The infrastructure behind the data: how vessels keep data centres running
The infrastructure behind the data: how vessels keep data centres running
Every online search, cloud computation or artificial intelligence application rests on a physical infrastructure that can never stop. In data centres, thousands of servers turn electrical energy into computing capacity, but also into heat: heat that must be removed continuously, day and night.
This is why cooling is not an ancillary service, but an integral part of the plant. Chillers, pumps, exchangers, hydraulic circuits and vessels work together to maintain stable temperatures, absorb load variations and ensure continuity even under the most critical conditions.
Let us look at the role that buffer and storage vessels play in this balance, and at how cooling systems are changing along with the power density of the racks.
Data centres as infrastructure: why cooling is decisive
A data centre concentrates IT equipment, power systems, networks and safety devices designed to operate 24 hours a day. The servers account for the main share of consumption, but cooling can have a significant impact on the overall demand, with values that vary according to the efficiency and configuration of the plant.
The task of the thermal system is to keep the equipment within the intended conditions, preventing overheating, performance drops and shutdowns: the heat generated is collected and transferred outside through air, water or other heat-transfer fluids.
The real critical issue arises from the continuity of the load. An interruption of just a few minutes is enough for the temperature to rise rapidly in high-density areas.
Buffer and storage vessels in cooling systems
Within chilled-water circuits, the vessels do not all perform the same function. Their sizing depends on thermal power, flow rates, temperatures and operating logic, but the underlying principle is always the same: to give the system room to manoeuvre.
Buffer vessels increase the volume of water in the circuit and create a thermal buffer, which stabilises temperature and flow rate when the load changes.
Storage vessels perform a thermal storage function: they hold chilled water produced earlier, keeping it ready for load peaks or to temporarily ease the work of the chillers.
In some configurations, the vessel also promotes the decoupling of the primary and secondary circuits, simplifying the management of different flow rates.
Thermal continuity and emergency storage in critical applications
In data centres, redundancy does not concern only the electrical power supply. Pumps, chillers and distribution circuits are also designed with faults, maintenance and switchovers to emergency systems in mind.
In these scenarios, a chilled-water vessel becomes a reserve of immediately available thermal capacity, able to cover the time needed to start the generators or restore refrigeration production: a short interval, but a decisive one for not interrupting heat removal.
How effective this reserve is, however, depends on the entire system, not just on the vessel: usable volume, temperature difference, flow rate, discharge rate, piping and control logic all contribute to the same result.
The vessel, in other words, is only one piece of the site’s thermal resilience strategy.
How liquid cooling and high densities work
The increase in power concentrated in the racks, driven above all by high-performance computing and artificial intelligence applications, is bringing cooling ever closer to the heat source.
Air remains the most widespread solution, but at higher densities it gives way to, or is combined with, liquid systems:
•exchangers installed on the rear door of the rack;
•direct-to-chip systems, in which the fluid reaches cold plates in direct contact with the CPUs and GPUs;
•immersion cooling, with the components immersed in a dielectric fluid.
In all these cases the liquid transfers the heat to distribution units, exchangers and facility circuits, and with it the weight of the hydraulic network also grows: vessels, pumps, valves and control devices must manage flow rates, temperatures, pressure, fluid quality and the risk of condensation.
Pressure components for critical infrastructure: the approach of Gruppo Baglioni
Not all the vessels used in data centres are pressure vessels. But when the circuit requires one, design and construction must take into account the operating conditions, the fluid, the materials, the connections, corrosion protection and the standards applicable in the destination market.
At Baglioni we design and manufacture pressure vessels, standard or bespoke, for critical industrial applications. We make available the engineering, production and certification expertise developed in traditional sectors to support new infrastructure as well, where continuity and reliability depend on the quality of every single component.
We work in accordance with the applicable European directives and the main international standards, integrating technical, production and documentation requirements throughout the entire supply. In a data centre, this means helping to build the physical infrastructure that allows the data to remain always available.
Are you developing a cooling system or a data centre infrastructure that requires vessels and pressure components? Contact us.
