JBNU researchers have developed a precise diagnostic method for a next-generation cooling technology that can significantly improve data center energy efficiency, drawing attention in the related field.

JBNU announced that a joint research team led by Professor Donghwi Lee (Department of Mechanical System Engineering) and Professor Seungro Lee (Department of Mechanical Engineering) has developed an optical-fiber-based heat transfer measurement technology capable of precisely analyzing a two-phase immersion cooling system.

Conducted as an international collaboration with the research team of Professor Sangwoo Shin at the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo), this study was carried out with support from JBNU's Glocal University Leap-type Discipline-Specific Collaborative Research Support Project and the BK21 Project Division's 'Special-Purpose Future Vehicle ELITE Talent Training Project Group' (Project Director: Professor Seungro Lee).

The technology developed by the research team is characterized by its ability to precisely measure in real time the complex phase-change phenomena and thermal nonuniformities that occur during the two-phase immersion cooling process of GPU chips inside data center servers.

This development is expected to simultaneously improve the reliability and energy efficiency of high-performance data centers, as it allows precise diagnosis of subtle heat-transfer characteristics that were difficult to detect with existing technologies.

The paper presenting these research results was recognized for its academic excellence and published in February 2026 in the world-renowned energy journal Energy (Impact Factor 9.4, top 3.2% in JCR) (Paper title: State-of-the-art optical fiber temperature measurement on a micro-pillar interfacial surface during flow boiling heat transfer).

The first author of the paper, Dr. Nam Hyuntaek (ELITE Project Group), played a key role in developing the technology and is currently continuing research on data center thermal management and immersion cooling technologies through the National Research Foundation of Korea's Postdoctoral Domestic Training Program. Dr. Nam stated, 'Based on this research, I plan to continue follow-up studies to maximize data center energy efficiency.'