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Research on the thermal performance of rack-level composite baffle diversion system for data centre

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Abstract

Airflow management plays an important role in ensuring secured and energy-efficient operation of data centres (DCs). Higher power density in DC is a risk resulting in serious deterioration of airflow distribution accompanied by the increasing cooling energy demand. In this study, the airflow optimization effects of rack baffles and server lower-side terminal baffles on the thermal environment are first validated by experiments. Then, the optimization mechanisms of the two baffle systems are analysed by numerical simulations. The results show that the optimization mechanisms of these two systems are different and the combination can contribute to better airflow distribution than separate baffles. The analysis is validated by altogether 12 cases in 3 scenarios where different combinations of the two systems were included. The results validated the combination of 8 cm × 45° server lower-side terminal baffles and 20 cm × 75° rack baffles can further improve the airflow distribution and relieve heat accumulation in the DC. The impacts of combined baffle system on the thermal environment in DC are analysed by experiments and simulations. The combined system superposes the airflow optimization functions of the two systems. The maximum temperature drop of the hotspot is 0.7 °C, which is 0.4 °C lower than that when only optimal rack baffles or server lower-side terminal baffles are installed.

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Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the assistance provided by the Information Centre of Nanjing Tech University in conducting the onsite experiments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of HVAC, College of Urban Construction, Nanjing Tech University, P.O. Box 76, Nanjing, 210009, China

    Xuetao Zhou, Xinjie Xu, Jinxiang Liu & Risto Kosonen

  2. School of Mechanical Engineering, Tongji University, 4800 Cao’an Road, Shanghai, 201804, China

    Xiaolei Yuan

  3. Department of Mechanical Engineering, School of Engineering, Aalto University, P.O. Box 14400, FI-00076, Aalto, Finland

    Xiaolei Yuan & Risto Kosonen

  4. Information Center of Jiangpu Campus, Nanjing Tech University, Nanjing, 211800, China

    Chao Liu

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  1. Xuetao Zhou
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Correspondence to Xiaolei Yuan.

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Zhou, X., Yuan, X., Xu, X. et al. Research on the thermal performance of rack-level composite baffle diversion system for data centre. Energy Efficiency 13, 1245–1262 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12053-020-09881-5

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