Application of the combined air-conditioning systems for energy conservation in data center

Abstract The dissipation of heat from the server racks is continuously increasing. For this reason, a raised floor cooling system is important to keep the computer system operating to be effective and long lasting. Thus the proper design air conditioning system in data center is concerned in order to avoid disruption that caused by overheat. Nowadays it is not only a raised-floor cooling system that has been used in data center but also a new cooling system called “In-row” has been introduced into the market. This research presents a simulation of cool air flow generated by 3 different air conditioning systems in data center, which are raised floor air conditioning system, In-row air conditioning system and the combined of them, for giving some appropriate guidelines to help the designer to achieve a better and more efficient cooling system. Dimensionless parameters in the form of supply heat index (SHI), heat load of server racks and the volume flow rate from perforated tile were carried out by considering the rack inlet temperature compared with the standard air temperature of ASHRAE. The results show that these parameters provide an effective tool to the improvement of energy efficiency in the data center.