Finite time thermodynamic analysis of water cooled multi-spilit heat pipe system

Energy saving in data centers is increasingly important along with the rapidly developing IT industry. A integrated heat pipe air conditioning (AC) system which used chilled water unit and heat pipe heat exchanger (HPHE) was proposed.With the meteorological parameter of Changde city (31°53′N and 117°15′E) as the reference. The thermodynamic simulation software SIMULINK was employed in build the simulation model of the combined system. And it is compared with the traditional air-conditional system. The system include heat pipe evaporator cooling deliver unit (CDU) and the cold source. A time integral model for heat transfer of heat pipe evaporator is proposed. A heat pipe evaporator of a 12KW in the company was taking as an example. The results show that the time period of working fluid passing through the heat exchanger is about 6 seconds. When the dry degree is greater than 0.72, the heat transfer efficiency is low. When arranging the IT server, we should concentrate on the location below 1.3 meters. The CDU was treated as a condenser. Then, the cooling source is vapor compressor. The finite time thermodynamic and the exergy method were employed to analysis the heat exchanger and the compress processes.The results show that the former one has saved 26% of the energy. Then the using time and energy saving potential in major cities of China were investigated and studied.