| Title |
Modeling Strategies and Thermal Management Performance of a Data Center with Cold-aisle Containment using CFD |
| Authors |
Ham, Sang-Woo ; Jeong, Jae-Weon |
| DOI |
http://dx.doi.org/10.5659/JAIK_PD.2015.31.1.159 |
| Keywords |
Data center ; Aisle containment ; CFD ; Leakage airflow modeling ; Thermal management performance |
| Abstract |
The main purpose of this study is to evaluate thermal management performance of data center with cold-aisle containment by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis. The main challenge of containment modeling in CFD is to consider the air leakage across the containment, which was neglected or considered based on the researchers' subjective assumption or complex measurement process. To properly evaluate the thermal management performance of containment, this study utilizes the building airtightness measurement data from building airflow simulation program (CONTAM) to model air leakage across containment. Based on the modeling strategy, the CFD simulation is conducted on modular data center test bed, and an experiment is also implemented in identical condition of CFD simulation. As a result, pressure distribution in the data center is properly modeled with the air leakage model, and the temperature measurement data are in good agreement with CFD results. Unlike intuition, the thermal management performance of containment is not excellent since there is some hot air recirculation through gaps between racks and the floor. This study also suggests that this recirculation can be alleviated by sealing the gaps between racks and the floor through CFD simulation. |