AI data centre cooling innovations reshape digital construction infrastructure, addressing escalating thermal management demands.
Researchers at University of Houston are tackling one of digital construction’s fastest-growing infrastructure issues: managing heat in artificial intelligence data centres. High-power AI facilities rely on dense GPU and accelerator deployments, creating extreme heat loads that threaten system reliability, uptime and hardware lifespan.
Efficient heat dissipation is therefore critical for data centre operators supporting digital construction workflows, including BIM modelling, digital twins, cloud collaboration platforms and automated construction analytics. Conventional cooling approaches such as microchannel flow and spray cooling increasingly struggle under extreme heat flux, where evaporating liquid layers become unstable and reduce heat transfer performance.
Thin film evaporation and AI-driven thermal management
Mechanical engineer Hadi Ghasemi, J. Willard Gibbs Distinguished Professor, has identified a scalable solution using thin film evaporation structures shaped like branching trees. His research demonstrates that these branched thin films release heat at least three times more effectively than current leading cooling strategies.
“Beyond achieving record performance, these new findings provide fundamental insight into the governing heat-transfer physics and establishes a rational pathway toward even higher thermal dissipation capacities,” said Ghasemi, whose findings appeared in International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer.
The research, developed alongside doctoral researchers Amirmohammad Jahanbakhsh and Saber Badkoobeh Hezaveh, used coupled topology optimisation and physics-aware AI modelling to identify optimal geometries. The resulting structures combine approximately equal solid and open space to maintain thin liquid films while preventing thermal resistance build-up.
“Thin film evaporation is a promising thermal management strategy due to its inherent ability to sustain high heat fluxes with minimal thermal resistance,” Ghasemi explained.
He further noted, “These structures could achieve high critical heat flux at much lower superheat compared to traditionally studied structures. The new structures can remove heat without having to get as hot as previous removal systems.”
Implications
As AI workloads expand across digital construction platforms, data centre energy efficiency and thermal performance are becoming strategic priorities. Physics-aware AI cooling design offers scalable solutions for next-generation computing infrastructure supporting smart cities, modular construction and real-time building analytics.
Innovations in AI data centre cooling promise improved efficiency, resilience and scalability, supporting sustainable digital construction growth while reducing energy demand across global infrastructure ecosystems.
Read next: Seeking recovery signals as construction activity slows – Build in Digital
Are you a building professional? Sign up for a FREE MEMBERSHIP to upload news stories, post job vacancies, and connect with colleagues on our secure social feed.
