Air Flow Management Inside Open Aisles Data Centers

Abstract

The growth in the heat densities of information technology servers leads to a rise in the energy needed to cool them. However, many data centers feature redundant air conditioning systems that contribute to inefficient air distribution, which significantly increases energy consumption. This remains an insufficiently explored problem in data centers. This dissertation deals with air flow management inside Data centers. First, the data center components are introduced and cooling challenges are described. A data center with a raised floor is investigated for different ways of air flow management and control. Computational Fluid Dynamics is used to simulate the data center. The beta index and the energy utilization index were used in order to evaluate the results of thermal and bypass air phenomenon. The beta index decreased when closing gaps between racks and directing supply air flow towards racks. Using the optimal supply air temperature uniforms the heat distribution inside the data center. The simulations show that there is a better trend of the beta index and energy utilization index at a closed aisle compared with a free open aisle. Especially with high air flow rate, the beta index decreases and the energy utilization index increases considerably. Moreover, the results prove the closed aisles can not only significantly improve the airflow distribution, but also reduce the mixture of cold and heat flow, and therefore improve energy efficiency. In addition, it proves the design of the closed aisles can meet the increasing density of installations.