scholarly journals Comparing Performance Metrics of Partial Aisle Containments in Hard Floor and Raised Floor Data Centers Using CFD

Energies ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emelie Wibron ◽  
Anna-Lena Ljung ◽  
T. Staffan Lundström

In data centers, efficient cooling systems are required to both keep the energy consumption as low as possible and to fulfill the temperature requirements. The aim of this work is to numerically investigate the effects of using partial aisle containment between the server racks for hard and raised floor configurations. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software ANSYS CFX was used together with the Reynolds stress turbulence model to perform the simulations. Velocity measurements in a server room were used for validation. Boundary conditions and the load of each rack were also retrieved from the experimental facility, implying an uneven load between the racks. A combination of the performance metrics Rack Cooling Index (RCI), Return Temperature Index (RTI) and Capture Index (CI) were used to evaluate the performance of the cooling systems for two supply flow rates at a 100% and 50% of operating condition. Based on the combination of performance metrics, the airflow management was improved in the raised floor configurations. With the supply flow rate set to operating conditions, the RCI was 100% for both raised floor and hard floor setups. The top- or side-cover fully prevented recirculation for the raised floor configuration, while it reduced the recirculation for the hard floor configuration. However, the RTI was low, close to 40% in the hard floor case, indicating poor energy efficiency. With the supply flow rate decreasing with 50%, the RTI increased to above 80%. Recirculation of hot air was indicated for all the containments when the supply rate was 50%, but the values of RCI still indicated an acceptable performance of the cooling system.

Author(s):  
Seyyed Khandani ◽  
Himanshu Pokharna ◽  
Sridhar Machiroutu ◽  
Eric DiStefano

Remote heat pipe based heat exchanger cooling systems are becoming increasingly popular in cooling of notebook computers. In such cooling systems, one or more heat pipes transfer the heat from the more populated area to a location with sufficient space allowing the use of a heat exchanger for removal of the heat from the system. In analsysis of such systems, the temperature drop in the condenser section of the heat pipe is assumed negligible due to the nature of the condensation process. However, in testing of various systems, non linear longitudinal temperature drops in the heat pipe in the range of 2 to 15 °C, for different processor power and heat exchanger airflow, have been measured. Such temperature drops could cause higher condenser thermal resistance and result in lower overall heat exchanger performance. In fact the application of the conventional method of estimating the thermal performance, which does not consider such a nonlinear temperature variations, results in inaccurate design of the cooling system and requires unnecessarily higher safety factors to compensate for this inaccuracy. To address the problem, this paper offers a new analytical approach for modeling the heat pipe based heat exchanger performance under various operating conditions. The method can be used with any arbitrary condenser temperature variations. The results of the model show significant increase in heat exchanger thermal resistance when considering a non linear condenser temperature drop. The experimental data also verifies the result of the model with sufficient accuracy and therefore validates the application of this model in estimating the performance of these systems.   This paper was also originally published as part of the Proceedings of the ASME 2005 Pacific Rim Technical Conference and Exhibition on Integration and Packaging of MEMS, NEMS, and Electronic Systems.


Author(s):  
Tianyi Gao ◽  
James Geer ◽  
Bahgat G. Sammakia ◽  
Russell Tipton ◽  
Mark Seymour

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.


Author(s):  
Nicola Palestra ◽  
Giovanna Barigozzi ◽  
Antonio Perdichizzi

The paper presents the results of an investigation on inlet air cooling systems based on cool thermal storage, applied to combined cycle power plants. Such systems provide a significant increase of electric energy production in the peak hours; the charge of the cool thermal storage is performed instead during the night time. The inlet air cooling system also allows the plant to reduce power output dependence on ambient conditions. A 127MW combined cycle power plant operating in the Italian scenario is the object of this investigation. Two different technologies for cool thermal storage have been considered: ice harvester and stratified chilled water. To evaluate the performance of the combined cycle under different operating conditions, inlet cooling systems have been simulated with an in-house developed computational code. An economical analysis has been then performed. Different plant location sites have been considered, with the purpose to weigh up the influence of climatic conditions. Finally, a parametric analysis has been carried out in order to investigate how a variation of the thermal storage size affects the combined cycle performances and the investment profitability. It was found that both cool thermal storage technologies considered perform similarly in terms of gross extra production of energy. Despite this, the ice harvester shows higher parasitic load due to chillers consumptions. Warmer climates of the plant site resulted in a greater increase in the amount of operational hours than power output augmentation; investment profitability is different as well. Results of parametric analysis showed how important the size of inlet cooling storage may be for economical results.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (3) ◽  
pp. 53-61
Author(s):  
S.G. Dragomirov ◽  
◽  
P.Ig. Eydel ◽  
A.Yu. Gamayunov ◽  
M.S. Dragomirov ◽  
...  

The article describes the results of a study of the physicochemical characteristics of solid particles of contaminants present in the coolant of automobile and tractor engines. The data on the fractional, physical and chemical composition of solid particles of contamination are given. It was established that the generalized reason for the appearance of contaminants of various nature in liquid cooling systems of engines is the physicochemical interaction of the coolant (antifreeze) with different elements and dissimilar materials of the cooling system. The use of absolutely pure coolant in the cooling systems of automobile and tractor engines is practically unrealistic, since there will always be operating conditions that contribute to the formation of contamination. A number of chemical elements (in an amount from 1 to 47% of each element) were found in the composition of solid particles of coolant contaminants: iron Fe, silicon Si, aluminum Al, lead Pb, tin Sn, zinc Zn, calcium Ca, magnesium Mg, copper Cu. In addition, at a level of less than 1.0% (wt.), Such chemical elements as potassium K, sodium Na, titanium Ti, phosphorus P, sulfur S, chromium Cr, molyb-denum Mo, chlorine Cl, iridium Ir, nickel Ni, manganese Mn, etc. were found. The most dangerous contaminants are particles of iron Fe and silicon Si, contained in the coolant in an amount of up to 47 and 37%, respectively, and possessing significant hardness and angularity. The abrasive proper-ties of Fe and Si particles create the danger of removing a thin oxide film on the inner surface of the walls of the cooling radiator channels, leading to their premature destruction. In this regard, it is concluded that high-performance engine coolant filters should be used in automobiles and tractors to remove these contaminants from the flow.


Author(s):  
Carlos Naranjo-Mendoza ◽  
Jesús López-Villada ◽  
Gabriel Gaona ◽  
Jerko Labus

This paper presents a comparative analysis of three different solar cooling system configurations developed for a case study building in Guayaquil, Ecuador. Guayaquil is a city located at the Ecuadorian coast with an average annual temperature of 25°C. The city’s need for air conditioning throughout the year and the relatively intense solar radiation provide a great opportunity for implementation of solar cooling systems. The first cooling system includes a 175 kWc single-effect absorption chiller powered by evacuated tubes solar thermal collectors. This system was compared with two 140 kWc compression chiller systems (air-cooled (AC) and water-cooled (WC)) powered by grid-connected photovoltaics. Both constant flow rate (CFR) and variable flow rate (VFR) of chilled water were analyzed. The three systems have to satisfy a cooling demand of the top floor in one governmental building (app. 1296 m2) which was selected as case study. Additionally, two 140 kWc conventional compression chiller systems (AC and WC) were included in the comparison as reference systems. Cooling demand of the building was simulated in EnergyPlus and coupled with the appropriate system configurations developed in TRNSYS. The weather file (TMY) was developed based on real meteorological data collected in the last decade. The present analysis was extended with the prediction scenarios for the years 2020, 2050 and 2080 using climate change adapted weather files.


Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (22) ◽  
pp. 6147
Author(s):  
Jinkyun Cho ◽  
Jesang Woo ◽  
Beungyong Park ◽  
Taesub Lim

Removing heat from high-density information technology (IT) equipment is essential for data centers. Maintaining the proper operating environment for IT equipment can be expensive. Rising energy cost and energy consumption has prompted data centers to consider hot aisle and cold aisle containment strategies, which can improve the energy efficiency and maintain the recommended level of inlet air temperature to IT equipment. It can also resolve hot spots in traditional uncontained data centers to some degree. This study analyzes the IT environment of the hot aisle containment (HAC) system, which has been considered an essential solution for high-density data centers. The thermal performance was analyzed for an IT server room with HAC in a reference data center. Computational fluid dynamics analysis was conducted to compare the operating performances of the cooling air distribution systems applied to the raised and hard floors and to examine the difference in the IT environment between the server rooms. Regarding operating conditions, the thermal performances in a state wherein the cooling system operated normally and another wherein one unit had failed were compared. The thermal performance of each alternative was evaluated by comparing the temperature distribution, airflow distribution, inlet air temperatures of the server racks, and recirculation ratio from the outlet to the inlet. In conclusion, the HAC system with a raised floor has higher cooling efficiency than that with a hard floor. The HAC with a raised floor over a hard floor can improve the air distribution efficiency by 28%. This corresponds to 40% reduction in the recirculation ratio for more than 20% of the normal cooling conditions. The main contribution of this paper is that it realistically implements the effectiveness of the existing theoretical comparison of the HAC system by developing an accurate numerical model of a data center with a high-density fifth-generation (5G) environment and applying the operating conditions.


Author(s):  
Tianyi Gao ◽  
James Geer ◽  
Russell Tipton ◽  
Bruce Murray ◽  
Bahgat G. Sammakia ◽  
...  

The heat dissipated by high performance IT equipment such as servers and switches in data centers is increasing rapidly, which makes the thermal management even more challenging. IT equipment is typically designed to operate at a rack inlet air temperature ranging between 10 °C and 35 °C. The newest published environmental standards for operating IT equipment proposed by ASHARE specify a long term recommended dry bulb IT air inlet temperature range as 18°C to 27°C. In terms of the short term specification, the largest allowable inlet temperature range to operate at is between 5°C and 45°C. Failure in maintaining these specifications will lead to significantly detrimental impacts to the performance and reliability of these electronic devices. Thus, understanding the cooling system is of paramount importance for the design and operation of data centers. In this paper, a hybrid cooling system is numerically modeled and investigated. The numerical modeling is conducted using a commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The hybrid cooling strategy is specified by mounting the in row cooling units between the server racks to assist the raised floor air cooling. The effect of several input variables, including rack heat load and heat density, rack air flow rate, in row cooling unit operating cooling fluid flow rate and temperature, in row coil effectiveness, centralized cooling unit supply air flow rate, non-uniformity in rack heat load, and raised floor height are studied parametrically. Their detailed effects on the rack inlet air temperatures and the in row cooler performance are presented. The modeling results and corresponding analyses are used to develop general installation and operation guidance for the in row cooler strategy of a data center.


Author(s):  
K. Vighneswara Rao ◽  
Jong S. Liu ◽  
Daniel C. Crites ◽  
Luis A. Tapia ◽  
Malak F. Malak ◽  
...  

In this study, cylindrical and fan shaped film cooling holes are evaluated on the blade surface numerically, using the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool ANSYS-CFX, with the objective of improving cooling effectiveness by understanding the flow pattern at the cooling hole exit. The coolant flow rates are adjusted for blowing ratios of 0.5, 1.0 & 1.5 (momentum flux ratios of 0.125, 0.5 & 1.125 respectively). The density ratio is maintained at 2.0. New shaped holes viz. straight, concave and convex trench holes are introduced and are evaluated under similar operating conditions. Results are presented in terms of surface temperatures and adiabatic effectiveness at three different blowing ratios for the different film cooling hole shapes analyzed. Comparison is made with reference to the fan shaped film cooling hole to bring out relative merits of different shapes. The new trench holes improved the film cooling effectiveness by allowing more residence time for coolant to spread laterally while directing smoothly onto the airfoil surface. While convex trench improved the centre-line effectiveness, straight trench improved the laterally-averaged and overall effectiveness at all blowing ratios. Concave trench improved the effectiveness at blowing ratios 0.5 and 1.0.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (395) ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
S. Boroday ◽  

Object and purpose of research. This paper discusses insufficient flow rate in a standard swirl atomizer of ma-rine water-mist Fi-Fi systems. The purpose of this study was to find the reasons for this insufficient flow rate and the ways to improve it. Materials and methods. This research was a computer-based simulation (in commercial ANSYS CFX package for engineering analysis) based on modern methods of computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Main results. An upgraded swirler for high-flow atomizer preventing cavitation in its inner channels. Conclusion. These results make it possible to design atomizers and sprinklers of marine water-mist Fi-Fi systems with cavitation-free swirler channels.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuoa Lei ◽  
Eric Masanet

Abstract The onsite water use of data centers (DCs) is becoming an increasingly important consideration within the policy and energy analysis communities, but has heretofore been difficult to quantify in macro-level DC energy models due to lack of reported water usage effectiveness (WUE) values by DC operators. This work addresses this important knowledge gap by presenting thermodynamically-compatible power usage effectiveness (PUE) and WUE values for a wide range of U.S. DC archetypes and climate zones, using a physics-based model that is validated with real-world data. Results enable energy analysts to more accurately analyze the onsite energy and water use of DCs by size class, cooling system type, and climate zone under many different operating conditions including operational setpoints. Sensitivity analyses further identify the variables leading to best-achievable PUE and WUE values by climate zone and cooling system type—including operational set points, use of free cooling, and cooling tower equipment and operational factors—which can support DC water- and energy-efficiency policy initiatives. The consistent PUE and WUE values may also be used in future work to quantify the indirect water use of DCs occurring in electrical power generating systems.


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