Effect of server load variation on rack air flow distribution in a raised floor data center

Author

Kumar, Pramod ; Sundaralingam, Vikneshan ; Joshi, Yogendra

Author_Institution

CEETHERM Data Center Lab., Georgia Inst. of Technol., Atlanta, GA, USA

fYear

2011

fDate

20-24 March 2011

Firstpage

90

Lastpage

96

Abstract

This paper presents experimental studies on server level rack air distribution for a preset perforated tile air flow rate. A series of experiments are performed using a 22.8 kW server simulator placed in a raised floor data center facility. The rack air flow rate is varied by adjusting the fan speed of the server simulator. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) technique is used to capture the air flow pattern at various locations in the cold aisle at the inlet of the server simulator. The PIV images are recorded at various locations and later combined to get the complete air distribution map across the rack inlet. Various cases of rack air flow distributions are investigated by varying the server simulator fan speed settings for given perforated tile air flow rate. A significant change in the air distribution pattern is observed for various cases investigated.

Keywords

aerodynamics; computer centres; cooling; fans; flow visualisation; network servers; air distribution pattern; air flow pattern; particle image velocimetry; power 22.8 kW; preset perforated tile air flow rate; rack air flow distribution; raised floor data center facility; server load variation; server simulator; Cameras; Floors; Fluid flow measurement; Load management; Servers; Tiles; Velocity measurement; PIV; Rack air flow distribution; Server Simulator;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Semiconductor Thermal Measurement and Management Symposium (SEMI-THERM), 2011 27th Annual IEEE

Conference_Location

San Jose, CA

ISSN

1065-2221

Print_ISBN

978-1-61284-740-5

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/STHERM.2011.5767184

Filename

5767184