Simulators for Conversing Power to Thermal on Green Data Centers: A Review

This paper aims to help data center administrators choose thermal simulation tools, which manage thermal conduction from power for energy savings. When evaluating and suggesting data center thermal simulators for users, questions such as "What are the simulator's differences? Are they easy to use? Which is the best choice?" are frequently asked. To answer these questions, this paper reviews the thermal simulation works for data centers in the last ten years. After that, it proposes the versatility and dexterity metrics for these simulators and discovers that it is difficult to choose them despite their similar design purpose and functions. Empowered by the survey, we claim that the widespread practice simulators still need more enhancement in data center scenarios. We back up our claim by comparing typical simulators and propose improvements to thermal simulators for future studies.