Piping in Data Centers

The Big Deal About Piping in Data Centers is Simple

• It moves the heat.
• It underpins uptime, capacity, and efficiency.
• When it fails, it fails hard. No polite warning. You get rising temperatures, causing alarms, frantic calls, and downtime. Not good.
• Servers and software get all the attention, but the mechanical backbone –
  especially the piping – is what keeps all of it alive. Ignore it, and sooner or later, it will cost you.

How Your Piping is Used Within Data Centers

The old-school air-based cooling that worked well for simpler setups just isn’t cutting it anymore when we’re dealing with today’s intensive computing tasks. Liquid cooling is the clear winner here, because it’s great at handling a lot of heat and makes things run smoother. But it’s not just one thing—there are different ways to do it, and understanding all the details, especially the importance of keeping things clean, is important for engineers and people who are getting the parts needed to build the future.

Direct-to-Chip Cooling

Direct-to-chip liquid cooling is now a common feature in modern data centers. It works by sending coolant through special cold plates that are directly attached to heat-generating components like CPUs and GPUs. The liquid then takes in heat from these chips and moves through a closed loop to release it and be reused.

This approach focuses on cooling the heat where it’s made, which makes it much more efficient and allows for processing with a very high number of components. To make sure everything runs smoothly, it’s important to use hygienic tube connectors, valves, and 316L stainless steel lines. These components help prevent leaks, resist wear and tear, and create a clean
environment that protects sensitive electronics and keeps the system reliable.

Immersion Cooling

Immersion cooling involves fully enveloping servers or critical components in a non-conductive dielectric liquid. This direct-contact approach maximizes heat extraction, significantly reducing energy consumption compared to air-cooling methods.

Rear-Door Heat Exchangers

Rear-door heat exchangers (RDHx) provide a great way to update your system, combining air and liquid ideas. They’re set up at the back of server cabinets and use coils filled with liquid to grab heat from the air that’s leaving, then send it back into the room.

These are less disruptive than completely changing the liquid system, and they really boost how well your cooling works without needing too much work. Plus, they’re easy to clean and won’t rust, so they’ll keep working well for a long time.

Cold Plate and Secondary Loop Architectures

Many facilities mix cold plates with extra liquid circuits to easily adjust the temperature. This setup sends heat from the IT equipment into a central building water system using a coolant distribution unit (CDU). The second loop acts like a safety net, protecting the hardware from potential water issues in the facility.

In these setups, it’s important to have clean valves, pipes, and connectors to connect everything, control the flow, and keep things sterile.

Using high-quality parts is imperative.

In any liquid cooling system, the way the fluid moves through the network is what keeps everything running smoothly and reliably. Stainless steel parts that are easy to clean, like tri-clamp connectors, valves, gaskets, and pipes, are great because they don’t rust, make it easier to clean, and stop leaks. In places where you need everything to work perfectly, like in critical missions, these features are really important.

Appleton Stainless provides the essential parts that ensure seamless liquid cooling operations.