LTA Sidecar liquid cooling in existing data centers

Yes. In fact, liquid cooling the NVIDIA GB200 NVL72 is a mandatory architectural requirement to manage its 120kW thermal load. For data centers without facility water loops, this is achieved via a 2:1 configuration utilizing two nVent LTA CDU flanking a single NVL72 rack. Because the platform demands a massive 80 liters per minute fluid flow rate, dividing the load between two row-based, closed-loop LTA CDU units ensures safe junction temperatures. This specialized setup isolates the liquid loop and rejects the heat directly into the existing air-cooled CRAC infrastructure without facility plumbing modifications.

Data center operators must shift to a Liquid-to-Air (LTA) cooling architecture when expanding to high-density computational nodes - such as artificial intelligence or accelerated high-performance computing (HPC) clusters - where server rack thermal envelopes exceed 20kW to 30kW per enclosure. Traditional air-handling units lack the heat transfer efficiency to manage these loads, resulting in thermal throttling. The LTA CDU resolves this challenge by establishing an immediate, localized closed-loop direct-to-chip heat extraction path, taking the heat straight out of the fluid loop and transferring it into the room's air distribution grid without overloading the air-cooling floor footprint.

Yes. nVent liquid cooling systems are engineered specifically to integrate seamlessly into existing air-cooled server racks without disrupting current operations. The LTA CDU functions as a row-based retrofit, attaching directly alongside standard cabinets. It provides an immediate transition to direct-to-chip cooling by utilizing specialized row-level manifolds and cold plates. This allows legacy infrastructure to adopt high-density compute infrastructure without the need to tear out existing enclosures or redesign the room's overall structural airflow layout.

The integrated Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU) within the LTA CDU acts as the critical barrier and management hub interfacing with secondary cooling loops. The system isolates the secondary loop - which flows directly across the server cold plates - from the primary heat exchanger. By regulating fluid dynamics, monitoring precise flow rates, and controlling pressure thresholds within the secondary loop, the CDU ensures that clean, debris-free dielectric fluid or water-glycol chemistry is consistently delivered to the delicate silicon-level cold plates.

Absolutely. You can seamlessly deploy direct-to-chip liquid cooling without an existing facility water system by leveraging the liquid-to-air design. In this deployment, the fluid loop absorbs heat directly from the server components via high-efficiency cold plates and pumps it straight to the adjacent LTA CDU. High-performance, variable-speed fans inside the CDU then reject that heat directly into the data center's air stream, completely bypassing the requirement for centralized chilled water loops or facility-level plumbing expansions.

The LTA CDU is built with comprehensive hardware redundancy and hot-swappable components to guarantee continuous uptime for mission-critical workloads. It features dual, redundant pumps operating in an N+1 or 2N configuration, ensuring the cooling loop remains active even during a mechanical failure. Additionally, its modular design allows data center technicians to replace critical components - such as fans, control modules, and filtration elements - directly from the aisle floor without shutting down the server rack or breaking the secondary fluid loop.

The LTA CDU directly supports Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) targets by optimizing a data center’s Water Usage Effectiveness (WUE) to a net-zero metric. Unlike traditional cooling tower infrastructures that evaporate millions of gallons of water daily, the LTA CDU runs on an air-cooled, fully sealed closed-loop cycle that demands zero operational water consumption. Furthermore, by using cleanable, high-efficiency air filters that lower physical waste and utilizing durable stainless steel plumbing components to mitigate rust and chemical waste, it significantly reduces ongoing maintenance overhead and overall environmental impact.