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2025
Nov
20
Research Paper: Experimental Evaluation of 3D Printed Topology Optimized Liquid and Hybrid-cooled Heat Sinks for Data Centers
Prof Md Raisul Islam and his research team including Prof Lee Poh Seng and Prof Yen Ching-Chiuan have published a new paper titled “Experimental Evaluation of 3D Printed Topology Optimized Liquid and Hybrid-Cooled Heat Sinks for Data Centers” in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer (Impact Factor: 5.8), addressing a critical challenge in next-generation data center thermal management – resilience under system failures.
While liquid-cooled heat sinks offer superior thermal performance compared to air-cooled solutions, they are highly vulnerable to disruptions such as leaks or pump failures, which pose significant risks to mission-critical data center operations. This study introduces a novel additively manufactured, topology-optimized unibody hybrid heat sink that integrates both liquid and air cooling within a single structure, ensuring continued cooling performance even during maintenance or single-point failures.
Fabricated using copper-based materials, the hybrid design incorporates topology-optimized fins that enable simultaneous liquid and air heat dissipation. Experimental results show that the topology-optimized design achieves 2–3 °C lower operating temperatures while reducing pumping power by 34–50% compared to conventional straight-channel heat sinks. The findings demonstrate that additive manufacturing can deliver high-performance, energy-efficient, and resilient cooling solutions, positioning this hybrid approach as a promising pathway for future-proof, failure-tolerant data center cooling systems.
Read the review paper here
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