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To design an immersion-cooling system for an AI data center, start with the actual IT hardware and heat load, the facility’s heat-rejection capacity, and the rules that apply at the site. Then select a single-phase or two-phase arrangement and compatible fluid, qualify every wetted material, and design the heat-transfer path, controls, containment, and maintenance procedures around those choices. There is no reliable universal tank, pump, or heat-exchanger size: those depend on the selected equipment, fluid, operating limits, and site conditions.
For construction and facilities teams, immersion is not just a tank installation. It changes the interfaces between the server package, electrical and mechanical systems, building heat rejection, safety provisions, commissioning, and ongoing operations.
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What does immersion cooling change in an AI data center?
Immersion cooling places IT electronics in direct contact with a dielectric fluid. Instead of relying on air to carry heat away from components, the design transfers heat into the fluid and then carries it through a heat exchanger or cooling loop to the facility’s heat-rejection system. The facility still needs a complete path to reject that heat; immersion does not eliminate the building-side cooling plant or its interfaces.
The U.S. Department of Energy describes immersion as one liquid-cooling approach alongside cold plates and rear-door heat exchangers. Its 2024 data-center design guide also explains the role of the coolant distribution unit (CDU), which interfaces with the facility loop and delivers liquid at conditions suitable for the equipment. ASHRAE’s data-center guidance emphasizes that the cooling solution’s temperature rise must match the IT equipment being deployed.
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For an AI facility, the starting point is therefore the equipment package and its operating envelope—not a generic rack-density figure or a tank size borrowed from another project. The DOE guide recounts that high-performance computing facilities adopted direct liquid cooling early and cites rack densities above 125 kW in that historical context, attributing the discussion to ASHRAE. That figure is not an immersion-specific benchmark, a required threshold, or a design target for a particular AI installation.
What information should the design team establish first?
Create a project design basis before selecting equipment. It should connect the IT heat source to the building heat sink, identify operating limits and service expectations, and record assumptions that would otherwise become expensive changes during construction or commissioning.
- IT bill of materials: Identify the exact servers, accelerators, boards, power supplies, connectors, cables, storage, and networking hardware proposed for immersion. Record manufacturer operating limits, support conditions, and service requirements. Do not assume that every component in a server is suitable for fluid contact.
- Workload and electrical profile: Obtain the specified or measured electrical load and workload/utilization profile for the intended deployment. Establish the heat load used for design from the actual system data and agreed design assumptions. The DOE guide notes that rising CPU, GPU, and TPU socket power makes liquid cooling relevant, but it does not provide a project-specific AI load.
- Operating envelope: Document allowable equipment temperatures, fluid operating conditions, flow and pressure requirements, and expected operating modes. The limits must come from the selected equipment and system documentation.
- Facility conditions: Confirm the available heat-rejection loop’s temperature, flow, pressure, chemistry, capacity, ambient design conditions, and connection constraints. Identify required redundancy and the site’s planned maintenance and service model.
- Jurisdiction and building constraints: Establish applicable certification and safety requirements, permitting and facility standards, space and access constraints, and the site’s emergency-response requirements. Exact obligations vary with location, system configuration, and fluid.
Keep the design basis under change control. A different server configuration, fluid, facility-water condition, or redundancy requirement can affect the heat exchanger, circulation equipment, controls, containment, and operating procedures. If one of those inputs changes, the design team should check the dependent interfaces rather than treating the change as an isolated equipment substitution.
How do single-phase and two-phase systems differ?
The defining difference is what the fluid does while absorbing heat. In single-phase immersion it remains liquid under the operating conditions; in two-phase immersion it boils and its vapor is condensed back to liquid. This choice affects fluid requirements, system architecture, fluid management, and the details of the heat-rejection path.
| Design question | Single-phase immersion | Two-phase immersion |
|---|---|---|
| How is heat transferred? | Pumped dielectric liquid circulates past immersed electronics and transfers heat through a heat exchanger or cooling loop. | The fluid boils under the specified operating conditions; vapor carries heat to a condenser and returns to liquid. |
| What must the design resolve? | Fluid operating properties, circulation, heat-exchanger interface, temperature and pressure conditions, and compatibility with all contacted materials. | Fluid and operating conditions for boiling and condensation, the condenser and return path, containment, and controls for potential volatile-fluid losses. |
| What should not be assumed? | That any fluid labeled dielectric, or any immersed server, is suitable without qualification. | That a two-phase arrangement is automatically more suitable or more efficient for a particular AI workload. |
The DOE guide distinguishes pumped single-phase immersion from two-phase systems in which fluid boils and vapor is condensed. The Open Compute Project (OCP) Immersion Requirements, revision 2.0 also addresses system safety and liquid management. Choose the arrangement against the actual hardware, fluid documentation, service approach, and site conditions; the available guidance does not establish one phase as universally preferable for AI facilities.
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Should the design use a tank or an enclosed chassis?
These are physical integration choices, not universal performance rankings. OCP design guidance describes tank-style integration and enclosed-chassis approaches; the appropriate configuration depends on the selected IT equipment and how operators will install, connect, remove, drain, and service it.
During design coordination, map the full equipment lifecycle. Ask how technicians will access components, handle fluid during service, disconnect electrical and network connections, move equipment safely, and restore the system to its intended operating condition. Check that the chosen arrangement works with the proposed server dimensions and supported hardware, and that the service workflow fits the room layout and maintenance plan. The OCP Design Guidelines for Immersion-Cooled IT Equipment provide guidance on arrangements and IT-equipment considerations; they do not declare one arrangement best for every workload.
How should the fluid and immersed hardware be qualified?
Treat compatibility as a documented qualification task for the selected fluid and the actual bill of materials. “Dielectric” describes an electrical property; it does not establish that every cable, label, adhesive, plastic, metal, board, or accessory will remain suitable after exposure.
OCP’s Material Compatibility in Immersion Cooling describes possible interactions with cable sheathing, identification markings, adhesives, plastics, and metals. OCP’s design guidance likewise points to evaluation of IT materials. Build a compatibility register that lists each component exposed to fluid, the relevant supplier documentation or qualification evidence, the fluid involved, and any restrictions or conditions that apply. Resolve gaps with the relevant equipment and fluid suppliers before the design is treated as ready for installation.
Fluid selection should account for operating properties, thermal duty, temperature limits, safety documentation, fluid-management practices, and the heat-rejection design. Do not substitute generic oil or household products for a fluid explicitly documented for the intended immersion system. Obtain current technical and safety data for the chosen fluid. OCP’s requirements call for suppliers to provide fluid specifications and identify quality-monitoring tests and intervals; incorporate those details into operations planning.
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A useful qualification review asks:
- Does the fluid supplier document the fluid for the intended immersion application and operating conditions?
- Has the exact equipment configuration been evaluated for contact with that fluid, including labels, cable insulation, adhesives, plastics, and metals?
- Are the fluid’s safety information, quality checks, service intervals, handling, and disposal procedures available to the people who will operate the system?
- Are any compatibility or operating restrictions reflected in procurement documents, installation instructions, and maintenance procedures?
How does the immersion system connect to the building’s cooling plant?
The heat path must be designed as one connected system: electronics transfer heat to the dielectric fluid; circulation carries it to a heat exchanger or other specified heat-transfer interface; and the building-side loop carries that heat to the facility’s heat-rejection equipment. The CDU, where used, is an interface between the equipment-side cooling arrangement and the facility loop, not a substitute for confirming building capacity.
Coordinate the system supplier’s requirements with the mechanical design. Confirm the facility loop’s available temperature, flow, pressure, and chemistry; the expected heat-exchanger performance at the selected conditions; and the allowable operating range on both sides of the interface. Account for ambient design conditions, redundancy requirements, and the consequences of a facility-loop interruption. ASHRAE’s guidance to match the cooling-system temperature rise to the equipment is important here: the server and immersion-system operating limits need to align with the water or other facility-side conditions actually available.
Do not assign tank, pump, CDU, pipe, or heat-exchanger capacities from a generic AI rack figure. The required sizing inputs include the actual server heat load; fluid properties and setpoints; required flow and pressure; heat-exchanger performance; facility-water conditions; ambient design conditions; redundancy goals; and allowable operating ranges. Until those inputs are established for a real project, a design framework is appropriate but calculated equipment sizing is not.
What safety, containment, and building provisions belong in the design?
Safety and liquid management are part of the engineered system, not operating notes to add after equipment selection. OCP revision 2.0 addresses applicable geographic certification rules, grounding and electrostatic-charge management, spill response, containment, ventilation, pressure relief for enclosed systems, fluid records, training, and emergency instructions. Apply those requirements alongside the applicable local rules and the selected fluid’s safety documentation.
OCP states: “Containment measures shall manage at least 100% of the volume of any single system without breach of containment.” Use that as a system-containment design requirement from the cited OCP document, and coordinate the actual containment arrangement with the project’s applicable codes, site requirements, and system design. Do not interpret the quoted requirement as a complete substitute for jurisdiction-specific review.
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The design and operating package should address, as applicable to the system and fluid:
- Containment and spill response: Provide containment and spill-management measures, emergency instructions for an uncontrolled fluid release, and a plan to keep fluid out of sewage systems. Identify the response equipment and trained personnel needed for the selected fluid and system.
- Electrical safety and grounding: Include grounding and electrostatic-charge management measures appropriate to the design. Confirm system certification obligations for the deployment geography.
- Ventilation and fluid-loss controls: Address ventilation for open-bath installations as specified by the fluid safety data. For enclosed systems, address pressure relief and controls for potential volatile-fluid losses as required by the system and applicable guidance.
- Fire and emergency planning: Provide written emergency procedures for fire and uncontrolled release. Coordinate them with the site’s emergency instructions and ensure relevant staff can access them.
- Handling and disposal: Define fluid handling, storage, spill cleanup, and appropriate disposal procedures. Make fluid and health-and-safety documentation readily available to operations and response personnel.
- Maintenance and training: Set out who may service the system, what training is required, how fluid quality is checked, and how maintenance is recorded.
The exact measures depend on the fluid, system arrangement, and jurisdiction. The OCP requirements are a useful technical reference, but they do not remove the need to determine local certification and building obligations for the project.
How should the system be commissioned and maintained?
Commission against the documented design basis and the system supplier’s approved procedures. Before production IT is deployed, close the loop between the equipment, fluid, facility connection, controls, safety provisions, and operating team.
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- Verify the facility interface. Confirm that the connected loop conditions and interfaces match the design requirements for temperature, pressure, flow, and chemistry, using the procedures and acceptance limits established for the actual system.
- Confirm controls and alarms. Check system-management features, monitoring points, and alarms against the operating envelope and the supplier’s documentation. Ensure staff know what actions each alarm requires.
- Document fluid management. Record the fluid specifications, quality tests, monitoring intervals, service procedures, and disposal plan. OCP calls for fluid quality testing and intervals to be identified.
- Exercise operational readiness. Make emergency procedures, spill measures, fluid and health-and-safety documentation, and trained personnel available before routine operation.
- Maintain records and review changes. Keep commissioning and maintenance records, and reassess compatibility and operating assumptions when hardware, fluid, workload, or facility conditions change.
Acceptance criteria should come from the selected equipment and system documentation, the agreed project design basis, and applicable requirements—not from a general-purpose performance promise. The cited source set does not provide a verified AI case study with a complete workload, energy baseline, and independently measured immersion results, so it cannot support a guaranteed savings or performance claim for an unspecified project.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Which design decisions should be resolved before procurement?
Use a decision register to prevent unresolved interfaces from being hidden inside equipment packages. The questions below are useful at concept design and should be assigned to the appropriate IT, mechanical, electrical, safety, operations, and construction stakeholders.
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| Decision area | Questions to close |
|---|---|
| Cooling phase | Will the fluid remain liquid, or will the system use boiling and condensation? What fluid, containment, fluid-loss controls, and heat-rejection requirements follow? |
| Physical arrangement | Will the IT be integrated in a tank-style system or an enclosed-chassis approach? How will installation, access, service, draining, and connections work? |
| Fluid and materials | Are fluid properties, current safety documents, compatibility evidence, quality monitoring, and disposal procedures documented for the exact equipment and fluid? |
| Facility interface | What temperature, flow, pressure, chemistry, and capacity can the actual facility loop provide? How will the CDU or heat exchanger match the equipment limits? |
| Operations and risk | Are certification, grounding, spill containment, ventilation, emergency response, training, and maintenance addressed for the jurisdiction and system? |
| Design responsibility | Who owns each interface between the IT supplier, immersion-system supplier, facility mechanical design, electrical design, construction, and operations? What submittal or evidence closes each item? |
Procurement should follow—not replace—these decisions. Require the proposed equipment documentation to state supported hardware, fluid, operating envelope, facility-side requirements, monitoring and alarm provisions, and maintenance expectations. If vendors define different assumptions at an interface, resolve them in the coordinated design before construction rather than leaving operators to reconcile them after installation.
What are the limits of a generic design guide?
A general guide can explain the architecture and the questions to ask; it cannot produce a safe, buildable system schedule without project inputs. The source material here does not establish a universal immersion capacity for AI, a standard tank or pump size, or a performance advantage that applies to every deployment.
A project-specific design needs, at minimum, the deployment jurisdiction; selected AI servers and accelerator configuration; specified or measured IT heat load; chosen single- or two-phase architecture; fluid and safety documentation; facility-loop temperature, flow, pressure, and capacity; ambient conditions; redundancy goals; service model; and supplier qualification data. If these are unknown, state them as open design inputs. Do not turn contextual rack-density history or a general technology description into a calculated project requirement.
For construction teams, the practical conclusion is to coordinate immersion as a multi-system building project. The tank or chassis is only one element. A credible design also accounts for qualified hardware and fluid, the heat-rejection path, safety and containment, maintainable access, controls, commissioning evidence, and trained operations staff.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can an existing air-cooled data center be converted to immersion cooling?
Possibly, but the conversion should be treated as a redesign of the equipment and building interfaces, not a tank swap. The existing IT hardware, cooling loop, room layout, electrical and safety provisions, service procedures, and local requirements all need review against the proposed system.
Does immersion cooling remove the need for facility cooling equipment?
No. Immersion transfers heat from electronics into a liquid circuit, but the heat must still be rejected through an appropriate facility-side system. The required equipment and its capacity depend on the project’s heat load, operating conditions, and site.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsCan standard server components be put directly into dielectric fluid?
Not safely by assumption. A component’s suitability depends on its materials and the specific fluid and operating conditions; supplier support or documented compatibility qualification is needed for the actual configuration.
Does immersion cooling guarantee lower energy use for an AI data center?
No general guarantee follows from the architecture alone. A defensible energy comparison would require a defined facility, workload, operating conditions, and comparable baseline; the cited guidance does not establish a universal savings figure.
