Liquid cooling systems are utilized to remove heat from a variety of electronic and other devices. Typical liquid cooling systems may comprise a cold plate to remove heat from an electronic device, a liquid-to-air heat exchanger to dissipate the heat (often facilitated by the use of a fan to promote forced convection), a pump to circulate a working liquid throughout the system, and a reservoir to provide a reserve of the liquid. Performance may be hampered, however, by the presence of a gas within the liquid cooling system. Poor hermetic seals and/or seepage of fluid (e.g., through hydroscopic plastic components) may, for example, introduce and/or enhance the presence of the gas within liquid flow paths. In some situations, a bubble of the gas may actually be desirable to facilitate liquid expansion and/or contraction within the system, yet this bubble may nevertheless interfere with system performance.
Some systems utilize methods to prevent the gas from traveling through the system as a single and/or large bubble. This may, for example, help decrease the risk of the pump losing prime. These smaller bubbles of the gas that do travel through the system, however, may cause undesirable noise, may still cause pump prime loss, and/or may become trapped in critical heat transfer zones, reducing system performance.