Review on Cooling System Energy Consumption in Internet Data Centers

2016 ◽  
Vol 24 (04) ◽  
pp. 1630008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kofi Owura Amoabeng ◽  
Jong Min Choi
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Energy Demand ◽  
Data Centers ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
High Heat ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
It Industry ◽  
Public And Private ◽  
Conventional Cooling

Due to the advancement of the telecommunication and information technology (IT) industry, internet data centers (IDCs) have become widespread in the public and private sectors. As such, energy demand in the center has also become increasingly prominent. Several technologies on energy management have been studied to determine the options available to minimize the energy required to operate the data center as well as reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The cooling system is required to remove the high heat dissipated by the IT electronic components especially the servers in order to ensure safe and reliable working condition. However, it utilizes more than one-third of the total energy consumption in the data center. In this study, the energy efficiency technologies that are usually applied to cooling systems in data centers were reviewed. The aim is to find out the strategies that will reduce the energy consumption of the cooling system since the cooling demand in data center is all year round. Prior to that, the performance metric tool that is mostly used in analyzing data center efficiency was discussed. The conventional cooling system technologies that are utilized in data centers were also provided. Lastly, innovative cooling technologies for future solutions in data centers were discussed.

Characterization of an Isolated Hybrid Cooled Server With Failure Scenarios Using Warm Water Cooling

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Uschas Chowdhury ◽  
Manasa Sahini ◽  
Ashwin Siddarth ◽  
Dereje Agonafer ◽  
Steve Branton
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Data Centers ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Warm Water ◽  
Alternative Methods ◽  
Inlet Temperature ◽  
Cooling Efficiency ◽  
Water Cooling ◽  
Liquid Cooling ◽  
Total Energy Consumption

Modern day data centers are operated at high power for increased power density, maintenance, and cooling which covers almost 2 percent (70 billion kilowatt-hours) of the total energy consumption in the US. IT components and cooling system occupy the major portion of this energy consumption. Although data centers are designed to perform efficiently, cooling the high-density components is still a challenge. So, alternative methods to improve the cooling efficiency has become the drive to reduce the cooling cost. As liquid cooling is more efficient for high specific heat capacity, density, and thermal conductivity, hybrid cooling can offer the advantage of liquid cooling of high heat generating components in the traditional air-cooled servers. In this experiment, a 1U server is equipped with cold plate to cool the CPUs while the rest of the components are cooled by fans. In this study, predictive fan and pump failure analysis are performed which also helps to explore the options for redundancy and to reduce the cooling cost by improving cooling efficiency. Redundancy requires the knowledge of planned and unplanned system failures. As the main heat generating components are cooled by liquid, warm water cooling can be employed to observe the effects of raised inlet conditions in a hybrid cooled server with failure scenarios. The ASHRAE guidance class W4 for liquid cooling is chosen for our experiment to operate in a range from 25°C – 45°C. The experiments are conducted separately for the pump and fan failure scenarios. Computational load of idle, 10%, 30%, 50%, 70% and 98% are applied while powering only one pump and the miniature dry cooler fans are controlled externally to maintain constant inlet temperature of the coolant. As the rest of components such as DIMMs & PCH are cooled by air, maximum utilization for memory is applied while reducing the number fans in each case for fan failure scenario. The components temperatures and power consumption are recorded in each case for performance analysis.

Operational Benefits of Real-Time Monitoring and Visualization in Data Centers

2009 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tahir Cader ◽  
Ratnesh Sharma ◽  
Cullen Bash ◽  
Les Fox ◽  
Vaibhav Bhatia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Data Centers ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Real Time Monitoring ◽  
Us Epa ◽  
And Control ◽  
Control Management

The 2007 US EPA report to Congress (US EPA, 2007) on the state of energy consumption in data centers brought to light the true energy inefficiencies built into today’s data centers. Marquez et al. (2008) conducted an initial analysis on the productivity of a Pacific Northwest National Lab computer using The Green Grid’s Data Center Energy Productivity metric (The Green Grid, 2008). Their study highlights how the Top500 ranking of computers disguises the serious energy inefficiency of today’s High Performance Computing data centers. In the rapidly expanding Cloud Computing space, the race will be won by the providers that deliver the lowest cost of computing — such cost is heavily influenced by the operational costs incurred by data centers. As a means to address the urgent need to lower the cost of computing, solution providers have been intensely focusing on real-time monitoring, visualization, and control/management of data centers. The monitoring aspect involves the widespread use of networks of sensors that are used to monitor key data center environmental variables such as temperature, relative humidity, air flow rate, pressure, and energy consumption. Such data is then used to visualize and analyze data center problem areas (e.g., hotspots), which is then followed by control/management actions designed to alleviate such problem areas. The authors have been researching the operational benefits of a network of sensors tied in to a software package that uses the data to visualize, analyze, and control/manage the data center cooling system and IT Equipment for maximum operational efficiency. The research is being conducted in a corporate production data center that is networked in to the authors’ company’s global network of data centers. Results will be presented that highlight the operational benefits that are realizable through real-time monitoring and visualization.

Green Energy in Data Centers

2016 ◽  
pp. 234-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kanahavalli Mardamutu ◽  
Vasaki Ponnusamy ◽  
Noor Zaman
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Data Centers ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Green Computing ◽  
Database Management System ◽  
Technology Infrastructure ◽  
Energy Conserving ◽  
The Moment

Green energy paradigm has been gaining popularity in the computing system from the software, hardware, infrastructure and application perspectives. Within that concept, data center greening is of utmost importance at the moment since data centers are one of the most energy conserving elements. Data centers are seen as the technology era's black energy-swallowing secret. Reducing energy consumption at data centers can reduce carbon footprint effect tremendously. Not addressing the issue immediately will lead to significant energy usage by data centers and will hinder the growth of data centers. The call for sustainable energy efficient data center leads to venturing into data center green computing. The green computing concept can be achieved by using several methods adopted by researchers including renewable energy, virtualization through cloud computing, proper cooling system, identifying suitable location to harvest energy whilst reducing the need for air-conditioning and employing suitable networking and information technology infrastructure. This paper focuses into several approaches used by researches to reduce energy consumption at data centers while deploying efficient database management system. This paper differs from others in the literature by giving some suitable solutions by looking into a hybrid model for green computing in data centers.

Optimization of Enclosed Aisle Data Centers Using Bypass Recirculation

2012 ◽  
Vol 134 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dustin W. Demetriou ◽  
H. Ezzat Khalifa
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Data Centers ◽  
Total Power ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Air Conditioners ◽  
Data Center Cooling ◽  
Flow Through

The work presented in this paper describes a simplified thermodynamic model that can be used for exploring optimization possibilities in air-cooled data centers. The model is used to evaluate parametrically the total energy consumption of the data center cooling infrastructure for data centers that utilize aisle containment. The analysis highlights the importance of reducing the total power required for moving the air within the computer room air conditioners (CRACs), the plenum, and the servers, rather than focusing primarily or exclusively on reducing the refrigeration system’s power consumption. In addition, the benefits of introducing a bypass recirculation branch in enclosed aisle configurations are shown. The analysis shows a potential for as much as a 60% savings in cooling infrastructure energy consumption by utilizing an optimized enclosed aisle configuration with bypass recirculation, instead of a traditional enclosed aisle in which all the data center exhaust is forced to flow through the CRACs. Furthermore, computational fluid dynamics is used to evaluate practical arrangements for implementing bypass recirculation in raised floor data centers. A configuration where bypass tiles, with controllable low-lift fans, are placed close to the discharge of CRACs results in increased mixing and is shown to be a suitable method for providing nearly thermally uniform conditions to the inlet of the servers in an enclosed cold aisle. Other configurations of bypass implementation are also discussed and explored.

Dynamic Control of Airflow Balance in Data Centers

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Paul Linder ◽  
Jim Van Gilder ◽  
Yan Zhang ◽  
Enda Barrett
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Total Energy ◽  
Pressure Sensor ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Data Centers ◽  
Dynamic Control ◽  
Air Pressure ◽  
Cooling Efficiency ◽  
Total Energy Consumption ◽  
Flow Network

Abstract Efficient cooling of data center infrastructure is an important way to reduce total energy consumption. Containment, with separation of hot and cold airflows has allowed significant increase in efficiencies. However, balancing the airflow, so that IT equipment in an aisle only receives the cooling airflow that that aisle needs is still often not done. We propose a new architecture where IT racks are clustered together with shared hot aisles ducted to a common ceiling plenum. Each aisle has an actively controlled damper used to balance the airflow to the cooling infrastructure. Using a differential air pressure sensor in each aisle and an algorithm designed to balance the flow network, we minimize the cooling airflow and maximize cooling efficiency.

Green Energy in Data Centers

2017 ◽  
pp. 386-401
Author(s):  
Kanahavalli Mardamutu ◽  
Vasaki Ponnusamy ◽  
Noor Zaman
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Data Centers ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Green Energy ◽  
Green Computing ◽  
Database Management System ◽  
Technology Infrastructure ◽  
Energy Conserving ◽  
The Moment

Green energy paradigm has been gaining popularity in the computing system from the software, hardware, infrastructure and application perspectives. Within that concept, data center greening is of utmost importance at the moment since data centers are one of the most energy conserving elements. Data centers are seen as the technology era's black energy-swallowing secret. Reducing energy consumption at data centers can reduce carbon footprint effect tremendously. Not addressing the issue immediately will lead to significant energy usage by data centers and will hinder the growth of data centers. The call for sustainable energy efficient data center leads to venturing into data center green computing. The green computing concept can be achieved by using several methods adopted by researchers including renewable energy, virtualization through cloud computing, proper cooling system, identifying suitable location to harvest energy whilst reducing the need for air-conditioning and employing suitable networking and information technology infrastructure. This paper focuses into several approaches used by researches to reduce energy consumption at data centers while deploying efficient database management system. This paper differs from others in the literature by giving some suitable solutions by looking into a hybrid model for green computing in data centers.

Comparative Thermal and Energy Analysis of a Hybrid Cooling Data Center With Rear Door Heat Exchangers

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianyi Gao ◽  
Emad Samadiani ◽  
Bahgat Sammakia ◽  
Roger Schmidt
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Heat Exchangers ◽  
Data Centers ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
High Density ◽  
Cooling Systems ◽  
Density Data ◽  
Rear Door ◽  
Hybrid Cooling

Data centers consume a considerable amount of energy which is estimated to be about 2 percent of the total electrical energy consumed in the US, and their power consumption continues to increase every year. It is also estimated that roughly 30–40 percent of the total energy used in a data center is due to the thermal management systems. So, there is a strong need for better cooling methods which could improve the cooling capacity and also reduce energy consumption for high density data centers. In this regard, liquid cooling systems have been utilized to deal with demanding cooling and energy efficiency requirements in high density data centers. In this paper, a hybrid cooling system in data centers is investigated. In addition to traditional raised floor, cold aisle-hot aisle configuration, a liquid-air hybrid cooling system consisting of rear door heat exchangers attached to the back of racks is considered. The room is analyzed numerically using two CFD based simulation approaches for modeling rear door heat exchangers that are introduced in this study. The presented model is used in the second section of the paper to compare the hybrid cooling system with traditional air cooling systems. Several case studies are taken into account including the power increases in the racks and CRAC unit failure scenarios. A comparison is made between the hybrid cooling room and a purely air cooled room based on the rack inlet temperatures. Also in this study, total energy consumption by the cooling equipment in both air-cooled and hybrid data centers are modeled and compared with each other for different scenarios. The results show that under some circumstances the hybrid cooling could be an alternative to meet the ASHRAE recommended inlet air temperatures, while at the same time it reduces the cooling energy consumption in high density data centers.

scholarly journals Cold LOGIK and RDHX Solution for Data Center Energy Optimization

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3.4) ◽  
pp. 113
Author(s):  
T Suresh ◽  
Dr A. Murugan
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Energy Saving ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Data Centers ◽  
Heat Dissipation ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Cooling Power ◽  
Operational Cost ◽  
Power Cost ◽  
The Right

In all types of data center, keeping the right temperature with less cost and energy is one of important objective as energy saving is crucial in increased data driven industry. Energy saving is global focus for all industry. In Information technology, more than 60% of energy is utilized in data centers as it needs to be up and running. As per Avocent data center issue study, across globe more than 54% of data centers are in redesigning process to improve their efficiency and reduce operational cost and energy consumption. Data center managers and operators major challenge was how to maintain the temperature of servers with less power and energy. When the densities of data center energy nearing 5 kilowatts (kW) per cabinet, organizations are trying to find a way to manage the heat through latest technologies. Power usage per square can be reduced by incorporating liquid-cooling devices instead of increasing airflow volume. This is especially important in a data center with a typical under-floor cooling system. This research paper uses Rear-Door Heat eXchangers (RDHx) and cool logic solutions to reduce energy consumption. It gives result of implementation of Cold Logik and RDHx solution to Data center and proves that how it saves energy and power. Data center has optimized space, cooling, power and operational cost by implementing RDHx technology. This will enable to add more servers without increasing the space and reduce cooling and power cost. It also saves Data center space from heat dissipation from servers.  

Energy Modeling of Air-Cooled Data Centers: Part I—The Optimization of Enclosed Aisle Configurations

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dustin W. Demetriou ◽  
H. Ezzat Khalifa
Keyword(s):  
Energy Consumption ◽  
Power Consumption ◽  
Temperature Rise ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Data Centers ◽  
Total Power ◽  
Optimum Operating ◽  
Cooling Power ◽  
Inlet Temperature ◽  
Total Energy Consumption

The work presented in this paper describes a simplified thermodynamic model that can be used for exploring optimization possibilities in air-cooled data centers. The model is used to parametrically evaluate the total energy consumption of the data center cooling infrastructure for data centers that utilize aisle containment. The analysis highlights the importance of reducing the total power required for moving the air within the CRACs, the plenum, and the servers, rather than focusing primarily or exclusively on reducing the refrigeration system’s power consumption and shows the benefits of bypass recirculation in enclosed aisle configurations. The analysis shows a potential for as much as a 57% savings in cooling infrastructure energy consumption by utilizing an optimized enclosed aisle configuration with bypass recirculation, instead of a traditional enclosed aisle, where all the data center exhaust is forced to flow through the computer room air conditioners (CRACs), for racks with a modest temperature rise (∼10°C). However, for racks with larger temperature rise (> ∼20°C), the saving are less than 5%. Furthermore, for servers whose fan speed (flow rate) varies as a function of inlet temperature, the analysis shows that the optimum operating regime for enclosed aisle data centers falls within a very narrow band and that power reductions are possible by lowering the uniform server inlet temperature in the enclosed aisle from 27°C to 22°C. However, the optimum CRAC exit temperature over the 22-to-27°C range of enclosed cold aisle temperature falls between ∼16 and 20°C because a significant reduction in the power consumption is possible through the use of bypass recirculation. Without bypass recirculation, the power consumption for a server inlet temperature of 22°C enclosed aisle case with a server temperature rise of 10°C would be a whopping 43% higher than with bypass recirculation. It is worth noting that, without bypass recirculation maintaining the enclosed cold aisle at 22°C instead of 27°C would reduce power consumption by 48%. It is also shown that enclosing the aisles together with bypass recirculation (when beneficial) also reduces the dependence of the optimum cooling power on server temperature rise.

Perimeter Cooling Unit and Localized Row-Based Cooling Unit Transient Air Flow Effects Modeling and Characterization in Data Centers

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tianyi Gao ◽  
James Geer ◽  
Bahgat G. Sammakia ◽  
Russell Tipton ◽  
Mark Seymour
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Management ◽  
Data Center ◽  
Data Centers ◽  
Cooling System ◽  
Air Flow ◽  
Cooling Systems ◽  
Dynamic Thermal Management ◽  
Hybrid Cooling ◽  
Cooling Unit ◽  
Cooling Air

Cooling power constitutes a large portion of the total electrical power consumption in data centers. Approximately 25%∼40% of the electricity used within a production data center is consumed by the cooling system. Improving the cooling energy efficiency has attracted a great deal of research attention. Many strategies have been proposed for cutting the data center energy costs. One of the effective strategies for increasing the cooling efficiency is using dynamic thermal management. Another effective strategy is placing cooling devices (heat exchangers) closer to the source of heat. This is the basic design principle of many hybrid cooling systems and liquid cooling systems for data centers. Dynamic thermal management of data centers is a huge challenge, due to the fact that data centers are operated under complex dynamic conditions, even during normal operating conditions. In addition, hybrid cooling systems for data centers introduce additional localized cooling devices, such as in row cooling units and overhead coolers, which significantly increase the complexity of dynamic thermal management. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to characterize the dynamic responses of data centers under variations from different cooling units, such as cooling air flow rate variations. In this study, a detailed computational analysis of an in row cooler based hybrid cooled data center is conducted using a commercially available computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. A representative CFD model for a raised floor data center with cold aisle-hot aisle arrangement fashion is developed. The hybrid cooling system is designed using perimeter CRAH units and localized in row cooling units. The CRAH unit supplies centralized cooling air to the under floor plenum, and the cooling air enters the cold aisle through perforated tiles. The in row cooling unit is located on the raised floor between the server racks. It supplies the cooling air directly to the cold aisle, and intakes hot air from the back of the racks (hot aisle). Therefore, two different cooling air sources are supplied to the cold aisle, but the ways they are delivered to the cold aisle are different. Several modeling cases are designed to study the transient effects of variations in the flow rates of the two cooling air sources. The server power and the cooling air flow variation combination scenarios are also modeled and studied. The detailed impacts of each modeling case on the rack inlet air temperature and cold aisle air flow distribution are studied. The results presented in this work provide an understanding of the effects of air flow variations on the thermal performance of data centers. The results and corresponding analysis is used for improving the running efficiency of this type of raised floor hybrid data centers using CRAH and IRC units.

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