CFD investigations of data centers’ thermal performance for different configurations of CRACs units and aisles separation

The thermal performance of data centers is numerically studied for different configurations of computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units and physical separations of cold and hot aisles. Temperature distribution, air flow characteristics and thermal management of data centers racks array are predicted and evaluated for the different arrangements. Measureable performance indices: supply/return heat index (SHI/RHI), return temperature index (RTI) and return cooling index (RCI) are used to measure the thermal management effectiveness of data center racks. The results showed that: (i) hot air recirculation, cold air bypass and the measurable performance indices of the racks strongly depend on the racks location in the racks array, (ii) the CRACs units layout affects the thermal managements of the racks array especially the sides and middle racks in the array, and (iii) using cold aisle containments enhances the thermal performance of the data center.