Simulation of Thermal Distribution and Airflow for Efficient Energy Consumption in a Small Data Centers

Ni, Jing; Jin, Bowen; Zhang, Bo; Wang, Xiaowei

doi:10.3390/su9040664

Cited by 37 publications

(18 citation statements)

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“…The study in this paper is based on the governing equations from [20]. The model was created in a manner in which the room is entirely isolated and the influence of heat transfer from the exterior is ignored (external thermal radiation and convection modes are neglected as well as thermal conduction through the walls).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Improving Airflow and Thermal Distribution in a Real Data Centre Room Through Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling

Macedo

Gaspar²,

Silva³

et al. 2019

2019 8th International Conference on Industrial Technology and Management (ICITM)

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A Data Centre is a physical space that groups together computer equipment such as servers, storage arrays, among other equipment. It can be used for storage, processing and data protection. The majority of data centres operate 24 hours a day, and must provide the user with guarantees in terms of security and performance. Energy consumption is therefore permanent and the level of assistance and maintenance high. Data Centres have an ecological impact that is almost invisible to many users. In this paper a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of the airflow and thermal distribution of a real data centre room with 208 racks is proposed. Two case studies are presented and simulated with a high thermal load subjected to the minimum and maximum air flow velocity, respectively. The objective is to assess if the computer room air conditioning unit (CRAC) can cool the racks of the data centre in order to efficiently refrigerate all the hot spots.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The continuity, momentum and , turbulence (standard k-ε model) equations employed in this paper rely on equations from [20] and [21], usual for this purpose. The equations that represent the model are as follows:…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Improving Airflow and Thermal Distribution in a Real Data Centre Room Through Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling

Macedo

Gaspar²,

Silva³

et al. 2019

2019 8th International Conference on Industrial Technology and Management (ICITM)

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Researchers are now paying more attentions on the improvement of energy saving through adjusting the air conditioning in computer rooms, and focusing on the improvement of the thermal environment and energy efficiency. Many methods were proposed, such as hot and cold closed aisle, efficient floor tiles, optimization of temperature set points, heat and humidification controls, airflow thermal performance, and airflow management [5][6][7][8]. Most of all, airflow distribution and management are important factors for the design of cooling systems, and the reasonable layout not only helps to reduce data center local hot spots, but also improves the overall thermal environment and the utilization rate of cooling capacity.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Existing works [5,8,[25][26][27][28][29] have validated that the simulation method is the most common effective method to study air-flow distribution and management of data centers. CFD is a commonly-used software for the simulation of fluid dynamics, analyzing and solving problems that involve fluid flows, such as airflow distribution, temperature distribution, and calculations of thermal energy for specific environments and structures.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Numerical Simulation of the Airflow Distribution and Energy Efficiency in Data Centers with Three Types of Aisle Layout

Jin

Ning

et al. 2019

Sustainability

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The energy consumption of fast-growing data centers is drawing attentions from not only energy organizations and institutions all over the world, but also charity groups, such as Greenpeace, and research shows that the power consumption of air conditioning makes up a large proportion of the electricity cost in data centers. Therefore, more detailed investigations of air conditioning power consumption are warranted. Three types of airflow distributions with different aisle layouts (the open aisle, the closed cold aisle, and the closed hot aisle) were investigated with Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) methods in a typical data center of four rows of racks in this study. To evaluate the results of thermal and bypass phenomenon, the temperature increase index (β) and the energy utilization index (ηr) were used. The simulations show that there is a better trend of the β index and ηr index both closed cold aisle and closed hot aisle compared with free open aisle. Especially with high air flow rate, the β index decreases and the ηr index increases considerably. Moreover, the results prove the closed aisles (both closed cold aisle and closed hot aisle) can not only significantly improve the airflow distribution, but also reduce the mixture of cold and heat flow, and therefore improve energy efficiency. In addition, it proves the design of the closed aisles can meet the increasing density of installations and our simulation method could evaluate the cooling capacity easily.

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“…In the last few decades, the increase in energy consumption due to a rising utilization of information and communication technologies (ICT) is a difficult challenge, from the energetic, ecological and economical points of view, which compromises sustainability [1]. The creation and rapid dissemination of grid and cloud computing [2], in recent years, has led to an increase in the number of data centers as well as in their size [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Parametric Numerical Study of the Airflow and Thermal Performance in a Real Data Center for Improving Sustainability

et al. 2019

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In recent years, reducing energy consumption has been relentlessly pursued by researchers and policy makers with the purpose of achieving a more sustainable future. The demand for data storage in data centers has been steadily increasing, leading to an increase in size and therefore to consume more energy. Consequently, the reduction of the energy consumption of data center rooms is required and it is with this perspective that this paper is proposed. By using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), it is possible to model a three-dimensional model of the heat transfer and air flow in data centers, which allows forecasting the air speed and temperature range under diverse conditions of operation. In this paper, a CFD study of the thermal performance and airflow in a real data center processing room with 208 racks under different thermal loads and airflow velocities is proposed. The physical-mathematical model relies on the equations of mass, momentum and energy conservation. The fluid in this study is air and it is modeled as an ideal gas with constant properties. The model of the effect of turbulence is made by employing a k-ε standard model. The results indicate that it is possible to reduce the thermal load of the server racks by improving the thermal performance and airflow of the data center room, without affecting the correct operation of the server racks located in the sensible regions of the room. Appl. Sci. 2019, 9, 3850 2 of 30 the world host on their servers organizations with databases, every Internet website, and cloud services. Data centers are consuming more and more electricity worldwide [4][5][6]. In 2012, the entire consumption of data centers was assessed to be near 270 TWh [7]. ICT are responsible for roughly 10% of worldwide power consumption and 13-15% of this consumption is due to data centers [8][9][10][11]. It is expected that this consumption will only grow in the near future, thus challenging sustainability goals [12]. In a study where projections up to 2030 are made, data centers could consume, in the best case scenario 3% and in the worst case scenario 13% of the worldwide electricity production [13]. The main factor of such a high level of energy use is the consumption of air conditioning systems, which, given the type of ICT equipment, could account for 24-60% of the entire data center's energy consumption [14].Data centers are required to follow rigorous technical specifications with the purpose of guaranteeing their optimal operation and security, and engineers need to sure that the ICT equipment should operate without experiencing any loss of performance or interruption. Thus, thermal engineers have a crucial importance in the design of data centers. The reason is that data centers generate a high quantity of heat and need to be refrigerated in order to avert any loss of performance or failures, thus signifying that the power consumption is high [15].Data center rooms are comprised of racks hosting servers with distinct configurations and distinct capacities. To keep the productiv...

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Simulation of Thermal Distribution and Airflow for Efficient Energy Consumption in a Small Data Centers

Cited by 37 publications

References 37 publications

Improving Airflow and Thermal Distribution in a Real Data Centre Room Through Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling

Improving Airflow and Thermal Distribution in a Real Data Centre Room Through Computational Fluid Dynamics Modeling

The Numerical Simulation of the Airflow Distribution and Energy Efficiency in Data Centers with Three Types of Aisle Layout

A Parametric Numerical Study of the Airflow and Thermal Performance in a Real Data Center for Improving Sustainability

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