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Understanding the TCO, material compatibility, safety, environmental impact, IT maintenance, and handling characteristics of dielectric fluids are key to choosing the right liquid cooling technology for your applications. Oils and fluorocarbon fluids are two types of dielectric fluids used in immersive liquid cooling technologies. In this paper, Schenider Electric discuss the characteristics and tradeoffs of these two types of dielectric fluids to help data center designers and operators make informed decisions.
Introduction to the white paper
There are increasing numbers of liquid cooling technologies available for IT equipment (ITE) from multiple vendors. Each of these is designed to optimize around a combination of attributes including, but not limited to, capital cost, energy cost, serviceability, rack density/compaction, water usage, harsh environment, fan noise/air movement, room layout, etc. How critical each of these attributes is, ultimately depends upon your specific business requirements. The benefits and drawbacks of each of the main liquid cooling technologies are reviewed in White Paper 265, Liquid Cooling Technologies for Data Centers and Edge Applications.
One of the key selection criteria when choosing between different liquid cooling technologies is the liquid coolant (i.e., dielectric fluid) itself. Dielectric fluids are nonconductive and remove heat from IT components by direct contact with the electronics. Dielectric fluids used for ITE cooling can be broken into two broad categories:
- Oils
- Fluorocarbons
We use the generic “oils” to category a variety of fluids that have similar characteristics, which includes hydrocarbons, esters, etc. The selection criteria depend on a combination of attributes including, but not limited to, total cost of ownership (TCO), material compatibility, safety, environmental impact, IT maintenance and handling, and heat transfer capability.
In this paper we discuss the main types of dielectric fluids currently used by solution providers, together with their benefits and drawbacks, based on their main characteristics.
This white paper is available to download here.