Experimental study using a shrink model on highperformance airflow design for air-conditioning system in data centers

Recently, demand of data centers is increasing, because of the increase in the demand of Internet and ICT systems. Server rooms require efficient air conditioning system to secure stable running, and nowadays the demand of the efficiency requires more because heat generation of computers and equipment augment greatly. Moreover, high efficiency of air conditioning system is an important task from the view of cost reduction and energy conservation. In the previous study, CFD simulations were performed assuming various airflow conditions, and it was found the system, which has both supplies and return openings on the ceiling with appropriate alignment, had a good performance. An advanced airflow system applicable to server rooms in data centers was developed based on this result. In the present work, characteristic of this system was studied by the experiment using a 1/4-shrink model. As the result, advantage of advanced airflow system was again confirmed with comparing with previous conventional systems. The system showed a good performance especially when the heat of servers became larger, and when supply airflow volume from air-conditioning system was reduced.