Enhancing Heat Transfer in a Cold Plate, Inserts vs. Nanofluids: Application to IT Servers

This work is a comparative experimental study of two ways of heat transfer intensification inside the cold plate of an Indirect Liquid Cooled IT Server. The first way is classical, as surface extension or heat transfer coefficient enhancement by adding fins, turbulators, or surface roughness modification. The second is more recent, it is about using nanofluids. For comparison purpose, we have defined three criteria: thermal performance, hydraulic performance, and efficiency. According to those parameters, classical methods have shown better performances comparatively to nanofluids.