Page 21 - Summer 2025

Industry News Industry News

NEW DIGITAL PASSIVE COOLING

TWIN CENTRE BREAKTHROUGH

OPENS IN BELFAST FOR DATA CENTRES

A new £37.5 million Digital Twin Centre has opened Participants will be assisted with funding from Engineers at the University of California San Diego startup has been established to commercialise the
in Belfast with the aim of driving the next wave Innovate UK as well as mentorship, workshops and have developed a new passive cooling technology technology.
of industrial transformation by accelerating the support to develop proofs-of-concept in areas such for data centres that utilises a specially designed
Professor Renkun Chen of the Department of
adoption of digital twin technologies. as IoT, data integration and simulation tools. fibre membrane capable of removing heat through
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the
evaporation without any requirement for additional
The Centre will help businesses throughout the UK Susan Bowen, CEO of Digital Catapult, says: University of California San Diego Jacobs School of
energy input.
to demonstrate and deploy digital twins, bringing Engineering, explains:
“The UK Digital Twin Centre brings together our
together capabilities specifically in intelligence, Unlike conventional methods of heat removal,
technical expertise, facilities and networks to unlock “Compared to traditional air or liquid cooling,
data services, immersive and user experiences, such as fans, heat sinks and liquid pumps, this
the power of deep technologies. By connecting evaporation can dissipate higher heat flux while
cyberphysical systems, integration and security. method uses the natural capillary action of a
industries with cutting-edge technology through using less energy.
porous membrane to draw cooling liquid across its
There are three co-investing industrial partners, our programmes, we are enabling businesses to
surface. This then evaporates drawing heat from the This success showcases the potential of
namely Artemis Technologies, Spirit AeroSystems and harness the full potential of digital twins - driving
underlying electronics. reimagining materials for entirely new applications.
Thales UK, with the Centre being delivered the Digital operational efficiencies, advancing sustainability
These fibre membranes were originally designed
Catapult. and sharpening the competitive edge of UK The membrane contains a network of small,
for filtration, and no-one had previously explored
businesses”. interconnected pores that optimise fluid flow and
The Centre’s first six-month accelerator programme their use in evaporation. We recognised that their
surface area for evaporation. It is positioned over
will support partnerships between technology, Reference: ‘UK’s £37m Digital Twin Centre opens to drive unique structural characteristics - interconnected
Digitalisation’, Drives and Controls, June 2025, p.6 microchannels that transport coolant underneath
SMEs and industry to fast track digital twin adoption pores and just the right pore size - could make
the membrane’s surface.
in the maritime, aerospace and defence sectors. them ideal for efficient evaporative cooling. What
Previous attempts to use porous membranes for surprised us was that, with the right mechanical
high-power electronics have tended to fail due to reinforcement, they not only withstood the high
incorrect pore sizing. If the pores are too small the heat flux - they performed extremely well under it”.
pores clog, whereas if they are too large boiling can
Reference: West, P., ‘Engineers unveil Passive Cooling Breakthrough
Visit our website! result. Now, porous fibre membranes have been for Data Centres’, Electronic Specifier, 14th. July
deployed with interconnected pores with the correct
sizing.
Testing under various thermal conditions showed
Why not head down to our website and
that the membrane can handle over 800 Watts
read more news in our blog section? per square centimetre of heat, which is among the
highest recorded for this type of passive cooling
system. It also remained stable over several hours of
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With these results still well below the theoretical
operating maximum, the team is now working on
enhancing the membrane’s efficiency with the
aim of developing prototype cold plates that can
institutionofelectronics.ac.uk
be attached directly onto CPUs and GPUs and a
20 21
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