Other Air Delivery Schemes

Abstract

While the raised floor HACA layout with peripheral CRAC units discussed in the previous chapters is the most commonly employed one in most legacy, as well as many recently constructed data centers, a growing number of new facilities are employing alternate air delivery approaches. In this chapter we discuss some of these. Figure 5.1 provides a summary of several possible approaches used in data center thermal management. All of these assume local heat rejection from the IT equipment to the data center room air (Evans 2012). The hot room air then transmits heat via multiple possible coolants or interfaces outside the IT facility envelope. An array of options also exists for the ultimate heat rejection to the environment from the intermediate heat transmission devices that transport the heat to outside the data center envelope.