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MISSION CRITICAL FACILITIES
DATA CENTRE ANALYSIS
Thermal management is an essential part of operation of mission critical facilities. With variations in the heat output from different systems and set-ups, the use of Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) modelling and analysis provides a valuable insight into the performance of the ventilation system used in Data Centres.
A major benefit of CFD analysis is the simplicity in the way results are presented, allowing time to be spent on design rather than trying to decipher complex data.
THERMAL MANAGEMENT
Through detailed modelling of the data centre system configuration, including the cabinet specification, as well as the ventilation system design, CFD analysis can help identify any issues that can cause a drop in performance or possible downtime.
With CFD analysis, the temperature distribution through cold aisles and other designs can be visualised and the data investigated to ensure that the data centre can perform effectively along with providing an optimised ventilation system.
AIR FLOW AND VELOCITIES
Analysis of the ventilation systems can highlight the interaction of the equipment and the system design (such as using cold aisles) with the air flow through them. By visualising the air paths and velocities of the air movement within the data centre design optmisation of the system can improve perforamce of the severs within the rack and protect again downtime.
The air flow through the racks in the sever room can allow the hot air can be drawn from the racks into the vented area.
With mission critical facilities it is always important how the system can perform in every eventuality, with the worst case being when there is a complete ventilation system failure.
Through analysis of the design whilst running optimally and then having a HVAC failure, the robustness of the system can be understood, with information about how quickly the severs within the data centre will over heat or have drops in performance.
EVALUATION OF SYSTEM FAILURES
DETAILED MODELLING OF KEY COMPONENTS
There can be many factors that influence the performance of a system and influence how effective the system is during various conditions.
With detailed modelling of key areas along with studies into how the flow works through different designs, the system design can be perfected during the design phase with the performance gap between design and reality reduced due to a better understanding on how elements work togethre in the system.
INNOVATIVE APPROACH TO CFD
With a vast experience working on data centres around the world, K8T has developed software to aid the analysis of data centres to ensure the best performance with the smoothest design period.
To help in undertaking thermal analyses, K8T have developed K8Tram. This is a software tool used to manage the information needed for thermal analysis including any measurements and results. It can also be used to rapidly setup a detailed airflow simulation and summarise the important results when CFD simulation is needed.
AEROACOUSTIC CONSIDERATIONS
With data centres being mission critical facilities with downtime and failure rates being minimal, the consideration of aeroacoustic analysis from ductwork and grilles are becoming a key considerations. With CFD analysis the frequency and decibels can be analysed from a detailed model.
