{"id":12657,"date":"2026-09-08T11:03:54","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:03:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.qats.com\/cms\/?p=12657"},"modified":"2026-09-08T11:08:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T15:08:11","slug":"hybrid-cooling-air-and-liquid-double-team-heat-in-data-centers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.qats.com\/cms\/2026\/09\/08\/hybrid-cooling-air-and-liquid-double-team-heat-in-data-centers\/","title":{"rendered":"Hybrid Cooling: Air and Liquid Double-Team Heat in Data Centers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Much of the focus on data centers is on their very high power and cooling demands and the impact those demands have on local electrical grids and water supplies. Water is needed for thermally managing the hot-running processors, especially GPUs, at the heart of AI data center computing. Many other essential components also require cooling, but at lower levels, allowing them to be cooled using forced air.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why hybrid cooling, using both liquid and air methods, is an effective way to keep hot data center components within their operating temperature ranges. Hybrid cooling enables a more balanced, incremental approach to managing different types of heat loads efficiently. Liquid cooling handles concentrated heat loads, while airflow manages the remaining thermal load.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Figure 1 \u2013 Hybrid Air and Liquid Cooling Systems on a Data Center Server [2] <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Forced air cools lower power components using heat sinks and air from fans and blowers. But traditional air cooling becomes inefficient as board and component densities climb, and power levels increase, justifying the need for high capacity air cooling that is not necessarily a larger fan of heat sink.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Liquid cooling is provided by continuously circulating liquid coolant across the hot modules, drawing their heat away. While air cooling is provided by rows of fans, liquid cooling is a complex system of tubing and connectors, coolant distribution units (CDUs), cold plates, and coolants. [3]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data Center Applications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at hybrid cooling inside a typical server in an AI data center, where it can be one of thousands of servers running in tightly and precisely arranged rows of cabinets. Both air and liquid cooling play essential roles in thermally managing the many powered components.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Air Cooling<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Server cases are explicitly designed to function as wind tunnels. Server airflow is generated by internal fans that create air pressure. Typically, these are high-static-pressure, counter-rotating fans that produce cooling airflow passing over and around motherboards and hot components. Fan pressure pushes heated air out of the server while drawing cool air in from outside. [4]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the component level, air-cooling designs rely on conduction to move heat from a chip to a metal heat sink, followed by forced convection driven by high-static-pressure fans to carry the heat away.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Figure 2 \u2013 Fans Pull Air In and Across the Board. Warmed Air Exhausts Out the Back, e.g., into a Hot Aisle. [4]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some commonly air-cooled components include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n