Improving the efficiency of cooling systems in data centers considering equipment characteristics

Internet data centers are helping to expand the network society throughout the world. These data centers require air conditioning to operate, and raising the efficiency of their cooling systems can have significant benefits such as the prevention of equipment failure and the saving of energy as well as improved cost performance. A data center in which much heat-generating equipment has been installed produces a large amount of heat, and achieving a balance between cooling power and fan driving power holds the key to greater efficiency. This study consisted of: 1) full-scale mockup experiments that consider the ventilation of even heat-generating equipment installed in racks; and 2) efficiency evaluation and intake-temperature evaluation based on measurement results for fixed heat-generating equipment using ventilation volume and interequipment gap area as parameters. The results of these evaluations revealed that intake temperature could be predicted when varying these two parameters.