A review of current status of free cooling in datacenters

Abstract

In this study, an overview of current status of the free cooling technologies applicable for datacenters had been discussed, including airside economizers, waterside economizers, and heat pipe technology. By introducing the free cooling technologies, the compressor loading of refrigeration systern,can be partially or completely relieved. Utilization of airside or waterside free cooling relies strongly on the ambient conditions, yet either airside free cooling or waterside free cooling may be integrated with other systems such as absorption, solar system, adsorption, geothermal, evaporative cooling, and the like to extend its performance. On the other hand, thermosiphon heat exchangers and pulsating heat pipes feature unique characteristics to transfer heat at small temperature difference are quite promising for datacenter free cooling. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.