simulation helps keep one of world’s top data centers cool
ccg facilities integration incorporated of baltimore, maryland, a
leading consulting engineering firm specializing in mission critical
facilities, used flovent
software from the mentor graphics mechanical analysis division
(formerly flomerics) to optimize the design of dupont fabros
technology’s (dft’s) acc4 data center in ashburn, virginia. the
challenge was to design a system to cool the extremely powerful and hot
computing and communications equipment occupying the data center while
maintaining a tier 4 level of functionality – the highest possible.
“flovent provided the ideal tool for optimizing the performance of acc4
because of its ability to accurately model the room, the it equipment
and complete cooling system,” said margaret sam sheehan, director of
mechanical engineering for ccg. acc4 is situated on 17 acres of
land at the ashburn corporate center in loudoun county, virginia. dft
considers acc4 to be its prototype for future ground-up development
projects and says that its flexible design and enhanced power and
cooling capacity make it one of the leading data center facilities in
the world. ccg began modeling the facility in the early stages of the
design process so that they could provide feedback to dft on the
cooling efficiency of various cooling system configurations. “we
selected flovent as our modeling tool because flovent accurately models
airflow through the fans and the raised floor so you can be sure that
the simulation is accurate,” sheehan said. ccg mechanical engineers
have validated flovent models with multiple types of air handlers and
obstructions above and below the raised floor and obtained measurements
that matched cfd predictions within 1of. ccg used the flovent
model first to evaluate different aspect ratios for the room. ccg
engineers worked with the architects and the building owner to come up
with layouts for the building that optimize the cooling efficiency
while meeting the needs of the building’s occupants. another critical
consideration was the height of the raised floor. the objective was to
move the volume of air required to cool the facility while keeping the
height of the raised floor as low as possible in order to minimize the
cost of floor stands and concrete in the building. ccg specified a 48
inch raised floor in the acc4 data center. soon after completing this
project, ccg designed the acc5 data center which has a very similar
design but was able to reduce the raised floor height to 42 inches. ccg
evaluated a number of different computer room air handlers in both acc4
and acc5 with different building configurations. the most difficult
performance challenge came in maintaining the it equipment air inlets
at safe temperatures in scenarios where some of the air handlers
failed. ccg engineers validated the ability of the facility to operate
safely (per recommended ashrae guidelines) with multiple air handlers
shut down. this, in addition to other measures, such as providing
thirty-two (32) 2.25 megawatt diesel generators that will run the
facility during a power outage, helped the building establish its tier
4 functionality. “acc4 is now fully operational and all of the feedback
has been very positive,” sheehan concluded. “the cooling system has
performed without any hiccups.” ccg
facilities utilizes flovent simulation software from mentor graphics to
optimize the design of dupont fabros technology's tier 4 data center.
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