Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering (설비공학논문집)

The Society of Air-Conditioning and Refrigerating Engineers of Korea (대한설비공학회)
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A Study on the Effects of Supply Air Temperature on the Server Cooling Performance in a Data Center

데이터센터의 급기온도 변화가 서버 냉각 성능에 미치는 영향에 대한 연구

  • Received : 2017.12.04
  • Accepted : 2018.01.03
  • Published : 2018.02.10
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Abstract

A datacenter is a high energy consuming facility whose cooling energy consumption rate is 10~20 times larger than general office buildings. The higher the temperature of supply air from a CRAC (computer room air-conditioner) is supplied, the more energy efficient cooling is possible because of improving the COP of a chiller and advanced range of outdoor air temperature available for the economizer cycles. However, because the temperature of cold air flowing into server computers varies depending on air mixing configurations in a computer room, the proper supply air temperature must be considered based on the investigation of air mixing and heat dissipation. By these, this study aims to understand the effects of variation of the supply air temperature on the air flow distributions, temperature distributions and rack cooling efficiencies. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) aided in conducting the investigation. As a result, the variation of the supply air temperature does not affect the air flow distributions. However, it mainly affects the temperature distribution. From the results of CFD simulations, Rack cooling indices (RCIHI and RCILO) were evaluated and showed the ideal state set at $19^{\circ}C$ of the supply air temperature.

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References

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