Energy flow in the information technology stack: Introducing the coefficient of performance of the ensemble

  • Chandrakant D. Patel*
  • , Ratnesh K. Sharma
  • , Cullen E. Bash
  • , Monem Beitelmal
  • *Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The information technology industry is in the midst of a transformation to lower the cost of operation through consolidation and better utilization of critical data center resources. Successful consolidation necessitates increasing utilization of capital intensive "always-on" data center infrastructure, and reducing the recurring cost of power. A need exists, therefore for an end to end physical model that can be used to design and manage dense data centers and determine the cost of operating a data center. The chip core to the cooling tower model must capture the power levels and thermo-fluids behavior of chips, systems, aggregation of systems in racks, rows of racks, room flow distribution, air conditioning equipment, hydronics, vapor compression systems, pumps and heat exchangers. Earlier work has outlined the foundation for creation of a "smart" data center through use of flexible cooling resources and a distributed sensing and control system that can provision the cooling resources based on the need. This paper shows a common thermodynamic platform which serves as an evaluation and basis for policy based control engine for such a "smart" data center with much broader reach - from chip core to the cooling tower. Computational Fluid Dynamics modeling is performed to determine the computer room air conditioning utilization for a given distribution of heat load and cooling resources in a production data center. Coefficient of performance (COP) of the computer room air conditioning units, based on the level of utilization, is used with COP of other cooling resources in the stack to determine the COP of the ensemble. The ensemble COP represents an overall measure of the performance of the heat removal stack in a data center.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of 2006 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, IMECE2006 - Heat Transfer
PublisherAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
ISBN (Print)0791837904, 9780791837900
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2006
Externally publishedYes
Event2006 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, IMECE2006 - Chicago, IL, United States
Duration: 5 Nov 200610 Nov 2006

Publication series

NameAmerican Society of Mechanical Engineers, Heat Transfer Division, (Publication) HTD
ISSN (Print)0272-5673

Conference

Conference2006 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, IMECE2006
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityChicago, IL
Period5/11/0610/11/06

Keywords

  • Chip
  • Control
  • Data center
  • Data center management
  • Energy
  • Energy efficiency
  • Smart data center
  • Sustainability
  • System

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