Analyzing the Effect of Rack Arrangement on Energy Consumption in a Data Center using Numerical Analysis

In a typical real-world scenario, already available infrastructure is remodeled to be used as a datacenter. As a result, it becomes problematic to follow the industry standard for datacenter design. Subsequently, an increased amount of electricity is required to reach and maintain the optimum server operating temperature. This may be due to inefficient placement of inlets and outlets, a poor server rack arrangement or a combination of both. As a result, the servers might end up over-heating and the datacenter may be required to operate at a reduced capacity. In a worst-case scenario, a powering down of all of the servers might be required until the temperature inside the datacenter falls within the operating range. In this paper, we present an aerothermal “Digital Twin” of the datacenter available at the Digital Pakistan Lab. Furthermore, by using numerical aerothermal simulations we figure out the optimum arrangement of server racks within a pre-existing datacenter, with a goal to reduce electricity consumption. We also design a Computer Room Air Handling (CRAH) system to study the feasibility of its implementation in the datacenter under consideration. We compare rack inlet temperature for various rack arrangements. The results indicate that by changing the rack arrangement to two cold - one hot aisle arrangement as compared to the one cold - one hot aisle arrangement currently implemented, a lower rack inlet temperature can be achieved. Moreover, it is noted that the implementation of the CRAH system will result in further improvement of the overall efficiency of the HVAC system without any major changes to the already existing datacenter infrastructure.