Evaluation of airflow and temperature distribution of a high-density data center using computational fluid dynamics

In this paper, using computational fluid dynamics, the air flow pattern and temperature distribution for a high-density data center is presented. The Air-pack software is employed to evaluate the performance of the cooling system within the data center. A high-density data center with a total power density of 227.2 kW is considered. The arrangement considered for the data center is a cold/hot aisle layout and also two computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units are employed to produce cold air flow. A three-dimensional analysis of cold/hot air flow within the data center is provided and high temperature and hot air re-circulation areas are predicted. The results of this research show that in the entrance of the higher thermal density rack servers, there are areas with a temperature of 32.7℃ , which exceeds the permissible limit determined by the ASHRAE standard. But the temperature distribution of lower thermal density rack servers is completely consistent with the ASHRAE temperature range. Also, the hot exhaust air is recirculating into cold aisles and mixing with the supplied cold air.  This model could be used to evaluate the air flow and thermal mapping in order to design a new data centers or to optimize existing data centers in terms of reducing the problems in data center cooling, including hot air return and cold air bypass.