Experimental Investigation of Heat Transfer and Flow Characteristics of Split Natural Cooling System for Data Center Based on Micro Heat Pipe Array

This paper presents a new type of split natural cooling system that maximizes the use of natural cold energy to significantly reduce the power consumption of the air conditioning system in data centers. A split natural cooling system module, which consisted of indoor and outdoor heat exchanger based on micro heat pipe arrays connected by liquid circulation system, was selected for experimental research. The heat transfer process and flow characteristics were analyzed under different outdoor environment temperatures, air and water flow rates, and different ratios of heat transfer components (N) of indoor and outdoor heat exchangers. To improve the utilization of natural cold energy, two kinds of heat dissipation conditions, namely room and heat channel-based, were proposed. The indoor temperature of two conditions at 28 °C and 38 °C were simulated in the laboratory at constant temperature-humidity, respectively. Results indicated that the air flow rate had a greater influence on the heat transfer performance than the water flow rate. The pressure drop of the air and water sides was at a lower level, and the fitting curve of the pressure drop was obtained to provide a reference for the heat exchanger design and equipment selection. When the ratio of heat transfer components (N) of the indoor and outdoor heat exchanger was approximately 0.75, the split natural cooling system showed optimal comprehensive performance. Under heat channel-based conditions, the maximum heat transfer rate reached 12.4 kW, and the maximum energy efficiency ratio was 17.15; the maximum heat transfer rate and the maximum energy efficiency ratio increased by 42.5% and 22.64% compared with the room-based condition, respectively. The fitting curve of the energy efficiency ratio was calculated under different outdoor temperatures at two heat dissipation conditions.