Immersion Cooling Effect on a Heat sink Performance CFD Simulation

Description

Description

In this project, we want to study the effect of immersion cooling on heat sinks’ performance in ANSYS Fluent software. In these systems, chipsets are drenched in water or any conductive liquid instead of air. In the present problem, water is the working fluid in our immersion cooling system.
The 3D model is designed using the Spaceclaim. A rectangular case in which chipsets are installed on the side wall. Then, a structured mesh grid is performed using ANSYS Meshing software (85000 cells).

Methodology

Firstly, to solve the energy equation, we must activate it. Plus, the k-epsilon RNG turbulence model is employed to accurately predict flow patterns during the motion. Next, a 100 w/m2 heat flux is applied to all 9 chipsets, which can drastically increase the temperature. This is why we are aiming to use an immersion cooling system.

Results

After the solution, 2D and 3D contours were displayed. It is worth mentioning that the inlet velocity for air and water is the same (0.1m/s). However, the flow patterns are entirely different. As shown in the attached figures, the air can reach higher parts of the case before leaving through the outlet, resulting in longer contact with hot surfaces. This can be beneficial and all 9 chipsets experience a temperature downfall. However, the water circulation is different, and it cannot make full contact with all 9 chipsets, just the bottom row. Still, the results show that using an immersion cooling system is more efficient. To sum up, the heat sink`s surface average temperature reaches 335.26K, which can cause damage, but considering the immersion system, it results in 283.53K. Remember that the initial temperature of air and water was 283K in both cases.