Overview of direct air free cooling and thermal energy storage potential energy savings in data centres

Oró, Eduard; Depoorter, Victor; Pflugradt, Noah; Salom, Jaume

doi:10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2015.03.001

Cited by 60 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…But the three-fluid heat exchanger is difficult to process and the flow resistance is increased correspondingly. proposed by Zhang et al [13] On the other hand, researchers [14]- [18] have done much work on energy efficiency of data centers using free cooling systems. Choo et al [19] analyzed the energy consumption of a M A N U S C R I P T…”

Section: A N U S C R I P Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis on energy efficiency of an integrated heat pipe system in data centers

Wang

Zhang

et al. 2015

Applied Thermal Engineering

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Section: A N U S C R I P Tmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis on energy efficiency of an integrated heat pipe system in data centers

Wang

Zhang

et al. 2015

Applied Thermal Engineering

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“…Because of the simple design and high efficiency of the first architecture, it is suitable for energy-saving reconstruction in small-sized and medium-sized DCs, which has been widely studied by scholars worldwide. According to the direct air-side free cooling system, the results showed that the energy consumption of free air cooling system reduced by 20%-47.5% compared to conventional the air-conditioning system in DCs [8,9]. However, this type is always limited by the cleanliness, temperature and humidity of the outdoor environment.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermal Performance and Energy Saving Analysis of Indoor Air–Water Heat Exchanger Based on Micro Heat Pipe Array for Data Center

et al. 2020

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According to the temperature regulations and high energy consumption of air conditioning (AC) system in data centers (DCs), natural cold energy becomes the focus of energy saving in data center in winter and transition season. A new type of air–water heat exchanger (AWHE) for the indoor side of DCs was designed to use natural cold energy in order to reduce the power consumption of AC. The AWHE applied micro-heat pipe arrays (MHPAs) with serrated fins on its surface to enhance heat transfer. The performance of MHPA-AWHE for different inlet water temperatures, water and air flow rates was investigated, respectively. The results showed that the maximum efficiency of the heat exchanger was 81.4% by using the effectiveness number of transfer units (ε-NTU) method. When the max air flow rate was 3000 m3/h and the water inlet temperature was 5 °C, the maximum heat transfer rate was 9.29 kW. The maximum pressure drop of the air side and water side were 339.8 Pa and 8.86 kPa, respectively. The comprehensive evaluation index j/f1/2 of the MHPA-AWHE increased by 10.8% compared to the plate–fin heat exchanger with louvered fins. The energy saving characteristics of an example DCs in Beijing was analyzed, and when the air flow rate was 2500 m3/h and the number of MHPA-AWHE modules was five, the minimum payback period of the MHPA-AWHE system was 2.3 years, which was the shortest and the most economical recorded. The maximum comprehensive energy efficiency ratio (EER) of the system after the transformation was 21.8, the electric power reduced by 28.3% compared to the system before the transformation, and the control strategy was carried out. The comprehensive performance provides a reference for MHPA-AWHE application in data centers.

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“…To the best of the authors' knowledge, this problem has not yet been addressed on this scale. However, some input for research design and methodology selection could be obtained from research on data centres [28][29][30][31][32], which also need intensive and continuous cooling to preserve electric and electronic components. Indeed, for data centres, absorption cooling has been proposed as a means to recover waste heat from the internal electric equipment (e.g., a subset of servers) to meet a part of internal cooling loads [28,29].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Carbon and Water Footprint of Energy Saving Options for the Air Conditioning of Electric Cabins at Industrial Sites

et al. 2019

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Modern electric and electronic equipment in energy-intensive industries, including electric steelmaking plants, are often housed in outdoor cabins. In a similar manner as data centres, such installations must be air conditioned to remove excess heat and to avoid damage to electric components. Cooling systems generally display a water–energy nexus behaviour, mainly depending on associated heat dissipation systems. Hence, it is desirable to identify configurations achieving both water and energy savings for such installations. This paper compares two alternative energy-saving configurations for air conditioning electric cabins at steelmaking sites—that is, an absorption cooling based system exploiting industrial waste heat, and an airside free-cooling-based system—against the traditional configuration. All systems were combined with either dry coolers or cooling towers for heat dissipation. We calculated water and carbon footprint indicators, primary energy demand and economic indicators by building a TRNSYS simulation model of the systems and applying it to 16 worldwide ASHRAE climate zones. In nearly all conditions, waste-heat recovery-based solutions were found to outperform both the baseline and the proposed free-cooling solution regarding energy demand and carbon footprint. When cooling towers were used, free cooling was a better option in terms water footprint in cold climates.

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Overview of direct air free cooling and thermal energy storage potential energy savings in data centres

Cited by 60 publications

References 13 publications

Analysis on energy efficiency of an integrated heat pipe system in data centers

Analysis on energy efficiency of an integrated heat pipe system in data centers

Thermal Performance and Energy Saving Analysis of Indoor Air–Water Heat Exchanger Based on Micro Heat Pipe Array for Data Center

Carbon and Water Footprint of Energy Saving Options for the Air Conditioning of Electric Cabins at Industrial Sites

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