Raised Floor Computer Data Center: Effect on Rack Inlet Temperatures

This paper focuses on the effect of the rack inlet
temperatures resulting from chilled air exhausting from
perforated tiles situated in both the hot and cold aisles
of a raised floor data center. Only the above floor(raised
floor) flow and temperature distributions were analyzed
for various flowrates exhausting from the perforated
tiles. A Computational Fluid Dynamic(CFD) model was
generated for the room with electronic equipment
installed on a raised floor with particular focus on the
effects on rack inlet temperatures of equipment heat
load, placement of air conditioning(A/C) units and
chilled air flowrates. Fourty racks of data
processing(DP) equipment were arranged in rows in a
data center cooled by chilled air exhausting from
perforated floor tiles. The chilled air was provided by
four A/C units placed inside a room 12.1 m wide x 13.4 m
long. Since the arrangement of the racks in the data
center was symmetric only one-half of the data center
needed to be modeled. The numerical modeling was
performed using a commercially available finite control
volume computer code called Flotherm(Trademark of
Flomerics, Inc.). The flow was modeled using the k-e
turbulence model. Results are displayed to provide
some guidance on the design and layout of a data
center.
www.flomerics.com