Contemporary data centers contain a denser aggregation of commodity
computing, networking and storage hardware mounted in industry
standard racks than before. As a result of high power density in data
centers, mechanical engineers face more challenges in cooling system
design.
One of the objectives for data center cooling systems is to remove
dissipated heat efficiently while maintaining the thermal management of
hardware. This requires that air conditioning units provide enough
cooling resources and deliver them to specific locations. Thus, each link
of the cooling system has to be optimized.
This paper studies the flow domain of the under-floor plenum in a raised-floor data center. Based on the analysis, flow control strategies were proposed and implemented in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. The results
demonstrate the possibility of optimizing airflow distribution in raised floor data centers.
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