A sustainable data center with heat-activated cooling

Anna Haywood, Jon Sherbeck, Patrick Phelan, Georgios Varsamopoulos, Sandeep Gupta

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

22 Scopus citations

Abstract

Technological and economic trends in data centers push toward facilities operated at higher ambient temperatures and at higher power densities to meet ever-increasing computational demands. Conventionally, data centers are cooled with vapor-compressor equipment which requires extra power to be driven. This paper proposes an alternative and sustainable data center cooling architecture that is heat driven. The thermal source is the heat produced by the data center room's equipment. A major challenge is providing both enough cooling to the data center and enough exergy to drive the cooling process, regardless of the thermal output of the data center equipment. This challenge is addressed by the use of organic heat storage and a sustainably powered (i.e. solar-powered) heat source, leading potentially to a PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) value of less than one.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2010 12th IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, ITherm 2010
DOIs
StatePublished - 2010
Event2010 12th IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, ITherm 2010 - Las Vegas, NV, United States
Duration: Jun 2 2010Jun 5 2010

Publication series

Name2010 12th IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, ITherm 2010

Other

Other2010 12th IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems, ITherm 2010
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityLas Vegas, NV
Period6/2/106/5/10

Keywords

  • Absorption chiller
  • Blade server
  • CRAC
  • Chassis
  • Data center
  • Green computing
  • PUE
  • Rack
  • Sustainability

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Control and Systems Engineering
  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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