Data Centre Access Door Aperture for Cooling Airflow
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing data center cooling systems with narrow doors can lead to uneven air distribution, causing 'hot-spots' and inefficiencies due to rapid air velocity changes and shielding of IT equipment, which may require more cooling air than necessary.
Innovation Solution
A data center design with wider access doors than aisles, featuring a controllable air intake arrangement with adjustable blades to ensure smooth airflow and reduce pressure changes, allowing for more efficient cooling by maintaining air velocity consistency and distributing cooling air evenly across the aisle.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a narrow door is used to match the aisle width, then the door size is optimized for personnel access, but the airflow becomes uneven causing hot-spots and shielding IT equipment from cooling air
Solution Approach 1:
The door is segmented into multiple aperture sections (e.g., left and right apertures) that can be independently controlled by separate air intake arrangements. This allows differential airflow control across different zones of the door, enabling optimization of cooling distribution without compromising door width for personnel access.
Solution Approach 2:
The air intake arrangements are made dynamically adjustable through controllable aperture widths. The apertures can be widened or narrowed based on cooling demands, allowing the system to adapt airflow patterns to prevent hot-spots and ensure IT equipment receives adequate cooling air.
2Length of stationary object
If a narrow door is used, then the door fits the aisle dimensions, but the air velocity increases rapidly causing uneven air distribution and shielding effects
Solution Approach 1:
The single narrow doorway is segmented into multiple aperture sections across the door width. This distribution of airflow paths reduces the velocity in each individual path while maintaining total airflow capacity, preventing the shielding effect and uneven distribution caused by a single narrow opening.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of increasing door width in one dimension, the solution distributes apertures across the door surface area. This two-dimensional arrangement of multiple smaller apertures achieves smoother airflow velocity distribution without requiring a fundamentally larger door structure.
3Reliability
If more cooling air is supplied to compensate for uneven distribution, then all IT equipment can be cooled, but cooling efficiency decreases due to excess air consumption
Solution Approach 1:
The air intake arrangements are dynamically controlled to adjust aperture widths based on actual cooling demands. This allows the system to optimize airflow distribution in real-time, ensuring adequate cooling coverage while minimizing excess air consumption by opening only the necessary aperture sections to the required degree.
Solution Approach 2:
The controllable air intake arrangements enable feedback-based airflow management. By monitoring cooling demands and adjusting aperture widths accordingly, the system can achieve reliable cooling coverage without wasting energy on excessive air supply, optimizing the balance between cooling effectiveness and energy efficiency.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This design enhances cooling efficiency by reducing the risk of hot-spots and ensuring consistent air distribution, potentially reducing the need for additional cooling resources and improving overall data center performance.
Implementation Method 1
the flow of air through the door, when in its closed position, is controllable by means of the controllable air intake
Data Source
AI summary
A data centre (10) includes one or more controllable air circulation systems (e.g. air optimiser (11)), one or more cold aisles (15) and/or one or more hot aisles (16), one or more rows of racks (14), the data centre being so arranged that in use cooling air (18) passes, under the control of the one or more controllable air circulation systems, from a cold aisle (15) through the racks (14) and/or through the racks (14) to a hot aisle (16). An access door (20), which provides access to at least one of the aisles, is movable between an open position allowing personnel access to the aisle and a closed position. The door (20) has an aperture (25) in which is provided a controllable air intake arrangement, for example comprising a vent (17) in the form of multiple vertically extending rotatable blades (28). The width (24) of the door is wider than the width (26) of the aisle associated with the door (20), so that the width of the aperture (25) may be larger than or substantially equal to the width (26) of the aisle. Air-flow into the aisle may therefore be subjected to less of a constriction than if the door (20) and aperture (25) were narrower.