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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 127 records · Page 7
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2026

Holistic energy analysis method for thermal management architectures of data centers

Modern high-performance computing (HPC) data centers (DCs), particularly those supporting energy-intensive artificial intelligence (AI) workloads, face escalating thermal management challenges that degrade performance through thermal throttling and drive up cooling power consumption and operational costs. To address this challenge, many have developed a wide variety of thermal management solutions (single-phase, two-phase, direct, indirect, hybrid, and more) which attempt to cool HPC DCs effectively while attempting to minimize overall system power consumption. However, the analysis of these solutions and methods to effectively compare one with another is lacking. Overall power usage effectiveness (PUE) and total-power usage effectiveness (TUE) provide a metric to quantify power consumption but fail to identify components in the system which require further optimization. To address this, we propose a holistic analytical framework – the waterfall diagram (WFD) – which leverages a waterfall chart methodology, offering a comprehensive visualization of both the thermal management system loop and heat flow pathways from individual server components to the outdoor ambient. Use of the WFD enables graphical estimations of power efficiency and cooling performance across each component of a DC cooling system and complements Sankey-style energy flow visualizations by additionally resolving stage-wise temperature changes and incremental TUE contributions. The framework is used in conjunction with simulation-based approaches, to conduct a detailed pressure drop and flow distribution analysis aimed at identifying the optimal coolant distribution architecture for a single-phase direct-to-chip water-cooled DC, which serves as the baseline for subsequent WFD analysis. Among the evaluated architectures, the 3 U modular coolant distribution architecture is found to demonstrate the best performance, considering minimal pressure drop and uniform flow distribution. In addition, TUE is calculated for each cooling loop component based on its associated pressure drop and corresponding pumping power, which are integrated into the WFD. This correlation between TUE and local temperature offers immediate insight into the power efficiency and thermal performance contributions of individual components, facilitating further development and optimization. Examples of WFD applications are presented under varying thermal loads and ambient conditions, demonstrating reasonable cooling strategies. Notably, the 3 U modular architecture maintains a consistent chip case temperature of 85°C, achieving a TUE of 1.016 at ambient temperature of 47°C, and a TUE of 1.026 at ambient temperature of 52°C. The WFD methodology provides an efficient, holistic, and streamlined framework for DC thermal management architecture assessment and enables design optimization which is important for addressing the thermal-fluidic energy challenges of current and next-generation DCs.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2022

Toward higher-radix switches with co-packaged optics for improved network locality in data center and HPC networks [Invited]

In this work, we study the network locality improvements that can be achieved by using co-packaged optics in data center and high-performance computing (HPC) networks. The increased escape bandwidth offered by co-packaged optics can enable switches with speeds of 51.2 Tb/s and beyond. From a network architecture perspective, the key advantages of introducing co-packaged optics at the switch points include the implementation of large-scale topologies of >12,000 end points with 4× higher bisection bandwidth and the reduction of the required number of switches by >40% compared with state-of-the-art approaches. From a network operation perspective, improved network locality and faster operation can be achieved since the higher-radix switches can mitigate the impact of network contention. Placing applications under fewer leaf switches reduces the number of packets that cross the spine switches in a leaf-spine topology. The proposed scheme is evaluated via discrete-event simulations: we initially evaluate the network locality properties of the system by using virtual-machine traces from a production data center, and we subsequently quantify the performance improvements by simulating an all-to-all pattern for a variety of message sizes over a number of nodes. The results suggest that co-packaged optics form a promising solution for keeping up with bandwidth scaling in future networks. The virtual-machine analysis shows that large-scale applications can be placed under up to 50% fewer first-level switches, while the network analysis shows speedups of up to 7.1, which translates to execution time reductions of up to 26% and 42.7% for applications with communication ratios of 0.3 and 0.5, respectively.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2022

Energy Use in Quantum Data Centers: Scaling the Impact of Computer Architecture, Qubit Performance, Size, and Thermal Parameters

As quantum computers increase in size, the total energy used by a quantum data center, including the cooling, will become a greater concern. The cooling requirements of quantum computers, which operate at temperatures near absolute zero, are determined by computing system parameters, including the number and type of physical qubits, the packaging efficiency of the system, and the split between circuits operating at cryogenic temperatures and those operating at room temperature. When combined with thermal system parameters such as cooling efficiency and cryostat heat transfer, the total energy use can be determined using a first-principles energy model. These models show that cooling of quantum computers differs in two fundamental ways from conventional data centers: (1) the energy required for cooling is much greater than the energy required for computation, and (2) the cooling loads are sensitive to the computational architecture. The temperature requirements for different qubit types can change energy requirements by orders of magnitude. Power use and computational power, as quantified by quantum volume, are analytically correlated. Approaches are identified for minimizing energy use in integrated quantum systems relative to computational power. Furthermore, designing a sustainable quantum computer will require both efficient cooling and system design that minimizes cooling requirements.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate and Information Technology Services Directorate HPC Cluster Reduction, Consolidation, and Savings in Data Center Space, Power, and Cooling

This report evaluates the benefits of decommissioning six legacy FFESD purchased HPC clusters and consolidating services and workloads into a new HPC cluster named HELIOS. The findings demonstrate significant reductions in the data center power and cooling requirements, data center footprint, and operational overhead, while simultaneously increasing computational capacity.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Accelerating Nuclear-Integrated Data Centers in the USA: SWOT Analysis, Power-Thermal Management Strategies, and Industrial-Scale Demonstration and Potential Deployment

Driven by the growth in digital services, cloud computing, AI, and manufacturing, data centers face rising energy demands that challenge traditional power sources and cooling efficiency. This study explores using nuclear power to meet these demands, focusing on accelerated reactor technology deployment and highlighting needs such as N+1/N+2 power supplies and integrated power-thermal management. A SWOT analysis addresses grid connectivity, reactors, and site selection, particularly DOE sites. Reactor technology demonstration and deployment could be accelerated by leveraging test facilities such as MARVEL, MAGNET, TED, FAS, DOME, LOTUS, ATR, Energy System Proving Grounds, and upcoming Energy Launch Pads, along with modeling and simulation tools such as RELAP5, MOOSE, VERA, RAVEN, and FORCE. The potential power and thermal management options, including various cooling technologies, waste-heat utilization, and an industrial-scale demonstration plan, aim to accelerate the integration of nuclear power and data centers in the USA, while emphasizing community and stakeholder engagement and synergistic efforts.

21 - SPECIFIC NUCLEAR REACTORS AND ASSOCIATED PLAN↗
DOE OSTI2024

Advancing Sustainability in Data Centers: Evaluation of Hybrid Air/Liquid Cooling Schemes for IT Payload Using Sea Water

Abstract-The growth in cloud computing, Big Data, AI and high-performance computing (HPC) necessitate the deployment of additional data centers (DC's) with high energy demands. The unprecedented increase in the Thermal Design Power (TDP) of the computing chips will require innovative cooling techniques. Furthermore, DC's are increasingly limited in their ability to add powerful GPU servers by power capacity constraints. As cooling energy use accounts for up to 40% of DC energy consumption, creative cooling solutions are urgently needed to allow deployment of additional servers, enhance sustainability and increase energy efficiency of DC's. The information in this study is provided from Start Campus' Sines facility supported by Alfa Laval for the heat exchanger and CO 2 emission calculations. The study evaluates the performance and sustainability impact of various data center cooling strategies including an air-only deployment and a subsequent hybrid air/water cooling solution all utilizing sea water as the cooling source. Here we evaluate scenarios from 3 MW to 15+1 MW of IT load in 3 MW increments which correspond to the size of heat exchangers used in the Start Campus' modular system design. This study also evaluates the CO 2 emissions compared to a conventional chiller system for all the presented scenarios. Results indicate that the effective use of the sea water cooled system combined with liquid cooled systems improve the efficiency of the DC, plays a role in decreasing the CO 2 emissions and supports in achieving sustainability goals.

97 MATHEMATICS AND COMPUTING↗
DOE OSTI2024

Exploring the benefits of using co-packaged optics in data center and AI supercomputer networks: a simulation-based analysis [Invited]

We investigate the advantages of using co-packaged optics in next-generation data center and AI supercomputer networks. The increased escape bandwidth offered by co-packaged optics provides multiple possibilities for building 50T switches and beyond, expanding the opportunities in both the data center and supercomputing domains. Furthermore, this provides network architects with the opportunity to expand their design space and develop simplified networks with enhanced network locality properties. Co-packaging at the switch and server points enables networks with double capacity while reducing the switch count by 64% compared to state-of-the-art systems. We evaluate these concepts through discrete-event simulations using all-to-all and all-reduce traffic patterns that simulate collective communications commonly found in network-bound applications. Initially, we investigate the all-to-all overhead involved in distributing the virtual machines of the applications across multiple leaf switches and compare it to the scenario in which all VMs are placed under a single switch. Subsequently, we evaluate the performance of an AI supercomputing cluster by simulating both patterns for different message sizes, while also varying the number of participating nodes. The results suggest that networks with improved locality properties become increasingly important as the network stack operates at higher speeds; for a stack latency of 1.25 µs, placing the applications under multiple switches can result in up to 68% higher completion times than placing them under a single switch. For AI supercomputers, significant improvements are observed in the mean server throughput, reaching more than 90% for configurations involving 256 nodes and message sizes of at least 128 KiB.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2023

Performance analysis of single-phase immersion cooling system of data center using FC-40 dielectric fluid

Immersion cooling technologies have become an emerging cooling method for data center cooling. The studies available in open literature dealt with immersion cooling performance of data servers using mineral oil, EC-100, and Opticool 872552, but the studies focusing on the performance of FC-40 dielectric fluid is not available. Therefore, this study aimed to develop a single-phase liquid immersion cooling system using FC-40 dielectric fluid for a 1U (44.45 mm height) data server. The present study experimentally investigated the influence of different design and operating parameters, including the inlet/outlet port configuration (T and Z configurations), the bypass effect, the flowrate (1–3 LPM), the heating load (200–600 W), the inlet fluid temperature (15–35 °C), the presence of suction fan with various arrangements, and different heat sink bases (solid base, vapor chamber and heat pipe base). The results showed that the T-configuration could provide a 12.6% and 0.5–2.8 °C reduction in thermal resistance and case temperature compared to the Z-configuration, respectively. Additionally, the heat sink with heat pipe and vapor chamber base offered a minimum case temperature of 56.7 °C and 55.2 °C against the 60 °C experienced in the heat sink with flat plate base, respectively.

42 ENGINEERING↗
DOE OSTI2025

Next Generation Heat Transfer Fluids for Two-Phase Immersion Cooling of Data Centers

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of next generation dielectric fluids in a Two-Phase Immersion Cooling (2PIC) system, which was designed for use in data centers. Hence, this report contains the performance evaluations of a new developmental dielectric fluid, Opteon™ 2P50, in a commercially available small-scale 2PIC system under typical and off-design range of operating conditions. Accordingly, ambient temperature and thermal loads were varied to simulate different ambient conditions. Additionally, this research report describes the development of a semi-empirical lumped model to predict the energy efficiency of the 2PIC system using Opteon™ 2P50 across a wide range of conditions. The model aims to offer a comprehensive understanding of the system’s efficiency and potential improvements. The outcomes of this study are expected to contribute to the adoption of sustainable 2PIC cooling technologies in data centers.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Finalizing Construction of a New Data Center at BNL

Computational science, data management and analysis have been key factors in the success of Brookhaven National Laboratory's scientific programs at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC), the National Synchrotron Light Source II (NSLS-II), the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), and in biological, atmospheric, and energy systems science, Lattice Quantum Chromodynamics (LQCD) and Materials Science, as well as our participation in international research collaborations, such as the ATLAS experiment at Europe's Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN (Switzerland) and the Belle II experiment at KEK (Japan). The construction of a new data center is an acknowledgement of the increasing demand for computing and storage services at BNL in the near term and enable the Lab to address the needs of the future experiments at the High-Luminosity LHC at CERN and the Electron-Ion Collider (EIC) at BNL in the long term.

99 GENERAL AND MISCELLANEOUS↗
DOE OSTI2021

INTREPID program: technology and architecture for next-generation, energy-efficient, hyper-scale data centers [Invited]

The INTREPID program is developing power-efficient coherent optics for package-level integration with future switch integrated circuits as a path to realizing higher-radix switches for flatter networks. The link architecture is underpinned by coherent quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) polarization-multiplex transceivers at 200 Gb/s per λ <#comment/> , further enhanced with wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) to enable energy-efficient 800 or 1600 Gb/s inter-switch fiber connections. The technology is compatible with conventional three-level data center designs as well as a two-level data center design introduced here, which includes an added layer of passive, arrayed waveguide grating routers (AWGRs) or WDM circuit switches to further improve the cost, energy efficiency, and latency of the network.

Saleh, Adel A. M. (ORCID:0000000182451136)↗
DOE OSTI2024

Options for Meeting Data Center Demand in Virginia: Focus on GETs and Reconductoring [Slides]

Data center demand growth in Virginia will need to met with many options - GETs and/or reconductoring have the potential to be part of the solution suite in the short-term and medium-term. Almost all GETs and reconductoring technologies have more favorable economics than transmission wires investments considering relatively low levels of existing wide-scale deployment. Deployment of GETs and/or reconductoring is not a one size fits all - requires detailed analysis. The complementary nature of GETs and/or reconductoring impacts have the potential to be synergistic (more congestion relief, more transfer capability, more cost savings - when implemented together).

24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION↗
DOE OSTI2023

Model-based data center cooling controls comparative co-design

This article presents a comparative simulation-based control logic design process. It uses the Control Description Language (CDL) and the ASHRAE Guideline 36 high-performing building control sequences with the Modelica Buildings Library (MBL) to demonstrate a comparative analysis of two control designs for a data center chilled water plant. Details include a description of the closed-loop plant and control design methodology, including sizing and parameterization, base and alternative (Guideline 36) control logic with software implementation structure, and outline of the simulation experimentation process. The selected control designs are paired with comparable chilled water plant configurations. The models include a chiller, a water-side economizer, and an evaporative cooling tower. The plant provides cooling at 27ºC zone supply air temperature to a data center in Sacramento, CA. The comparative simulation results examined the impacts of a selected control logic detail, and present an example model-based design application. Overall, the simulation results showed a 25% annual and a 18% summer energy use reduction for alternative controls. This shows that simulation-based control logic design performance evaluation can improve energy efficiency and resilience aspects of system controls at large.

32 ENERGY CONSERVATION, CONSUMPTION, AND UTILIZATI↗
DOE OSTI2021

Sandia's Liquid-Cooled Data Center Boosts Efficiency and Resiliency

The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) encourages federal agencies and organizations to improve data center energy efficiency, which can offer tremendous opportunities for energy and cost savings. In this success story, a novel liquid cooling system provides reliable, resilient, and energy-efficient cooling for high-performance computing (HPC) systems at Sandia National Laboratories.

data center↗
DOE OSTI2021

Sandia’s Liquid-Cooled Data Center Boosts Efficiency and Resiliency

The Federal Energy Management Program (FEMP) encourages federal agencies and organizations to improve data center energy efficiency, which can offer tremendous opportunities for energy and cost savings. In this success story, a novel liquid cooling system provides reliable, resilient, and energy-efficient cooling for high performance computing (HPC) systems at Sandia National Laboratories.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗