Thermal design of a disk-array system

A procedure for solving the thermal problems of a fan-cooled disk-array system is developed for industrial application. The procedure requires both the measurements of the temperatures of key components at various air flow rates across a single hard-disk and the computational simulations of isothermal flows for a preliminarily designed mechanical configuration of a system by employing a commercial CFD software package. The flow rate and pressure drop of the air stream across a single-disk are measured with an AMCA 210 flow bench. The temperatures of the components are detected by the fine-wire thermocouples. The methodology of the development of the disk array and the like is illustrated by an example. The results show that the single-disk experiment can provide the designer with the means to determine the air flow rate for desired operation temperatures of key components. The calculated flow rate and pressure drop can be used to match selected fans to the system. The prediction correlates well with the experimental values. The calculated flow patterns can be used to improve the preliminary design of the system mechanical configuration.