By Sandile Khumalo, mechanical engineer Maninga Engineering
Liquid cooling needs to be considered in SA.
Sandile Khumalo, mechanical engineer, Maninga Engineering. Supplied by Maninga Engineering
The rapid growth of modern data centres has significantly increased heat generation from computing equipment, placing greater demands on cooling systems. Traditional air-based cooling methods, which have long been used to regulate data centre temperatures, are becoming less effective as computing power and server density continue to rise. The increasing thermal output of high-performance systems, typically reaching heat loads of approximately 3kW per unit, challenges the ability of conventional cooling approaches to maintain optimal operating conditions.
This rise in heat generation is further driven by the growing adoption of artificial intelligence technologies, which require higher processing capacity and result in increased power consumption and thermal output. As a result, there is a growing need for more efficient and reliable cooling solutions.
Today’s AI accelerators, graphics processors and dense multi-core CPUs can easily release 400–600 watts from a chip barely larger than a postage stamp. Traditional air cooling is hitting fundamental physical limits: air conducts heat very poorly and requires massive airflow which means noisy fans, high auxiliary electricity consumption, and rapidly worsening Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE).
