Numerical Study for Data Center Cooling Using Active Tiles

The design of raised floor, hot/cold aisle data centers has become a widely used approach for data center cooling. However, more advanced cooling solution is still needed to achieve better managed airflow distributions and improved energy efficiency. The use of fan assisted floor tiles (i.e., active tiles) is being investigated as an evolution of Data Center cooling solutions to accommodate higher heat load demand. In this study, compact models of fan assisted tiles was imported into a basic hot aisle/cold aisle data center configuration built and analyzed using the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) technique. The significant thermal design aspects under numerical investigation include: fan curve, swirl settings, and under-floor pressure (with and without aisle containment). The flow features affected by the critical design variables are consequently compared and discussed. It might be concluded that appropriately designed fan assisted floor tiles might meet a promise of optimizing the cooling arrangement in data centers.