Gasketed Plate Heat Exchangers (GPHEs) typically target "primary-side large-scale heat exchange" scenarios in AI servers. With corrugated metal plates, rubber gaskets, and a clamping frame, these units are bulkier and have lower pressure ratings than brazed plate heat exchangers. However, their ability to be disassembled on-site and easily cleaned or maintained makes them ideal for primary-side loops—where space constraints are minimal, but water quality may be complex and regular maintenance is required.
The core of a gasketed plate heat exchanger consists of corrugated metal plates, rubber gaskets, and a clamping frame; the heat exchanger plates are sealed against one another by phe gaskets and secured by clamping bolts. This design offers two key capabilities:
Simply loosening the clamping bolts and moving the movable pressure plate allows for the disassembly of all plates and gaskets one by one. This enables mechanical or chemical cleaning of individual plates, effectively removing any type of fouling and restoring initial heat transfer efficiency. Furthermore, damaged plates or aged gaskets can be replaced individually without replacing the entire core, significantly reducing maintenance costs and downtime.
Heat transfer surface area can be easily adjusted by adding or removing plates. When a data center's computing load increases and greater heat exchange capacity is required, capacity can be expanded simply by adding phe plates rather than replacing the entire unit; this offers great convenience for the phased construction and elastic expansion of primary-side systems.
The "primary-side" loop of an AI Data Center's liquid cooling system serves as the critical link connecting outdoor cooling sources (such as cooling towers or dry coolers) with the indoor CDU (Coolant Distribution Unit). It is characterized by two distinct features:
The primary side connects directly to equipment like cooling towers, and its circulating water typically operates within an open system; consequently, the water quality is far less pristine than the clean coolant found on the secondary side (inside the servers). Water often contains impurities such as minerals and microorganisms; prolonged operation easily leads to the formation of scale and biological fouling on heat exchange surfaces. Such fouling severely reduces heat transfer efficiency, driving up PUE and increasing energy consumption.
The primary-side system typically serves an entire data center or multiple modules, requiring high individual unit processing capacity; furthermore, cooling demands grow dynamically as the data center is built out in phases.
Given the tendency for scale formation in primary-side cooling water, the ability to disassemble and clean gasketed plate heat exchangers offers a critical advantage. Operations and maintenance personnel can periodically dismantle the unit to thoroughly clean the plates, removing scale and impurities; this ensures stable, long-term heat transfer efficiency and system energy performance. In contrast, while compact brazed plate heat exchangers offer high integration, they cannot undergo offline physical cleaning and demand higher water quality, making them better suited for the clean secondary-side loops integrated within CDUs. To address the large-scale and scalable nature of primary-side systems, the modular design of gasketed plate heat exchangers provides unparalleled flexibility. Heat transfer surface area can be adjusted simply by adding or removing plates, allowing for easy adaptation to phased data center expansion and avoiding the massive investment of replacing the entire unit as loads increase.
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