Cold Plate Cooling Loop Requirements Document - Rev 2

Author: Cam Turner, Director of Advanced Technology, CoolIT Systems; Philip Yu, Application Expert for Cooling, Veolia Collection: 2023 Global Summit - Cooling Environments

Summary

This presentation introduces Cold Plate Cooling Loop Requirements Document Revision 2 — published to the OCP contributions portal on the Friday before OCP Global Summit 2023. The document was produced by 18 contributors from 12 companies over approximately two years of biweekly meetings. It is the definitive single-source-of-truth requirements document for cold plate cooling loops, covering single-phase cold plates and two-phase pool boiling cold plates from the facility water system (FWS) through the cooling distribution unit (CDU) to the cold plate itself. The document explicitly excludes immersion cooling, door heat exchangers, passive/loop heat pipe systems, chassis immersion, and two-phase flow boiling (for which no member companies stepped up to contribute at the time).

Cam Turner defines what a requirements document is: broad parameters for any product in a domain to qualify against; common terminology and metrics; unambiguous safety criteria; and guidance for common interfaces. Critically, a requirements document cannot limit innovation, contain IP, or be prescriptive on design. The document incorporates a downloadable checklist spreadsheet that functions as a compliance matrix — vendors creating product specifications must complete the checklist referencing all required parameters.

Philip Yu presents the cooling liquid selection framework through a four-column comparative table covering treated water, propylene glycol water (PG25), single-phase dielectric fluid, and two-phase dielectric fluid across seven attributes. The document also addresses the ACS system architecture (FWS → CDU → TCS → ITE), hardware management via Redfish schemas (contributed by Mick Jones), safety standards (IEC 62368 and IEC 60335 as baseline), and the wetted materials list for both glycol-based and liquid-based cold plate coolants (published previously as a separate document).

The document flags PFAS contamination in dielectric fluids as an emerging regulatory concern. It also addresses a key question from the audience: the document covers PG25 and treated water as fluid types; it references the immersion workstream's work for dielectric fluids; and the zudacor two-phase solution is specifically discussed within the document's treatment of two-phase pool boiling cold plates.