Cooling Systems for High Power Density Data Centers

Cooling Systems for High Power Density Data Centers


Erich Hamilton is Director of Engineering of DAMAC.

There has been ongoing talk since 2002 that high power density data centers would replace low power density data centers. The theory is that a higher density will increase efficiency while reducing energy bills, however, with these benefits also comes the risk of cooling failures. Today, a data center where each cabinet consumes more than 10 kW is considered high power density. The density can also be measured by the amount of energy consumed per square foot, which is why many high power density data centers are built up rather than out. As rack densities continue to grow, data center manufacturers and designers are having to come up with more efficient cooling solutions to offset energy consumption.



The aisle containment structure is a prefabricated system that incorporates all the components of aisle containment design into a freestanding unit. It is comprised of a base unit frame that is an aisle containment platform and is used for cabinet anchoring. Both hot and cold aisle containments will help improve the efficiency of a data center’s traditional cooling system. Unlike the rear-door, cooling unit that exchanges hot air for cold air, hot and cold aisle containment structures minimize the amount of hot and cold air that mixes together.


Hot aisle containments are the rows in which the servers pour heated exhausts. Like a cold aisle containment, a hot aisle containment’s role is to prevent cold and hot air from mixing; however, hot aisles face the air conditioner ducts and send hot air through to be recycled into cold air.

As the data center industry continues to explode with the ever-increasing demand for more data, high power density data centers will continue to grow in popularity. Operation managers are now tasked with reducing power consumption and increasing efficiency. Having a high power density data center increases performance and output, but also having an efficient cooling system in place will greatly reduce a company’s energy bill.



Hide comments



Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.