Local Temperature Control in Data Center Cooling: Part I, Correlation Matrix

Overview

A data center is a computer room containing a dense aggregation of commodity computing, networking and storage hardware mounted in industry standard racks. With the evolution of microprocessor fabrication technology and the increasing demand of internet, power density has been growing from the chip level to the data center level. As a result, mechanical designers face the challenge of handling heat dissipation efficiently in a data center. This paper demonstrates the possibility of optimizing local temperature distribution using vent tiles. In the proposed experiments, the relationship between rack inlet temperature and vent tile configuration is analyzed, and used to demonstrate the effectiveness of a local control algorithm through a control simulation.