Rapid modeling tools for energy analysis of modular data centers

The data center industry currently focuses on initiatives to reduce its enormous energy consumption and minimize its adverse environmental impact. Modular data centers provide considerable operational flexibility in that they are mobile, and are manufactured using standard containers. This study aims at developing steady-state energy and exergy destruction models for modular data centers using EnergyPlus. Three different cooling approaches have been studied: direct expansion cooling, direct evaporative cooling, and free air cooling. This work shows that for hot and arid climates like those in South-West USA, augmenting DX cooling with evaporative and free-air cooling can result in energy savings of up to 38% and 36% respectively. Via exergy destruction calculations, it has been shown that the server inlet-outlet temperature difference is the biggest cause of exergy destruction and by using these passive cooling techniques, data centers can operate at lower temperatures to minimize wasted potential while maintaining PUE values.