Air Flow Pattern and Path Flow Simulation of Airborne Particulate Contaminants in a High-Density Data Center Utilizing Airside Economization

Abstract

The percentage of the energy used by data centers for cooling their equipment has been on the rise. With that, there has been a necessity for exploring new and more efficient methods like airside economization, both from an engineering as well as business point of view, to contain this energy demand. Air cooling especially, free air cooling has always been the first choice for IT companies to cool their equipment. But, it has its downside as well. As per ASHRAE standard (2009b), the air which is entering the data center should be continuously filtered with MERV 11 or preferably MERV 13 filters and the air which is inside the data center should be clean as per ISO class 8. The objective of this study is to design a model data center and simulate the flow path with the help of 6sigma room analysis software. A high-density data center was modelled for both hot aisle and cold aisle containment configurations. The particles taken into consideration for modelling were spherical in shape and of diameters 0.05, 0.1 and 1 micron. The physical properties of the submicron particles have been assumed to be same as that of air. For heavier particles of 1 micron in size, the properties of dense carbon particle are chosen for simulating particulate contamination in a data center. The Computer Room Air Conditioning unit is modelled as the source for the particulate contaminants which represents contaminants entering along with free air through an air-side economizer. The data obtained from this analysis can be helpful in predicting which type of particles will be deposited at what location based on its distance from the source and weight of the particles. This can further help in reinforcing the regions with a potential to fail under particulate contamination.