Cheng-Hao Wang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Yeng-Yung Tsui
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan
Chi-Chuan Wang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Yang Ming Chiao Tung
University, Hsinchu 30010, Taiwan
This study experimentally investigates the effect of cold-aisle spacing and the locations of supplied grilles on the overall efficiency of a container datacenter. The size of container datacenter contains a total of 10 racks. Tests are performed with a constant inlet air temperature of 21 °C at all grilles and airflow is supplied from drop ceiling. The total power generated from the ten racks is 30 kW with equally delivering power of 3 kW for each rack. A total of eight arrangements are examined and compared. The experimental results show that an appreciable hot air recirculation occurs for the reference case, and adding a blockage plates above the computer racks will significantly remove the hot air recirculation on the top of all racks. By moving the supplied vent locations downstream casts marginally improvements of the overall efficiency. However, if the location is moved further toward the end container the hot air re-circulation of the first rack is significantly relieved. For the same supplied flowrate, a smaller cold-aisle spacing helps to lower the temperature distribution in front all racks. However, the small aisle spacing may result in comparatively low pressure of the first rack which induces more pronounced hot air re-circulation and higher maximum temperature occurring at the first rack.