Thermal performance of a contained data center with fan-assisted perforations

The purpose of this research was to identify the extent to which fan-assisted perforations represent an effective cooling system in a contained, raised-floor data center that has some degree of leakage. Numerical construction and thermal analyses were employed using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technique. The flow-straightening effect was tested in terms of two distinct aspects of a data center configuration that incorporate a fan-assisted perforation system, namely the fan-assisted tile and the fan to-tile distance. The ways in which these two parameters impacted the field cooling function was assessed and compared. The research evaluates a full factorial design as a means of ascertaining both the qualitative and quantitative effect of a given set of design variations. The outputs of the study indicate that, providing they are accurately and efficiently constructed, fan-assisted perforations represent a viable method by which energy contained aisle data centers can be efficiently managed. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.