System-level design for liquid cooled chiller-less data center

Abstract

In 2010, data center power usage amounted to 2% of total US energy consumption [1]. Approximately 25% of the energy consumed is used for IT cooling, which consists of facility refrigeration equipment used to provide computer room air conditioning [2]. As part of a US Department of Energy cost shared grant, a data center test facility was designed and constructed with the goal to demonstrate the potential to reduce IT cooling energy usage to less than 5% of the total IT and facilities energy usage by utilizing warm liquid cooling of the electronics rack. A system thermodynamic model was developed for this liquid cooled chiller-less data center design using theory, numerical simulations and manufacturer's data sheets. The model was used for the design selection of data center level cooling infrastructure and of server liquid cooling components and for performance estimation of the liquid cooled chiller-less data center design. The system-level model was validated against experimental data and was used to predict the system performance in different geographies. Copyright © 2012 by ASME.