Pool boiling heat transfer evaluation of next-generation dielectric fluid: Opteon™ 2P50

Cheng Min Yang; M. Muneeshwaran; Yifeng Hu; Gustavo Pottker; Samuel F. Yana Motta

doi:10.1016/j.ijft.2025.101379

Pool boiling heat transfer evaluation of next-generation dielectric fluid: Opteon™ 2P50

Cheng Min Yang, M. Muneeshwaran, Yifeng Hu, Gustavo Pottker, Samuel F. Yana Motta

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The growing use of artificial intelligence has led to heavy thermal loads and high heat dissipation rates in data centers. Conventional air-cooled technologies are not able to fulfill these requirements. To overcome these challenges, two-phase immersion cooling (2PIC) has emerged as one of the leading technologies for high power-density chips. 2PIC increases the heat dissipation rate and efficiency of the system while reducing the footprint of the cooling equipment. A fluid with adequate dielectric properties, a suitable normal boiling temperature to maintain chip temperatures, and good material compatibility, is desired for 2PIC system. In this study, the pool boiling heat transfer of a new developmental dielectric fluid, Opteon™ 2P50, was experimentally investigated. The heat transfer coefficients at various heat fluxes (20–150 kW/m²) and the critical heat flux were measured using a smooth aluminum surface. Compared with HFE-7100, Opteon™ 2P50 shows higher heat transfer coefficient (up to 59% higher) and a slightly lower value of critical heat flux (around 5.9% lower). The modified Cooper correlation with the optimized leading constant resulted in reliable prediction accuracy with a 5.3% mean absolute error percentage. Overall, these results indicate that the new dielectric fluid provides similar thermal performance to some legacy fluids.

Original language	English
Article number	101379
Journal	International Journal of Thermofluids
Volume	29
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijft.2025.101379
State	Published - Sep 2025

Funding

This study was funded by the US Department of Energy Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, Building Technologies Office. The authors would like to acknowledge support from the technology manager, Dr. Payam Delgoshaei. The authors would like to acknowledge The Chemours Company for providing research samples of dielectric fluid. Technical support and assistance provided by Tony Gehl, Jeffrey Taylor, Aaron Thornton, Brian Goins, Michael Day, Charles Pierce, Tim Dyer, Brent Massey, and Robert Nettles is greatly appreciated. Notice: This manuscript has been authored in part by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan ( http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan ).

Keywords

2P50
Data center
Dielectric fluid
Pool boiling
Two-phase Immersion cooling

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10.1016/j.ijft.2025.101379

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title = "Pool boiling heat transfer evaluation of next-generation dielectric fluid: Opteon{\texttrademark} 2P50",

abstract = "The growing use of artificial intelligence has led to heavy thermal loads and high heat dissipation rates in data centers. Conventional air-cooled technologies are not able to fulfill these requirements. To overcome these challenges, two-phase immersion cooling (2PIC) has emerged as one of the leading technologies for high power-density chips. 2PIC increases the heat dissipation rate and efficiency of the system while reducing the footprint of the cooling equipment. A fluid with adequate dielectric properties, a suitable normal boiling temperature to maintain chip temperatures, and good material compatibility, is desired for 2PIC system. In this study, the pool boiling heat transfer of a new developmental dielectric fluid, Opteon{\texttrademark} 2P50, was experimentally investigated. The heat transfer coefficients at various heat fluxes (20–150 kW/m2) and the critical heat flux were measured using a smooth aluminum surface. Compared with HFE-7100, Opteon{\texttrademark} 2P50 shows higher heat transfer coefficient (up to 59\% higher) and a slightly lower value of critical heat flux (around 5.9\% lower). The modified Cooper correlation with the optimized leading constant resulted in reliable prediction accuracy with a 5.3\% mean absolute error percentage. Overall, these results indicate that the new dielectric fluid provides similar thermal performance to some legacy fluids.",

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author = "Yang, \{Cheng Min\} and M. Muneeshwaran and Yifeng Hu and Gustavo Pottker and \{Yana Motta\}, \{Samuel F.\}",

note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2025",

year = "2025",

month = sep,

doi = "10.1016/j.ijft.2025.101379",

language = "English",

volume = "29",

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AU - Yang, Cheng Min

AU - Muneeshwaran, M.

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AU - Yana Motta, Samuel F.

PY - 2025/9

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N2 - The growing use of artificial intelligence has led to heavy thermal loads and high heat dissipation rates in data centers. Conventional air-cooled technologies are not able to fulfill these requirements. To overcome these challenges, two-phase immersion cooling (2PIC) has emerged as one of the leading technologies for high power-density chips. 2PIC increases the heat dissipation rate and efficiency of the system while reducing the footprint of the cooling equipment. A fluid with adequate dielectric properties, a suitable normal boiling temperature to maintain chip temperatures, and good material compatibility, is desired for 2PIC system. In this study, the pool boiling heat transfer of a new developmental dielectric fluid, Opteon™ 2P50, was experimentally investigated. The heat transfer coefficients at various heat fluxes (20–150 kW/m2) and the critical heat flux were measured using a smooth aluminum surface. Compared with HFE-7100, Opteon™ 2P50 shows higher heat transfer coefficient (up to 59% higher) and a slightly lower value of critical heat flux (around 5.9% lower). The modified Cooper correlation with the optimized leading constant resulted in reliable prediction accuracy with a 5.3% mean absolute error percentage. Overall, these results indicate that the new dielectric fluid provides similar thermal performance to some legacy fluids.

AB - The growing use of artificial intelligence has led to heavy thermal loads and high heat dissipation rates in data centers. Conventional air-cooled technologies are not able to fulfill these requirements. To overcome these challenges, two-phase immersion cooling (2PIC) has emerged as one of the leading technologies for high power-density chips. 2PIC increases the heat dissipation rate and efficiency of the system while reducing the footprint of the cooling equipment. A fluid with adequate dielectric properties, a suitable normal boiling temperature to maintain chip temperatures, and good material compatibility, is desired for 2PIC system. In this study, the pool boiling heat transfer of a new developmental dielectric fluid, Opteon™ 2P50, was experimentally investigated. The heat transfer coefficients at various heat fluxes (20–150 kW/m2) and the critical heat flux were measured using a smooth aluminum surface. Compared with HFE-7100, Opteon™ 2P50 shows higher heat transfer coefficient (up to 59% higher) and a slightly lower value of critical heat flux (around 5.9% lower). The modified Cooper correlation with the optimized leading constant resulted in reliable prediction accuracy with a 5.3% mean absolute error percentage. Overall, these results indicate that the new dielectric fluid provides similar thermal performance to some legacy fluids.

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KW - Two-phase Immersion cooling

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DO - 10.1016/j.ijft.2025.101379

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ER -

Pool boiling heat transfer evaluation of next-generation dielectric fluid: Opteon™ 2P50

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