Maximize Your Data Center's Efficiency
In today’s digital era, data centers are the heartbeat of modern businesses. Ensuring optimal operating conditions is crucial for performance, reliability, and energy efficiency. This is where Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) comes into play—and with our innovative BIM HVACTool, implementing CFD is easier and more effective than ever before.
Why Implement CFD in Your Data Center?
- Optimized Cooling Performance: CFD enables precise simulation of airflow and temperature distribution, allowing you to optimize your data center’s cooling systems accurately.
- Energy and Cost Savings: By identifying inefficiencies, you can reduce energy consumption and lower operating costs.
- Avoidance of Hotspots: Detect potential overheating areas early to prevent hardware failures.
- Sustainability: An efficiently cooled data center reduces your carbon footprint and supports environmental goals.
Data Center Simulation with BIM HVACTool and OpenFOAM
The Data Center case setup was simulated using the Windows version of OpenFOAM 2312+. Only the cold aisle was modeled in this setup. Supply air at a constant temperature of 15°C is blown into the cold aisle from below to ensure targeted cooling of the server racks.
The setup was defined using a “turbulentInlet” boundary condition. The “turbulentInlet” boundary condition generates a turbulent velocity field at the inlet by superimposing random fluctuations onto a mean velocity profile. This ensures a realistic representation of turbulence intensity and scales at the inlet, mimicking real-world flow conditions.
A velocity vector of 5 m/s directed upwards in the **Z-direction** was defined for the inlet.
The racks have air inlets and outlets, with fans positioned in between. As the air flows through, it heats up. This effect was implemented using a mapping feature in the BIM HVACTool. The mapping ensures that if warmer air is drawn in, warmer air is also discharged on the opposite side, accurately simulating the heat exchange within the racks.
This additional heating effect is implemented using a mapping boundary condition. A total of 15 kW was defined as the additional heat load distributed across the airflow.
The racks were defined with a surface output of 2 kW.
To define the different boundary conditions on a BlockMesh, a trick was applied in the software: a BlockMesh can be split.
To obtain the surface temperatures of the racks during the simulation runtime, we can use a sample patch method in BIM HVACTool. This method outputs the temperature at each iteration.
In BIM HVACTool, you can preview the data to be exported before finalizing the export. This allows you to verify the settings and content of the export to ensure all desired information is correctly included. To use the preview feature, select the appropriate export function from the menu and click “Preview.” This way, you can review the export beforehand and make adjustments if necessary.
