In the drive to enhance data center energy efficiency, much attention has been placed on the prospect of airflow containment in hot-aisle cold-aisle raised floor arrangements. Such containment prevents airflow recirculation, eliminating the mixing effects of the hot and cold air streams that can cause an undesirable temperature rise at the inlet of the equipment racks. The intuitive assessment of the industry has been that the elimination of such mixing effects increases the energy efficiency of the data center cooling system by enabling delivery of air at higher inlet temperatures, thus reducing the amount of infrastructure cooling required. This paper employs an end-to-end modeling approach to analyze the effect of air stream containment in the computer room and its impact on the holistic system efficiency. Dimensionless heat index parameters are employed to characterize the effects of containment, recirculation and mixing within the computer room environment. The extent of recirculation is shown to primarily influence the operation of the rack and CRAC level cooling systems, with the chiller systems also impacted. The overall effect on the complete cooling system performance and data center efficiency requires balancing of these effects. Through this model analysis, it is shown that containment may negatively impact overall energy efficiency in some circumstances, and that recirculation may actually be beneficial to overall energy efficiency under certain system dependent operating thresholds.
Skip Nav Destination
ASME/JSME 2011 8th Thermal Engineering Joint Conference
March 13–17, 2011
Honolulu, Hawaii, USA
Conference Sponsors:
- Heat Transfer Division
ISBN:
978-0-7918-3892-1
PROCEEDINGS PAPER
From Chip to Cooling Tower Data Center Modeling: Influence of Air-Stream Containment on Operating Efficiency Available to Purchase
Thomas J. Breen,
Thomas J. Breen
Stokes Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Search for other works by this author on:
Ed J. Walsh,
Ed J. Walsh
Stokes Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Search for other works by this author on:
Jeff Punch,
Jeff Punch
Stokes Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Search for other works by this author on:
Amip J. Shah,
Amip J. Shah
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Cullen E. Bash,
Cullen E. Bash
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Brandon Rubenstein,
Brandon Rubenstein
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Scot Heath,
Scot Heath
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Niru Kumari
Niru Kumari
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA
Search for other works by this author on:
Thomas J. Breen
Stokes Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Ed J. Walsh
Stokes Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Jeff Punch
Stokes Institute, University of Limerick, Limerick, Ireland
Amip J. Shah
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA
Cullen E. Bash
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA
Brandon Rubenstein
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA
Scot Heath
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA
Niru Kumari
Hewlett-Packard Company, Palo Alto, CA
Paper No:
AJTEC2011-44091, T10074; 10 pages
Published Online:
March 1, 2011
Citation
Breen, TJ, Walsh, EJ, Punch, J, Shah, AJ, Bash, CE, Rubenstein, B, Heath, S, & Kumari, N. "From Chip to Cooling Tower Data Center Modeling: Influence of Air-Stream Containment on Operating Efficiency." Proceedings of the ASME/JSME 2011 8th Thermal Engineering Joint Conference. ASME/JSME 2011 8th Thermal Engineering Joint Conference. Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. March 13–17, 2011. T10074. ASME. https://doi.org/10.1115/AJTEC2011-44091
Download citation file:
11
Views
Related Proceedings Papers
Related Articles
From Chip to Cooling Tower Data Center Modeling: Influence of Server Inlet Temperature and Temperature Rise Across Cabinet
J. Electron. Packag (March,2011)
Experimental and Computational Investigations of the Thermal Environment in a Small Operational Data Center for Potential Energy Efficiency Improvements
J. Electron. Packag (September,2020)
Experimental Characterization of Various Cold Aisle Containment Configurations for Data Centers
J. Electron. Packag (March,2015)
Related Chapters
Fans and Air Handling Systems
Thermal Management of Telecommunications Equipment
Engineering and Physical Modeling of Power Plant Cooling Systems
Thermal Power Plant Cooling: Context and Engineering
Threshold Functions
Closed-Cycle Gas Turbines: Operating Experience and Future Potential