White Papers from Applied Math Modeling Inc.
WP108: Building Redundancy into a Data Center Cooling System
Large data centers that must offer reliable, on-going service cannot afford interruptions that result from the failure of one or more components. Redundancy is therefore built into the design in many ways. Power to the servers is backed up by banks of batteries (uninterruptable power supplies) that can operate until generators engage following a power outage. Copies of critical applications and data are stored on multiple servers, with one operating and one in reserve at any given time. Read more WP107: Using CFD for Data Center Design and Analysis
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is the numerical simulation of fluid flow. It can be used to predict fluid velocities, temperatures, and many other variables of interest for a wide variety of application areas. Over the years it has been used to simulate the flow of air over an airplane wing or water past a ship’s hull; perform comparative drag analyses of automotive body shapes; predict the time needed to mix two or more liquids; and test strategies for reducing coal plant emissions.
Read moreWP106: Transient CRAC Failure Analysis
One of the largest concerns facing data center facility managers is the loss of power, particularly in the middle of the night when staff may not be present. The IT equipment is usually protected by uninterruptable power supplies (UPSs), which switch to battery power as soon as the building power goes down. The cooling equipment, however, does not usually have backup power unless generators are installed with automatic starters. Depending on the size of the data center, generators may be non-existent or slow to come up to speed. Read more WP103: Improving Data Center PUE through Airflow Management
As energy prices continue to rise and concerns about global warming due to carbon emissions continue to grow, there is a growing motive to lower the PUE (power usage effectiveness) of data centers worldwide. The PUE of a data center is defined as Total Facility Power /Total IT Power. The Total Facility Power is comprised of all the power delivered to the entire data center, and the Total IT Power is defined as only that which is delivered to the IT equipment. Read more WP102: Data Center Airflow Modeling helps Facilities Planners Make Informed Decisions
The placement of computer equipment in a new or existing data center is not always obvious. In many cases, common sense placements will give rise to equipment hot spots resulting from inadequate airflow, even though there might be enough total cooling capacity in the room. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) can be an effective way to simulate the proposed changes and understand their implications prior to implementation. Read more