Overview
Thermal management is in the strong need for new material’s innovation. Stunningly, large data centres spend up to 40% of the total energy consumption to run the cooling system. Other examples are in the cooling of electronics and in the thermal control of electric vehicles batteries. Here, the development of innovative solutions is hindered by heat removal and transport unsolved problems; the design aspect of thermal control devices has achieved so much but is already under pressure. New flexible materials, that can be processed with Additive Manufacturing (AM) and with thermal performances not yet seen, are now strongly required.
There’s nothing cool about cooling data centre IT equipment; it can take up to 40 % of a typical office building’s total energy consumption. Heat removal and transport are the main challenges. The EU-funded ThermoDust project will solve the thermal control problem. Its solution lies in new flexible materials that can be processed with additive manufacturing which display unprecedented thermal performances. Taking micron-sized metallic powder (typically used in powder bed fusion or cold spray processes) as its starting point, the project will explore the addition of a performing 2D-material phase to the feedstock powder. The ultimate aim is to engineer a radically new material with outstanding heat-transport performance.
In ThermoDust we will achieve a real breakthrough in this direction; we are set to join nanotechnology, process engineering with scalable industrial AM for the specific purpose of solving the thermal control problem; this is not an incremental step as it has not been done before. Our starting ground is micron-sized metallic powder, typically used in Powder Bed Fusion or Cold Spray processes. We will explore the addition of a performing 2D-material phase to the feedstock powder by using innovative techniques, with the final aim of engineering a radically new material (ThermoDust) with outstanding heat-transport performance. We will also prove it will be possible to use AM to process ThermoDust in order to form demonstrator devices that will outperform the current means of heat dissipation. And we intend to prove this in 3 key sectors: electronics, EV vehicles and aerospace with the development of specific proofs of concept.
We are confident to be able to achieve the overall objectives through a sophisticated multi-disciplinary methodology that will rely upon scientific investigations, and the exploitation of discoveries to establish Europe as a leader in heat management, paving the way for innumerable new innovative products and markets in ICT, aerospace, electric vehicles and related areas.