Knürr equips Vienna Scientific Cluster with highly efficient cooling system

Knürr AG based in Arnstorf (Bavaria) recently made a crucial contribution to the operation of a new super computer. Austria’s fastest high-performance computer, the Vienna Scientific Cluster, was started up as part of a cooperation project by the Technical University of Vienna with the University of Vienna and the University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences. This EUR 1.6 million investment increases Vienna’s importance as a research location, and provides both scientists and students with a highly efficient computer infrastructure that offers new dimensions in the implementation of complex scientific research projects. With the implementation of its modular cooling unit, the CoolLoop, Knürr made a valuable contribution of the new super computer’s highly efficient and energy-saving cooling system.

The VSC supercomputer with more than 3,500 high parallel computing processor cores delivered by Sun Microsystems, opens up completely new computing worlds with more than 35 teraflops (trillions of calculations per second), and at the same time has extremely high efficient cooling demands. These requirements were met by Knürr’s experts, who, with CoolLoop, integrated the world’s first solution for server cooling in data centers that can be operated as both an open and a closed system. Whether the cooling power is given off directly on to the adjacent rack or the data center’s thermal management is supplemented, with the modularly set up water-cooled rack unit, the cooling is adjusted to the actual requirements in the data center. The cooling power increases with the requirements and can be selected between 10 kW and 30 kW per Knürr CoolLoop®.

Knürr Marketing Director Werner Gropp explains: “This system represents the highest standards in data room cooling capacities. The center of focus here is on selecting the methods and processes that save the most energy and using the most modern components available,” and he adds: “The lowest possible pressure loss in the air path is constantly optimized with the CoolLoop system’s heat exchanger and the droplet catcher, which results in minimum energy consumption in the fans.” The Knürr CoolLoop® doesn’t just set pressure loss standards. The relatively high cold water prerun temperature for optimum server cooling also ensures improved use of the cold water system with a high coefficient of performance (COP). The design also enables a high level of free cooling, which facilitates significant savings potential with cold water generation. Short air paths and the arrangement of the fans after the heat exchanger also help reduce energy consumption, which not only has a positive effect on the fans’ service life – it also increases the cooling airflow volume as a result of the higher air density. This in turn conserves resources and further reduces energy consumption. The Knürr CoolLoop also scores points in controlling and monitoring. A regulating valve for adjusting the cooling water volume to the actual cooling requirement enables optimum server input air temperatures, and the fans’ speed is also adjusted to the servers’ actual air volumes.

The integration of Knürr’s solutions enables the supercomputer, which is ranked 156 in the international top 500 supercomputer table, to meet all future-oriented requirements for energy efficiency, availability and security. The VSC’s superb positioning in the Green IT ranking demonstrates just how environmentally friendly it is: the Vienna Scientific Cluster is number 94 here thanks to Knürr’s highly efficient cooling solutions.