Cooling Infrastructure in data center white space area

Cooling Infrastructure in data center white space

In my previous article, we have seen multiple ways to generate cold air and pull out the hot air. But all these things were showing only the supply/return until the white space(where devices are located). Have you ever wondered how this airflow is managed effectively inside the white space area? If this is not managed properly all your efforts for cooling become worthless. Let us look into the way to distribute/return the air from CRAH/CRAC unit to the racks. 

There are mainly four types of cooling strategies followed in data center white space area and those are,

·      Hot aisle/cold aisle

·      Aisle containment

·      Cabinet cooling

·      In row cooling

Hot aisle/cold aisle

In this concept we are more concentrated to distribute/return air through hot/cold aisle. We have four methods to achieve this by providing maximum airflow.

1. Cold air is pumped into the plenum space beneath the floor tiles and vented into cold aisles, then returns to the CRAC unit. This simple layout relies on natural convection to return the hot air to the CRAC unit. Best practice and standards traditionally recommend the hot aisle/cold aisle layout as shown.

2. Cold air pumped into plenum space beneath floor tiles, vented into cold aisles, returns through a ceiling plenum. The performance of this layout can be enhanced by managing the return airflow, in this example using a false ceiling. 

3. On the above method, you might be noticed that there is a big chance that the cold air and hot air may get mixed since there are no barriers in between. So we have one more option to choose by having a barrier that reduces the chances of missing the air.

By this method, additional separation barriers make sure the hot air is directed into the ceiling plenum.

4. All those above three options can be applied only when we have the white space within a raised floor(false floors). But what about the case when your data center is not having a raised floor and it uses the traditional way to place equipment in the floor itself(especially when the building is chosen as fit for purpose). Cooling is not an exceptional case also where you can use the below model to achieve the cooling required.

In this method, cold air is pumped in ducting and delivered directly to the cold aisles.

We have seen four methods to make sure that the air is spread across white space. But have you noticed that on all these models there is a high chance for mixing the hot and cold air?  We have already discussed that 40% of power in a data center is consumed by the cooling mechanism. So the importance of having maximum efficiency for cooling is a much bigger concern. Panels can be used to fill in between the rack and ceiling space. What about the access gap between the racks? Is your answer is panels again? Well, we got some smarter ways to assure this efficiency based on hot aisle/cold aisle airflow by using Aisle Containments or other strategies. Even though these are optional approaches this can really improve the cooling efficiency. I would strongly recommend you to read this too.

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