Tutorial on Cooling Airflow in a Data Center
7x24 Exchange 2010 Fall Conference
November 14-17, 2010, Phoenix, Arizona

Fundamentals of Cooling Airflow in a Data Center.

7x24 Exchange 2010 Fall Conference
Sunday, Nov. 14, 2010, 2:30 PM - 5:00 PM 

Dr. Suhas Patankar, president, Innovative Research, Inc./TileFlow

This tutorial session will introduce basic concepts of air velocity,
airflow rate, pressure, and temperature distribution as applied to
raised-floor data centers. You will be shown why the flow distribution
through the perforated tiles is usually not uniform. It is governed by
the air velocity and pressure variation under the raised floor. By
calculating this variation, you can predict the airflow coming out of
each perforated tile. Such a calculation allows you to study the effect
of variables such as: layout of the CRAC units and the perforated
tiles, the height of the raised floor, and the presence of obstructions
under the raised floor. Once the flow rates through the perf tiles are
determined, the next step is to calculate, in the above-floor space,
the air velocity and temperature as the air moves through the server
racks and back to the CRAC units. Many examples will be presented
to develop an understanding of the physical processes and to draw
practical conclusions. The tutorial will show how to create a
computational model of a data center layout and calculate the
corresponding airflow and temperature distribution.