2026-09-22T06:09:33Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132644 2026-03-24 col_2142_5131 col_2142_14787 com_2142_5130 com_2142_9630 com_2142_234

application/pdf en text Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2027-12-01 The student, Tayfur Rahman Maruf, accepted the attached license on 2025-11-19 at 09:18. The student, Tayfur Rahman Maruf, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2025-11-19 at 09:39. This Thesis was approved for publication on 2025-11-24 at 14:56. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22893 on 2026-02-19 at 18:45:44 Thermal design and solutions for handling heat loads in high-speed connectors for data centers Maruf, Tayfur Rahman 2025-11-24 Miljkovic, Nenad High-speed connectors OSFP QSFP thermal management air cooling heat sink optimization CFD Ansys Icepak. eng The rapid growth of data transmission and power density in high-speed interconnects such as OSFP (Octal Small Form-Factor Pluggable) and QSFP (Quad Small Form-Factor Pluggable) modules have made thermal management a critical design challenge. Although liquid cooling has emerged as a high-capacity alternative, its implementation at the connector level remains challenging due to system complexity, elevated cost, and potential reliability concerns. Consequently, this study focuses on enhancing air-cooled forced convection performance using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) based modeling and experimental validation. A detailed 3-D numerical model was developed in Ansys Icepak Classic 2023 to simulate conjugate heat transfer within high-speed connector assemblies under realistic airflow and thermal conditions. The model accounted for conduction, convection, and fan-driven pressure differences corresponding to 3 inWC (≈ 746.5 Pa) system airflow. Multiple configurations, varying dividing floor geometry (solid vs. perforated), heat-sink placement (top, bottom, and inter-module), and cage ventilation (standard vs. vented), were examined for both OSFP 2×1 and QSFP 1×1 architectures. Model validation against experimental measurements demonstrated excellent agreement, with an error margin below ±5%. The results revealed that introducing a perforated dividing floor enhanced inter-module airflow mixing, lowering hotspot temperatures by 3-4 °C, while adding a bottom heat sink achieved an additional 6-8 °C reduction and decreased junction-to-ambient thermal resistance by approximately 13%. Relocating the bottom heat sink to an inter-module riding configuration improved temperature uniformity without compromising structural integrity and incorporating side and bottom cage vents provided a further 5-7 °C reduction through improved airflow distribution. For the QSFP 1×1 model, a vapor-chamber heat sink outperformed a traditional zipper-fin design, reducing peak temperature by 5-6 °C under 44 W load conditions. This research demonstrates that optimized air-cooling architectures can effectively manage thermal loads in high-power-density connector systems without transitioning to liquid cooling. The validated CFD framework offers a robust tool for future design optimization, transient analysis, and system-level integration of connector-cooling technologies in data-center applications. 2025-12 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132644 Copyright 2025 Tayfur Rahman Maruf Mechanical Sci & Engineering Mechanical Engineering University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign M.S. Thesis