An Experimental and Theoretical Investigation of the Effects of Supply Air Conditions on Computational Efficiency in Data Centers Employing Aisle Containment

Aisle containment is increasingly common in data centres, and is widely believed to improve efficiency and effectiveness of cooling. Investigations into the impacts of aisle containment on the behavior and power consumption of cooling infrastructure and servers have been limited. Nor has the impact of supply air conditions on these factors been extensively investigated. This work uses measurements of bypass in a test data centre and observations on server behavior in a wind tunnel, in conjunction with a system model, to investigate the efficiency with which computations can be undertaken in an aisle contained data centre, and how this is impacted by supply air conditions

Three computational methods for analysing thermal airflow distributions in the cooling of data centers

This paper develops computational models to study thermal airflow distribution when cooling a data center. The thermal airflow distribution study employs three computational approaches, namely finite element, finite volume and lattice Boltzmann methods, which are respectively implemented via commercial Multiphysics software, opensource CFD code and home grown GPU based code. The results focus on comparison of the three methods, all of which include models for turbulence, when applied to 2 rows of racks with cool air supplied by a plenum. Advantages and disadvantages of the three computational methods are addressed in terms of application to thermal management of data centers

Three computational methods for analysing thermal airflow distributions in the cooling of data centers

Purpose; This aim of this work is to investigate different modelling approaches for air-cooled data centres. The study employs three computational methods, which are based on finite element, finite volume and lattice Boltzmann methods and which are respectively implemented via commercial Multiphysics software, open-source computational fluid dynamics code and graphical processing unit-based code developed by the authors. The results focus on comparison of the three methods, all of which include models for turbulence, when applied to two rows of datacom racks with cool air supplied via an underfloor plenum. Design/methodology/approach; This paper studies thermal airflows in a data centre by applying different numerical simulation techniques that are able to analyse the thermal airflow distribution for a simplified layout of datacom racks in the presence of a computer room air conditioner. Findings; Good quantitative agreement between the three methods is seen in terms of the inlet temperatures to the datacom equipment. The computational methods are contrasted in terms of application to thermal management of data centres. Originality/value;The work demonstrates how the different simulation techniques applied to thermal management of airflow in a data centre can provide valuable design and operational understanding. Basing the analysis on three very different computational approaches is new and would offer an informed understanding of their potential for a class of problems