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TileFlow Addresses an Important Airflow/Thermal Management Need of Data Center Managers and Designers
The heat load per unit floor area in data centers continues to increase; the
projected trends are shown in the following figure published by the Uptime Institute (www.upsite.com).
Heat load trends and projections (Uptime Institute)
For reliable operation, the electronic equipment (housed in racks) must receive sufficient amount of
cooling air and the temperature of the cooling air entering the equipment must be within a certain range. Thus, the cooling design challenge consists of two parts: (a) ensure that the distribution of
cooling air meets the the airflow requirements of the server racks, and (b) ensure that the rack inlet temperatures are within the acceptable range.
The airflow pattern and the temperature distribution above the raised floor (computer room) are highly complex and depend on the distribution of airflow rates through the perforated tiles and other
supply vents; the locations of server racks, their airflow configuration, their airflow demand, and their heat load; the locations of CRAC units; the presence of above-floor partitions and blockages; and
the presence of supplemental cooling units.
In a raised-floor data center, the flow rates through the perforated tiles are invariably non-uniform and
depend on several parameters, such as, the plenum height, the open area of the perforated tiles and cutouts, the locations of the air-conditioning units, and the flow resistance of under-floor
obstructions like pipes and cable bundles. The airflow rates through overhead supply vents are determined by the details of the supply duct system.
The common approach for achieving the desired cooling performance involves trial-and error. Because the cooling performance depends on a large number of variables, which often interact in
counter-intuitive manner, this approach is time-consuming and expensive. TileFlow offers an alternative approach that is efficient and cost-effective. This approach is based on the fundamental
principles of fluid dynamics and involves computer simulation of the airflow/cooling performance of the data center.
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