Experimental-Numerical Comparison for a High-Density Data Center: Hot Spot Heat Fluxes in Excess of 500 W/ft $^{2}$

This paper uses previously published experimental data to present a comparison between test results and numerical simulations. The example considered is a large 7400 ft
²
data canter that houses over 130 heat-producing racks (1.2 MW) and 12 air conditioning units. Localized hot spot heat fluxes were measured to be as high as 512 W/ft
²
(5.5 kW/m
²
) for a 400 ft
²
(37 m
²
) region. A numerical model based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was constructed using inputs from the measurements. The rack inlet air temperature was considered to be the basis for experimental versus numerical comparison. The overall mean rack inlet temperature predicted numerically at a height of 1.75 m is within 4degC of the test data with a rack-by-rack standard deviation of 3.3degC.