High-Density Cooling for the AI Era: Adapting Data Centers to 50–100 kW/Rack Workloads
The AI revolution is reshaping data center design — and nowhere is that more evident than in cooling. Modern AI workloads demand unprecedented compute power, pushing server racks into the 50–100 kW per rack range or higher. Traditional air-cooling techniques simply can’t keep up with the explosive thermal loads these systems generate, forcing engineers and operators to rethink how heat is managed at scale. ( Business Wire ) Conventional air cooling — involving raised floors, CRAC units, and hot/cold aisle containment — once handled modest loads of 5–15 kW/rack. But AI clusters packed with GPUs and custom accelerators produce far more heat. Air becomes inefficient as speeds reach limits and energy costs climb, making it increasingly unsustainable for racks beyond 50 kW. ( datacenters.com ) Liquid Cooling Takes the Lead To meet these demands, data centers are rapidly adopting advanced liquid-based cooling strategies that can handle intense heat densities with greater energy efficiency: ...