMI-THERM), pp. 115–121. https://doi.
org/10.1109/SEMI-THERM.2017.7896917.
Liu, Z.L., Xu, J., Xu, M., Huang, C., Wang, R., Li, T., Huai, X., 2022. Ultralow-
This project was supported by the National Natural Science Foun­ temperature-driven water-based sorption refrigeration enabled by low-cost zeolite-
dation of China (NSFC) under Grant No. 52106117 and No. 52006218. like porous aluminophosphate. Nat. Commun. 13 (1), 193. https://doi.org/10.1038/
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