Proceedings of IPACK2009 InterPACK'09 July 19-23, 2009, San Francisco, California, USA

IPACK2009-89203
OPTIMIZATION OF COLD AISLE ISOLATION DESIGNS FOR A DATA CENTER WITH ROOFS AND DOORS USING SLITS
Srujan Gondipalli State University of New York at Binghamton IEEC, PO Box 6000, Vestal Pkwy East Binghamton, New York, USA, 13902 Phone: (607) 777-6021 Email: sgondip1@binghamton.edu Siddharth Bhopte State University of New York at Binghamton IEEC, PO Box 6000, Vestal Pkwy East Binghamton, New York, USA, 13902 Phone: (607) 777-6021 Email: sgondip1@binghamton.edu Madhusudan K. Iyengar Advanced Thermal Laboratory IBM Systems and Technology Group IBM Mail Stop P520, 2455 South Road Poughkeepsie, New York, 12601, USA Phone: (845) 433-3708 Email: mki@us.ibm.com ABSTRACT Data centers are facilities that house large numbers of computer servers that typically dissipate high power. With the rapid increase in the heat flux of such systems, their thermal management represents an economic and environmental challenge that needs to be addressed [1]. Considering the trends of increasing heat loads and heat fluxes, the focus for users is in providing adequate airflow through the equipment at a temperature that meets the manufacturers requirements. Data centers house IT equipment in racks typically arranged in rows which face one another. Alternating cold and hot aisles are formed and this pattern is repeated across the data center. This approach helps to separate cold and hot air streams; but this does not always suffice in the separation of cold and hot air. The mixing of hot rack exhaust air with cold supply air, short-circuiting of cold air to the coolers and the recirculation of hot air to racks inlet are the common phenomena that lead to thermal inefficiencies in a typical data center. Typically in a raised floor data center, increase in rack inlet air temperature is seen because of the infiltration of hot air into the cold aisle from the top (ceiling of the cold aisle) and from edges or sides. Infiltration can be reduced to a certain extent if cold aisles are isolated from ceiling and hot aisles using partially or fully closed doors with slits to manage the airflow. The key is to redistribute the cold Bahgat Sammakia State University of New York at Binghamton IEEC, PO Box 6000, Vestal Pkwy East Binghamton, New York, USA, 13902 Phone: (607) 777-6888 Email: bahgat@binghamton.edu Roger Schmidt Server Group, IBM Corporation IBM Mail Stop P932, 2455 South Road Poughkeepsie, New York, 12601, USA Phone: (845) 433-5259 Email: c28rrs@us.ibm.com Bruce Murray State University of New York at Binghamton IEEC, PO Box 6000 Vestal Pkwy East Binghamton, New York, USA, 13902 Phone: (607) 777-6561 Email: bmurray@binghamton.edu air entering the cold aisle along with any infiltration such that the overall average temperature at the rack inlets is below a predefined level. In this paper, different designs were generated with the criteria of achieving no hotspots, a relatively low pressure drop across the servers and low velocity of the air in the cold aisle based on an actual data center model. Several designs are proposed that meet all of the defined constraints. INTRODUCTION Fig 1 shows a typical raised floor data center layout with the computer room air conditioner (CRAC) units pumping cold air into the plenum, and enters the computer room through perforated floor tiles. The plenum typically is 2ft high. Series of perforated tiles are placed with computer server racks on either side of the tiles. The intake side of the server racks is faced towards the perforated tiles for drawing the cold air. The region where perforated tiles are placed is called cold aisle. Two rows of server racks are placed facing each other with cold aisle in between them. As the server racks draw the cold air, hot air is emitted at the back as the heat from the equipment is transferred to the intake air. The region where hot air is emitted is called hot aisle because of its relatively high

temperature. The hot air is collected by the CRACs and is clearly seen in Fig 1 [3].

So, baseline cases with two different CRAC flow rates have been investigated. An 80% CRAC flow rate refers to 80% of the ideal CRAC flow rate 11620 cfm (0.8 x 58100 cfm). Similarly 85% CRAC flow rate equals 12346.25 cfm. The computational studies are performed using CFD software Flotherm7.2 and the flow is modeled using the k-e turbulence model. Since the room is symmetrical, only half of the room is considered for optimization studies to reduce the computational time for solving the problem [4].

Fig 1: A typical raised floor data center with alternating hot and cold aisle arrangement [2] BASELINE CASE Fig 2 shows the data center room layout considered for the optimization study of cold aisles using slits on roofs and doors. The data center has 40 server racks, each dissipating 32 KW of power with two cold aisle and three hot aisles. Table 1 represents the specifications assumed for the model. Number of grid cells is 140,000 maintained in the same range used by Bhopte et al [2]. CRAC units are modeled as simple devices which supply cold air to the plenum and extract the hot exhaust from the room at a specified flow rate. Each server rack has a rated air flow of 2905 cfm. So to feed cold air to 20 server racks, ideally CRAC flow rate have to be 58100 cfm (12 x 2905 cfm). But usually the CRAC supplies less than the required flow rate as lower rack inlet temperatures can be achieved. Room Size Plenum Depth Each Server heat rating Server rated air flow Tile Openness Tile Size CRAC rated air flow Chilled air temperature supply 6.05 x 13.42 x 3.048 m 0.6 m 32 KW 2905 cfm

Fig 2: Data Center room Layout [2]

Symmetric Boundary Wall

A1

13.4m

6.05m
50% 0.61 x 0.61 m 11620 cfm (80%) 12346.25 cfm (85%) 15C 30C Fig 3: Top view of data center model showing only the symmetric half in Flotherm PERFORMANCE OF BASELINE CASE For 80% CRAC flow rate, on an average, server racks are 20% deficient of the cold air. Servers are forced to draw this portion of cold air from either ceiling or hot aisle. This mixing of hot air in cold aisle is termed as re-circulation cells [5, 6]. Usually top portions of the servers draw cold air from the ceiling and these are called top recirculation cells, seen clearly in figure 5(a). The servers located at the foot of the cold aisles draw air from the hot aisle. When the air enters

Ambient air temperature Table 1: CFD model specifications

from the foot of cold aisle it is called edge recirculation cells, seen clearly in figure 5(b). As stated previously, 80% CRAC flow of cold air is pumped into the room which is considerable amount of air to maintain the servers at 32C [7]. In the baseline case, it is observed that top recirculation is not dominating edge recirculation overtly as in the simple model study done by Gondipalli et al [8]. In fact the temperatures of the foot of the servers are very high which is due to the edge recirculation (refer to Fig 6) than that of temperatures at the top servers.

edge recirculation but the interior parts of the servers are cooled to very low temperatures which are not required and will not run at optimum performance. Monitor points are placed in front of the server inlets along the height of the racks. Three hotspots are observed at higher temperatures above the acceptable temperature requirement (~ 32C). From Fig 7, the edge racks are the most affected and monitor points at these racks have the temperatures just below the acceptable temperature. Furthermore as seen in Fig 8, edge racks experience high temperatures.

(a): Side view of racks A1 & B1

(b): Top view at 5.5 ft above the raise floor

Fig 8: Temperature contours at A1-B1 and C1-D1 Side view AIM OF THE STUDY This paper is an extension study of creating blockage like structures in the cold aisle which will reduce the infiltration of hot air in the cold aisle performed by Gondipalli et al [8]. Eight different designs are developed and optimized in order to meet the criteria listed in the Table 2 comparing with baseline case performance. Baseline Case 0 3

Fig 5: Velocity Vector Plots of recirculation cells [8]

Criteria Monitor Points at the server racks having temperature > 32C Pressure Drop across the Server Velocity of air in the Cold aisle

Fig 6: Temperature contours at 0.4 m above the floor Top view (80% CRAC flow rate).
40

< 50 Pa < 6 m/s

< 10 Pa < 4 m/s

35

30

25

20

Table 2: Criteria considered with baseline case performance The criteria are tabulated in the order of their significance. As per the ASHRAE standards, no part of the server is to be maintained more than 32C for optimum performance [7]. Placing the obstructions on the cold aisle creates a high pressure region which has to be maintained at an allowable measure and is assumed to be less than 50Pa across the server. Velocity of air inside the cold aisle is preferably under 6m/s. The baseline case violates the first criteria which is the most critical one (refer to Table 2). This

15

10

0 A1-1 A1-2 A1-3 A1-4 A1-5 A1-6 B1-1 B1-2 B1-3 B1-4 B1-5 B1-6 C1-1 C1-2 C1-3 C1-4 C1-5 C1-6 D1-1 D1-2 D1-3 D1-4 D1-5 D1-6

Fig 7: Rack inlet air temperatures of edge racks A1, B1, C1 & D1. Fig 6 shows temperature contours at a height of 0.4 m above the raised floor. Clearly, high inlet temperatures are seen at this rack level especially at the edge servers due to the

might result in hardware damage due to the unacceptable rack inlet air temperatures. DESIGN I: BASELINE CASE WITH ROOFS AND DOORS Simulations are now carried out on the baseline case with both roofs and side doors. Since the CRAC does not supply 100% of the required flow rate, a 0.3m gap is created at the foot of the doors to satisfy the mass balance. So infiltration of hot air in cold aisle will occur only through this 0.3m clearance (refer to Fig 9) eventually two hotspots are seen at B1-1 and C1-1. The deficient 20% of air is drawn through the 0.3m clearance created at the bottom of the door which increased the temperatures of neighboring racks, pressure drop across the server and the clearance and velocity of air in cold aisle as seen in the Table 3. Hence this design has violated all the criteria considered.

decreased which resulted in drawing the hot air into the only edge and top parts of servers increasing the rack inlet air temperature eventually a hotspot is created.

Fig 10: CFD model setup of the Baseline Case with meshed Roofs and Doors Meshed Roofs and Doors Monitor Points > 32C Pressure Drop across Server Door Roof Velocity in the Cold aisle

5% 4

10% 6

20% 9

120 Pa 111 Pa 102 Pa 0.4 m/s

35 Pa 33 Pa 25 Pa 0.5 m/s

15 Pa 12 Pa 5 Pa 0.6 m/s

0.3m clearance Table 4: Comparison of Criteria of Design II optimization models Fig 9: CFD model of Baseline Case with roofs and doors with 0.3m clearance Monitor Points > 32C Pressure Drop across Server 0.35 m Clearance Velocity in the Cold aisle Table 3: Criteria for Design I DESIGN II: WITH MESHED ROOFS AND DOORS In this design, 0.3m gap is removed from the foot of doors and the cold aisle is enclosed with porous roofs and doors at 5%, 10% and 20% openness as shown in Fig 10. None of the optimized models of meshing the roofs and doors has generated reasonable results though satisfying pressure drop and velocity criteria. Many hotspots are seen at the adjacent areas of the meshed roofs and doors, making the design unacceptable as seen in Table 4. Due to the meshed roofs and doors, the inlet hot air infiltration velocity is 2 DESIGN III: WITH SOLID ROOFS AND MESHED DOORS The setup as seen in Fig 11 describes the solid roofs and meshed doors placed on the cold aisle.

100 Pa 90 Pa 8.35 m/s

Fig 11: CFD model setup of the Baseline Case with Solid Roofs and Meshed Doors With this design, top infiltration can be prevented but edge recirculation is allowed. The velocity of the hot air inflow is decreased due to the meshed doors creating hotspots

at the edge racks. Performances of these designs are tabulated in Table 5 and clearly violate the No hotspot criteria. Solid Roofs and Meshed Doors Monitor Points > 32C Pressure Drop across Server Door Velocity in the Cold aisle

DESIGN V: SLITS ON ROOFS AND DOORS

10% 10 150 Pa 155 Pa 1 m/s

20% 11 40 Pa 40 Pa 1.2 m/s

30% 12 20 Pa 16 Pa 1.2 m/s Fig 13: CFD model setup of the Baseline Case with Slits on Roofs and Doors Solid roofs and doors are placed on the cold aisle restricting the infiltration only through the slits created on the roofs and doors as seen in Fig 13. The lengths of these slits are optimized by performing simulations of different sizes to achieve the criteria. Slit parametric study is initiated with AB roof slit 1.5 x 0.15 m, CD roof slit 1 x 0.15 m and door slits 0.5 x 0.15 m (refer to Fig 14). Different case simulations were carried out for each slit length increasing by 0.5 m with the slit width fixed at 0.15m as explained in Table 7 in AB cold aisle. In CD cold aisle, the door slits have the same dimensions but the length of the roof slit have 0.5 m less than the AB roof slit for any given optimization model. Roof
RSL = 1.5 2 3.66 DSL = 0.5 1.22 SW = 0.15 SW = 0.15

Table 5: Comparison of Criteria of Design III optimization models DESIGN IV: WITH SOLID ROOFS AND MESHED DOORS HALFWAY Solid Roofs remain unchanged but the doors are halfway solid and the other half meshed with 10%, 20% and 30% openness as seen in Fig 12. Similar to the previous design, due to the solid doors top infiltration is not observed and the infiltration has to happen through the meshed part of the doors. From the Table 6, 10% meshed doors has the least number of hotspots with high pressure drop across the server and door and hotspots increased as the openness is increased to 30%.

Door

Fig 14: Slit dimensions of AB cold aisle Fig 12: CFD model setup of the Baseline Case with Solid Roofs and Meshed Doors Halfway Solid Roofs and Meshed Doors Halfway Monitor Points > 32C Pressure Drop across Server Door Velocity in the Cold aisle Slit Parametric Study I 10% 3 480 Pa 450 Pa 0.9 m/s 20% 8 140 Pa 130 Pa 1 m/s 30% 8 60 Pa 50 Pa 1.1 m/s From Table 8, Slit Parametric Study V nearly missed with only one hotspot and velocity of air in cold aisle at the II III IV V AB Roof Slit length RSL (m) 1.5 2 2 2.5 2.5 Door Slit length DSL (m) 0.5 0.5 1 0.5 1

Table 7: Slit Dimensions for the Slit Parametric studies

Table 6: Comparison of Criteria of Design IV optimization models

entrance of the CD door slit is 6.7 m/s which just exceeded the maximum velocity but it can be accepted. Slit Parametric Study Monitor Points > 32C Pressure Drop across (Pa) Server Door Roof Velocity in the Cold aisle (m/s) I 3 II 4 III 1 IV 2 V

V of the previous design with the addition of offset in slits on the roof as seen in Fig 17.
SW = 0.15m, Offset = 25mm SW = 0.15m, Offset = 0.25m RSL = 2.5 RSL = 2 3.66 AB Roof CD Roof 2.44

110 90 90 9.7

80 70 60 7.7

60 55 40 6.3

55 40 35 6.6

45 30 30 6.7

1.22

Fig 17: Dimensions of the slits in meters DESIGN VII: SLITS ON ROOFS AND DOORS WITH BARRIERS Considering the same dimensions of the parametric study V of the Design V, barriers are attached under the slits along their length as seen in the Fig 18. The barriers prevent the infiltration of hot air directly into Rows A and D servers. Instead the hot is sent into the middle portion of the cold aisle allowing the servers to share the hot air equally. The depth of the barrier is 0.2 m which is determined by trial and error simulations.

Table 8: Comparison of Criteria of Design V optimization models

Fig 15: Velocity vectors Side view Parametric Study I V During the slit parametric runs, a unique phenomenon is observed. Rows A and D experience high rack inlet air temperatures. From Fig 15, the hot air emitted at the back of the servers is seen bypassing directly into racks A & D. And the rack inlet air temperatures are raised in these rows as seen in the CD cold aisle in Fig 16. In order to overcome this problem, barriers under the slits or offsetting the slits far from Rows A & D are simulated in the next designs.

Fig 18: CFD model setup of the Baseline Case with Slits on Roofs and Doors with barriers Design Monitor Points > 32C Fig 16: Temperature Contours at CD Cold aisle for PS I-V VI. SLIT ON DOOR AND OFFSETTING SLITS ON ROOFS Offsetting the slits on the roof far from the rows A and D help in reducing the bypass of the hot air and to increase the amount of mixing the hot and cold air in the cold aisle before being drawn into the servers. The offset is estimated by trial and error simulations with logical assumption. The model is the same as that of Parametric study Pressure Drop across (Pa) Server Door Roof Velocity in the Cold aisle (m/s) CD AB VI 0 VII 0

50 45 30 6.5 5

50 40 30 6.6 5.4

Table 9: Comparison of Criteria Design VI & VII

Design VI and VII produced very similar results without any hotspots at an acceptable pressure drop across server and velocity of air in the cold aisle as the same model of Design V is used for both designs, similar results are obtained as in Table 9. DESIGN VIII: SOLID DOORS AND SLIT ON THE ROOFS I. SOLID DOORS AND SLIT ON ROOFS With the dimensions of Parametric study V of Design V, slit on the door is removed and solid doors are put in place eliminating edge recirculation and the infiltration is observed only through the slit on the roof (refer to Fig 19).

and the lowest velocity of the air in the cold aisle among the three and in fact among the other designs studied.
SW = 0.15m, Offset = 5mm SW = 0.15m, Offset = 50mm

3.66 AB Roof CD Roof

2.44

Fig 21: Dimensions of the slits in meters

Solid Doors and Slit on the Roof Monitor Points > 32C Pressure Drop across (Pa) Server Roof Velocity in the Cold aisle (m/s) CD AB

I 2

II 1

III 0

55 50 5.9 5.4

40 30 2.7 2.9

40 30 2.7 2.9

Fig 19: CFD model setup of the Baseline Case with Solid Doors and Slit on Roofs II. SOLID DOORS AND SLIT ALONG THE ROOF The slit on the roof is extended all along the roof as in Fig 20, relieving some pressure and low velocity in the cold aisle (refer to Table 10) and increased top recirculation is seen.

Table 10: Comparison of Criteria of Design VIII optimization models RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Eight designs with various sub-optimization models are presented in the paper with the previously stated criteria being the evaluation factor. Designs I V could not maintain the rack inlet air temperatures of the servers below the critical temperature and have failed to meet the criteria. Only three models have met all the criteria Designs VI, VII and VIII. Both Designs VI and VII have very similar results as these are created with the motive of reducing the phenomena observed in Design V (refer to Fig 15 & 16). The main drawback of Design VII is the challenge of adding the barriers to be hung under the slits. In order to propose a best design among the three shortlisted models, Design VII can be eliminated because of its drawback leaving only two designs to evaluate. Comparisons of the criteria of the two best cases are shown in Table 11. Clearly, Solid Doors and Slit along the Roof with offset (Design VIII) performed better than the Design VI. The pressure drop and the velocity in the cold aisle is well below the prescribed value and better than Design VI. From Fig 21, three monitor points are violating first criteria in the Baseline case at the edge servers where cold air inflow through the tiles is minimum. It is tough to choose the better of the two designs Design VI & Solid doors and Slit along the roof with offset from the comparison graphs of rack inlet air temperatures of AB cold aisle comparing with

SW = 0.15

SW = 0.15

3.66 AB Roof CD Roof 1.22

Fig 20: Dimensions of the slits in meters

2.44

III. SOLID DOORS AND SLIT ALONG THE ROOF WITH OFFSET Offsetting the slits on the roof helps in reducing the bypass of hot air directly into rows A & D as previously seen in Design VI. Again the offset values are estimated by trial and error simulations shown in Fig 21. From the Table 10, the design is optimized by extending the slit all along the roof and applying offset on the slit. This design produced relatively low pressure drop across the server

baseline case in Fig 21 & 22. But considering all the factors the complexity of the designs, pressure and velocity criteria, Solid doors and slit along the roof with offset out-performed Design VI. Design MPs > 32C Pressure Drop across (Pa) Server Door Roof Velocity in the Cold aisle (m/s) CD AB BC 3 VI 0 VIII 0

reduced the rack inlet air temperatures especially at the edge servers where one or two hotspots were previously seen.

< 10

50 45 30

40 30

<4 6.5 5 2.7 2.9

Fig 23: Temperature Contours of Baseline case at the middle of AB cold aisle Side view

Table 11: Comparison of Criteria Design VI & VIII with Baseline Case
40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 A1-1 A1-2 A1-3 A1-4 A1-5 A1-6 B1-1 B1-2 B1-3 B1-4 B1-5 B1-6 C1-1 C1-2 C1-3 C1-4 C1-5 C1-6 D1-1 D1-2 D1-3 D1-4 D1-5 D1-6 Baseline Case Slit on Doors and Of fsetting Slit on Roof s Solid Doors & Slit along the Roof w ith Of fset

Fig 24: Temperature Contours of Design VIII at the middle of AB cold aisle Side view

Fig 21 Comparison of Edge Rack inlet air temperatures of AB cold aisle

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 A1-6 A2-6 A3-6 A4-6 A5-6 A6-6 Baseline Case B1-6 B2-6 B3-6 B4-6 B5-6 B6-6 C1-6 C2-6 C3-6 C4-6 D1-6 D2-6 D3-6 D4-6

Fig 25: Pressure Contours of Baseline case at the middle of AB cold aisle Side view

Slit on Doors and Offsetting Slit on Roofs

Solid Doors & Slit along the Roof w ith Offset

Fig 22: Comparison of Top Rack inlet air temperatures of AB cold aisle From the temperature contours of Baseline Case in Fig 23, cold air pumping into the room through the tiles is escaping the cold aisle without being drawn by the servers. But from Fig 24, with solid doors and a slit along the roof has entirely curbed the wastage of cold air and significantly

Fig 26: Pressure Contours of Design VIII at the middle of AB cold aisle Side view Isolating the cold aisles by roofs and doors, would obviously increase the pressure inside but may be maintained at an acceptable value. A high pressure region is created at the edge servers because they experience low tile flow rate (refer

to Fig 26) which depends on under floor parameters like plenum depth, blockages in the plenum, tile resistance etc [9, 10]. Another case of increasing the CRAC flow rate to 85% is also simulated for these two shortlisted designs and compared with the baseline case based on the criteria in Table 12. Increasing the CRAC flow rate does not help in decreasing the hotspots but instead increases them from 3 to 7 as more cold air is escaping from the cold aisle. By placing the two designs on the cold aisle, hotspots are vanished with pressure and velocity well below the acceptable values. But Solid doors and Slit along the roof with offset has performed better than its counterpart.

40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 A1-6 A2-6 A3-6 A4-6 A5-6 A6-6 B1-6 B2-6 B3-6 B4-6 B5-6 B6-6 C1-6 C2-6 C3-6 C4-6 D1-6 D2-6 D3-6 D4-6 Baseline Case Slit on Doors and Offsetting Slit on Roofs Solid Doors & Slit along the Roof w ith Offset

Fig 28: Comparison of Top rack inlet air temperature @ 85% CRAC of AB cold aisle CONCLUSION In this paper, several designs isolating the cold aisle in a data center with the criteria of no hotspots, a low pressure drop across the servers and low velocity of air in the cold aisle have been studied in detail. An actual raised floor data center is modeled in Flotherm at 80% CRAC flow rate. Cold aisles are isolated with roofs and doors on top of the cold aisle with various configurations like meshed roof and door, slits on roof and door and barriers under the slits. Three designs are shown to meet all of the criteria and it can be concluded that Solid doors and slit along the roof with offset (Design VIII) performed best among them. Design I V failed to meet the criteria. Optimizations of Design V lead to the designs VI VIII. Though Design VII met the criteria, because of its difficulty in installation, may not be the best option as Design VI which produced the same results with less complexity in structure. At 85% CRAC flow rate, the two designs performed well in eliminating hotspots and maintaining low pressure drop and velocity in the cold aisle. Overall, Solid doors and a slit on roof with offset can be selected as the best from the lot because of its simple design, potential ease in installation and its ability to all of the stated design criteria. REFERENCES [1] R. Schmidt, E. Cruz and M. K. Iyengar, Challenges of data center thermal management, IBM Journal of Research and Development, Volume 49, Number 4/5, 2005 [2] S. Bhopte, B. Sammakia, R Schmidt, M. K. Iyengar and D. Agonafer, Numerical Modeling of Data Center Clusters Impact of Model Complexity, Proceedings of IMECE, ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, Nov 5-10, 2006, Chicago, Illinois, USA [3] S. Bhopte, B. Sammakia, R. Schmidt, M. K. Iyengar and D. Agonafer, Effect of Under Floor Blockages on Data Center Performance, ITHERM `06, 30 May 2 June, 2006, pp. 426-433 [4] Sharma R.K., Cullen B.E. and Patel C.D., Dimensionless Parameters For Evaluation of Thermal Design And Performance of Large Scale Data Centers, Paper No.

Criteria

Baseline Case

Design VI

Design VIII

Monitor Points > 32C Pressure Drop across (Pa) Server Door Roof Velocity in the Cold aisle (m/s) CD AB

< 10 Pa

40 Pa 30 Pa 20 Pa

35 Pa 15 Pa

< 4 m/s

5.3 m/s 4.2 m/s

1.6 m/s 2 m/s

Table 12: Comparison of Criteria Design VI & VIII with Baseline Case @ 85% CRAC rate
45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 A1-1 A1-2 A1-3 A1-4 A1-5 A1-6 B1-1 B1-2 B1-3 B1-4 B1-5 B1-6 C1-1 C1-2 C1-3 C1-4 C1-5 C1-6 D1-1 D1-2 D1-3 D1-4 D1-5 D1-6

Baseline Case Slit on Doors and Offsetting Slit on Roofs Solid Doors & Slit along the Roof with Offset

Fig 27: Comparison of Edge rack inlet air temperature @ 85% CRAC of AB cold aisle From Fig 27 & 28, baseline case has seven monitor points exceeding the acceptable temperatures; most of them at the edge servers (refer to Fig 27). The two designs have decreased the temperatures significantly well below the required by stopping the cold air escaping out of the cold aisle.

AIAA2002-3091, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Conference, 2002 [5] R. Schmidt, Effect of Data Center Characteristics on Data Center Processing Equipment Inlet Temperatures, Proceedings of IPACK01, The Pacific Rim/ASME International Electronic Packaging Technical Conference and Exhibition, Vol. 2, Kauai, Hawaii, July 8-13, 2001, pp. 10971106. [6] S. Bhopte, D. Agonafer, R. Schmidt and B. Sammakia, Optimization of Data Center Room Layout to Minimize Rack Inlet Air Temperature, The Pacific Rim/ASME International Electronic Packaging Technical Conference and Exhibition, July 17-22, 2005, San Francisco, California, USA [7] American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and AirConditioning Engineers (ASHRAE),Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments, 2004, www.ashraetcs.org [8] S. Gondipalli, S. Bhopte, B. Sammakia, M. K. Iyengar and R. Schmidt, Effect of isolating cold aisles on rack inlet temperature, Itherm 2008, 28 31 May, 2008, pp. 1247 1254. [9] Karki K. C., Patankar S. V. and Radmehr A., Techniques for Controlling Airflow Distributions in a Raised Floor Data Centers, Paper No. IPACK2003-35282, Proceedings of IPACK03, The Pacific Rim/ASME International Electronic Packaging Technical Conference and Exhibition, July 6-11, 2003, Maui, Hawaii, USA. [10] Karki K. C., Radmehr A., and Patankar S.V., Use of Computational Fluid Dynamics for Calculating Flow Rates through Perforated Tiles in Raised Floor Data Centers, International Journal of Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning, and Refrigeration Research, Volume 9, Number 2, April 2003, pp. 153-166.

10