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http://dx.doi.org/10.6110/KJACR.2018.30.2.083

A Study on the Effects of Supply Air Temperature on the Server Cooling Performance in a Data Center  

Chang, Hyun Jae (School of Architectural Engineering, Hongik University)
Publication Information
Korean Journal of Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Engineering / v.30, no.2, 2018 , pp. 83-91 More about this Journal
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.
Keywords
Data center; Supply air temperature; Rack cooling index(RCI); Return temperature index(RTI);
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Times Cited By KSCI : 2  (Citation Analysis)
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