Research Of Data Center Fresh Air Ventilation Cooling Technology

The rapid development of computer and network information technology, data center ushered in unprecedented opportunities for development as a carrier of information technology, while its high energy consumption is becoming increasingly prominent. Data center power consumption is too high mainly because of the high-energy air-conditioning system running perennial, how to reduce air conditioning energy consumption is an effective means of achieving data center energy efficiency. By analyzing the applicability, power levels, and advantages and disadvantages of different traditional data center air conditioning system, Based on ASHRAE Whitepaper- <2011 Thermal Guidelines for Data Processing Environments> and the application status of the data center fresh air ventilation cooling technology at home and abroad. This paper studies a new fresh air ventilation cooling system which use the natural source of fresh air to cool the modular data center. To a modular data center in Yangzhou as the prototype, use the CFD technology to establish a numerical model, set the boundary conditions, meshing and simulation. We analyze the simulation results which including air distribution, maximum temperature and hot spots distribution in the module for four typical arrangement of air inlet. They are horizontal upper air supply, horizontal central location air supply, top air supply and horizontal opposite sides air supply. We use the airflow evaluation to evaluate four typical arrangement of air inlet, comprehensive comparison and finalize the horizontal upper air supply is best. We simulation and analysis the air flow field, temperature field and velocity of the modular data center for horizontal upper air supply with 23℃ temperature and 5600 cfm volume. The maximum temperature in the module reach 31.3℃, and there is a reasonable airflow distribution and good cooling effect. The influence of the cabinet opening rate for the room air baffle module temperature, draw rate of 0.35 is the best openings. By analyzing the impact of opening rate of cabinet baffle for the module temperature, draw that 0.35 is the best openings rate of it. According to the local annual meteorological parameters and changes of the outdoor air temperature in Yangzhou, we design two different ventilation scenarios: fresh air constant air volume ventilation cooling,fresh and return air mixing ventilation cooling. We measure the main center room temperature, the supply side and exhaust side temperature in the modular and IT equipment running temperature for nine month, compared with simulation results to verify the actual cooling effect of the use of fresh air ventilation cooling technology in modular data center. Achievement of this study provides a great reference value for the development of data center fresh air ventilation cooling technology, and provide an important guiding significance for the construction of fresh air data center.