Where Data Center Cooling Is Heading: Key Learnings from ASME SHTC 2026
August 6, 2026
At ASME SHTC 2026, researchers and industry leaders discussed the future of data center cooling, thermal management, and AI infrastructure. Here are a few observations from the conference, including liquid cooling, two-phase technologies, heat reuse, and the growing importance of system-level modeling. I was in Bellevue, Washington this July for the American Society of Mechanical […]
Where OpenUSD Digital Twins Meet Working Physics
July 29, 2026
An OpenUSD asset says what a coolant distribution unit is. A physics model says how it behaves—this is the bridge between them, walked end-to-end by an AI agent. Picture a steel cabinet the size of a wardrobe, tucked into a row of AI servers, with two separate water loops threading through it—one tied to the […]
Why Data Center Thermal Management Can’t Wait
July 13, 2026
A panel at the upcoming ASME Summer Heat Transfer Conference examines what’s next for AI data center thermal management. The AI infrastructure buildout is running into a thermal wall, and it is not only a software or compute problem. According to Professor Amitabh Narain of Michigan Technological University, the next phase of data center growth […]
Introducing the Data Center Library for Modelon Impact
July 1, 2026
See how reference system designs and calibrated vendor components help data center teams move faster and engineer with greater confidence. As AI workloads drive unprecedented increases in rack density, power consumption, and thermal complexity, data center teams are under pressure to evaluate new cooling technologies, reduce risk, and deliver infrastructure faster than ever before. Today, […]
Why CFD is the Wrong Tool for the Next Generation of Liquid-Cooled AI Data Centers
June 23, 2026
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) has been the workhorse of data center thermal design for two decades. For the AI data centers now coming online, it is the wrong tool. That is not an indictment of CFD; it remains a powerful, mature technology. It is a consequence of how radically the cooling problem has changed. The […]
From Spec to Simulation: An AI Agent Builds a Data Center Cooling Model
June 10, 2026
Start from a vendor PDF. End with a validated, simulation-ready Modelica model in a single working session. No manual coding at any step. That is the capability we want to show in this post, and it is a current capability, not a future one. Data center infrastructure is changing fast. AI compute is pushing facilities […]
How to Do Weather File Sweeps in Modelon Impact
May 12, 2026
A customer told us something recently that stuck with me. They were evaluating how a data center design would perform across climates. Hot and humid. Cold and dry. Different cities, different weather years. The kind of analysis you have to do if uptime, efficiency, and resilience matter. Technically, they were getting it done. Practically, it […]
Data Center Compliance: How to Validate Cold Plate Liquid Cooling Against ASHRAE Guidelines Virtually
February 20, 2026
Today we are beyond the stage where liquid cooling is viewed as experimental, and it stands as a mainstream architectural choice for high density data centers. Cold plates, coolant distribution units (CDUs), rear door heat exchangers (RDHx), and even early two-phase systems are becoming standard topics of engineering conversations. Yet as more operators push beyond […]
Digitally Engineering the Future of Data Centers
January 27, 2026
A Conversation with Simulation Pioneer Michael Wetter As data centers scale at an unprecedented pace—driven largely by AI, cloud services, and high-density computing—the industry is confronting a new level of complexity in energy demand, cooling strategies, and the need for near-perfect uptime. Few people understand this challenge better than Dr. Michael Wetter, a leading expert […]
Turning Frost into Warmth: A Data Center Holiday Story
December 16, 2025
As the year winds down, we found inspiration far from our usual engineering corridors in a quiet little town near the North Pole. It’s a place where winter never takes a break, where lights twinkle through long nights, and where warmth is more than comfort—it’s community. This year, our team imagined a story set there. […]