CN2125 Project

Abhishek Aravind
A0114117W

Heat Transfer Problem

Project Description
Determine temperature-time profile in a heat sink used to dissipate heat from a
CPU stack and GPU stack in a data processing center during peak operation and
ascertain if temperature is high enough to cause boiling in the cooling system.

Tcpu= 1000C
CPU
Tgpu= 1500C

GPU

Heat Sink

Texit= 250C
Conduit

Background
Water cooling is often used to dissipate heat in data centers. Certain
configurations can become very hot during intense processing, such as is the
case when crunching large quantities of data. Copper heat sinks are often
combined with these liquid cooling systems in order to make the system more
efficient and stable. Boiling in the heat transfer mechanism can lead to pressure
buildup which can be very hazardous. To ascertain the risk of this happening
during normal operation, stress tests are run on the system in order to ascertain
safety. Due to the safety processes in place, the test is run for a maximum of 2
hours, the maximum possible time without human intervention. Only the points
of contact between the gpu and cpu transfer heat to the heat sink as well as the
exit of the conduit. The rest of the apparatus is insulated.

Aim
Ascertain if water inside the conduit will reach critical temp, 100 0C.

Governing Equations
T
Q
= 2 T +
t
C p

Initial Conditions
Uniform Initial temp: 200C
Boundary Conditions:
CPU Temperature: 1000C
GPU Temperature: 1500C
Conduit Exit Temperature:250C

Assumptions

Perfect insulation i.e. no convective heat transfer

Constant temperature of CPU and GPU units
Uniformity in z direction

Geometry
Heat Sink
Height: 1m
Length: 1m
Conduit
Height:0.2m
Length:1m

Parameters and Constants

Copper Heat Sink:

=8890kg/m3
Cp=385.4J/Kg.K
k = 383.5W/m.K
Water:

=998.2kg/m3
Cp=4182J/Kg.K
k = 383.5W/m.K

Matlab Solution
Initializing mesh and setting boundary conditions to simulate point of contact
between heat sink and CPU/GPU. Other boundaries are set with zero heat flux to
show insulation.
PDE specifitations are set according to aforementiond parameters.

Solutions are obtained for multiple points in time.

Figure 1: Temperature profile at t = 7200s (2hrs)

Figure 2:Temmperature profile at t = 3604s (~1hr)

Obtaining Critical points from Exported Data

Export data to workspace and see which points equal or exceed T crit=1000C.

By observing temperature of mesh points that make up entrance of conduit, we

can observe to see at what time temperature exceeds 100 0C.
Critical time is seen to be 3456 seconds i.e. 57.6 minutes.

Variation

Change the conduit material to copper as well

Figure 3: Temperature profile at t= 7200s with copper conduit

Overall temperature profile of heat sink is lower

Conduit heat profile is significantly higher, as is expected
Temperature profile close to exit is still within reasonable temperature
range

Conclusion:
Copper conduit can be a feasible replacement to water cooling conduit.