Emerging Trends in Sustainable Thermal Management for Data Centers

Abstract

The reduction of energy consumption and thermal management in cooling systems is one of the factors that have developed in an attempt to address the current trend of increasing data centers with high heat dissipation rates and the energy problematic environment, as the traditional air-based cooling systems are proving ineffective as they consume high amounts of energy and might not be sufficiently scalable. This paper addresses new trends in sustainable data center thermal management taking note of innovative cooling approaches that incorporate air, liquid, heat-pipe, immersion and free cooling. In addition, similarities between the study and the thermal management methods used in electric vehicles are also drawn, in which the necessity of materials with high developmental rates, intelligent control, and energy-efficient designs are stated. Recent research contributions are addressed in detail to establish significant progression, limitations, and gaps of research. The review suggests that there is a need to have integrated, adaptive and intelligent thermal management structures that balance performance and energy efficiency, cost and environmental sustainability. The findings are instructive to researchers and scholars who would like to come up with next generation, more energy-efficient thermal management systems in data centers and other high-power systems.