Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 133–142

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

On cold-aisle containment of a container datacenter

Cheng-Hao Wang, Yeng-Yung Tsui, Chi-Chuan Wang ⇑
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Chiao Tung University, Hsinchu, Taiwan

h i g h l i g h t s

Influences of layout, blockage, and containment on the performance of a container datacenter.

The experiments are performed with a constant inlet temperature and 30 kW with 10 3-kW racks.

Partial containment with enclosing door at the entrance of cold-aisle shows superior performance.

A full cold-aisle containment with higher jet airflow pattern shows the worst performance.

A full cold-aisle containment design without Coanda effect shows the best overall performance.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, influences of various blockage arrangements as well as cold-aisle containment on the over-
Received 5 July 2016 all efficiency of a container datacenter are reported. The test container datacenter contains ten racks and
Revised 8 October 2016 the cold air is supplied from drop ceiling. The experiments are performed with each rack equally deliv-
Accepted 12 October 2016
ering a power of 3 kW. Eight different layouts are examined. Appreciable hot air recirculation prevails
Available online 13 October 2016
especially at the entrance of cold aisle. Adding blockage plates to the computer room air handler
(CRAH) at the entrance of computer racks only improve marginally the associated rack cooling index
Keywords:
(RCI). Layout with enclosing the end of cold aisle while let open the entrance of cold aisle also performs
Datacenter
Thermal management
poorly. Full containment of the cold aisle with high jet air flowrate from the supplied grilles gives the
Rack cooling index worst performance. Layout with enclosing at the entrance of cold aisle but let open the end of cold aisle
Cold-aisle containment shows a much superior temperature distribution and a rather high RCI of 99%. Higher supplied flow may
Supplied heat index induce jet airflow pattern, causing the Coanda effect to result in fluctuating behaviors of RCI and SHI
Coanda effect alongside the cold aisle (zigzag phenomenon). A lower supplied air flowrate without Coanda effect for
a full containment design give the best overall performance.
Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction combined worldwide electricity consumption of datacenters has

Datacenters are rooms containing array of racks, which com-
prise many servers for data storage, processing, and computing.
With the advents of internet, the demand of computer server, IT
equipment, and the need for datacenters is growing rapidly. Nowa-
days, most of the transactions, communications, computing, and
storages that are processing in datacenters in association with
almost every application such as banks, telecommunications,
mobile phones, market transactions, universities, military service,
government affairs and offices, and others special and private
applications. According to the survey of Koomey [1] about the
worldwide electricity used in datacenter, it appears that the aggre-
gate electricity use for datacenters doubled worldwide for every
five years (evaluated over the period 2000–2005). Yet the
⇑ Corresponding author at: EE474, 1001 University Road, Hsinchu 300, Taiwan.
E-mail address: ccwang@mail.nctu.edu.tw (C.-C. Wang).
increased from 152 billion kW h per year (in 2005) to approxi-
mately 238 billion kW h per year (in 2010) [2], representing a
growth of roughly 11% per year over the last decade as compared
to the average 3% growth of electricity per year in whole sectors
[3]. Notice that a large portion of this consumed energy (almost
50%) is necessary for cooling of servers to maintain their tempera-
ture within the allowable limits [4]. Hence, proper cooling man-
agement in datacenter would appreciably relax the cooling load
of the chilling utilities. Consequently, a much more detailed under-
standing of airflow and temperature distributions for proper ther-
mal management in datacenters is a vital issue subject to
requirements of temperature limits while avoiding excessive use
of cooling [5]. The layouts and features of all datacenters are sim-
ilar; the most popular layout takes the form of a hot/cold aisle con-
figuration to minimize mixing of hot and cold air. The cold air can
be delivered from either drop ceiling or raised floor. For further
minimizing the hot air re-circulation and cold air bypass, full

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2016.10.089
1359-4311/Ó 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
134 C.-H. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 133–142

Nomenclature

H height, m Superscripts
L length, m r rack
n total number of intakes
Q the total heat dissipation from all the racks in the data Subscripts
center, W Avg average value
dQ the rise in enthalpy of the cold air before entering the HI high
racks, W in inlet
RCI rack cooling index, dimensionless LO low
SHI supplied heat index, dimensionless max maximum value
T temperature, °C max-rec maximum recommended
W width, m max-all maximum allowable
min-rec minimum recommended
min-all minimum allowable
out outlet
ref CRAH supply

containment of hot aisle or cold aisle can be adopted. In this study,

efforts are focused upon the cold-aisle containment and relevant
blockage arrangements.
Using proper air distribution to reduce or to prevent the hot air
recirculation and/or the cold air bypass is effective and to be effi-
cient thermal management of datacenters. In practice, avoiding
mixing of hot and cold air mixing is a key for efficient datacenter
cooling strategies. Hence containment of hot-aisle or cold-aisle
throughout the datacenter is an important thermal management
and energy saving strategy. Arghode et al. [6] performed thermal
field measurements of cold-aisle containment with a raised floor
design, they concluded a significant improvement in the cold air
delivery for the case with contained aisle as compared to open
aisle. Takahashi et al. [7] experimentally investigated the perfor-
mance of cold-aisle capping and hot aisle capping methods subject
to raised floor design. They also reported cold-aisle containment
delivers 15% lower fan power. Some previous computational inves-
Fig. 1. Schematic of datacenter system and chilling utility layout.
tigations also reported the benefits of cold-aisle containment. For
example, Schmidt et al. [8] and Gondipalli et al. [9] indicated that
the deployment of cold-aisle containment can result in significant
tank with 1500 L capacity, a computer room air handler (CRAH,
energy savings. Moreover, in the case of cooling failure, cold-aisle
Teco corp., model PHWP-K1500CUL1) with a controllable air flow-
containment was suggested to result in reduced hot spot genera-
rate ranging from 0 to 4 m3 s1, a water pump (Liang Ghi Corp.,
tion with time as compared to the case without containment. Note
model AEEP-PW, 2 hp with a maximum flowrate of 360 L/min), a
that the cold-aisle is a pathway in front of the computer rack to
simulation zone which contains 10 simulation racks. The evapora-
bring in the cold airflow into the server racks from the grilles.
tor of the chiller is installed within the water tank to control the
Hence, the major benefit of cold-aisle containment is the mitiga-
setting temperature. Accordingly, the cooling water is circulated
tion of server air inlet temperatures due to the minimum mixing
to CRAH to lower the return air temperature from hot aisle. Then
of cold air with hot air. Hence, most energy efficient datacenters
the cold air is discharged into the cold aisle of container datacenter
use some kind of containment system [6,9–11]. Although the fore-
while the warm water from CRAH is circulated back to the tank.
going studies had addressed the benefits of cold-aisle containment
The racks are arranged in a two-row parallel fashion as shown in
to some extent, however, these studies were conducted in compar-
Fig. 1 and the space between the rack and ceiling are blocked to
atively large size data center and mainly applicable for raised floor
avoid short circuit of air flow. The simulation zone is of a typical
door deign. In practice, small-scale datacenters (such as contain-
container configuration with 20 ft container with dimensions
ers) using drop ceiling configuration may be easier to implement.
being 6 m (L)  3.1 m (W)  2.3 m (H). It contains 10 simulation
Thus, the objective of this study is to experimentally investigate
racks and the detailed dimensions and locations of the computer
the relevant blockage layouts as well as cold-aisle containment
rack and CRAH are shown in Fig. 2. The size of each rack is 0.6 m
on the overall efficiency of a datacenter within a typical container
(L)  0.6 m (W)  1.95 m (H), yet it is composed of five heating
size datacenter. Yet it will be shown later on that a full cold-aisle
parts as depicted in Fig. 3. Each heating part consists of AC heaters
containment does not necessary gives the best performance.
with an adjustable heating power to 3 kW. The maximum heating
power of a simulation rack is 15 kW. A total of 45 DC fans (Delta,
2. Test facility and measuring equipment model: AFB1212SH) are installed in front of the computer. The rev-
olution of the DC fan is adjustable via programmable logic con-
Fig. 1 shows the system layout of the datacenter simulation lab- troller (PLC, model FBs-4DA) made by FATEK, yet each fan can
oratory. The test facility contains a 30 refrigeration tons (RT) water deliver a maximum airflow rate up to 0.053 m3 s1. The inlet
chiller made by Yi-Guo refrigeration enterprise, a chilled water temperatures into each computer rack is measured by 225
 C.-H. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 133–142 135

(a) Top view

(b) Side view

Fig. 2. Detailed dimensions of the test simulation datacenter.

pre-calibrated thermocouples (with calibration accuracy within
±0.1 °C), and they are evenly distributed on a loose metal mesh
in accord with the frontal opening of the computer rack. The sig-
nals are then gathered by four HIOKI LR8400-20 (240 channels)
hybrid recorders. As shown in Fig. 2, the CRAH is an upflow design
(TECO company, model PHWP-K1500CUL1, maximum flowrate
4.0 m3 s1). The airflow is directed by a rectangular air duct
(1.61 m  0.46 mm) with 7 grilles alongside the duct. The diameter
of the round grilles is 0.285 m and their locations can be found in
Fig. 2(a) with encircled number starting from 1 to 7. The opening of
grilles is located at the center of computer racks. The airflow vol-
ume out of the grilles can be regulated with an inherited damper,
and the air flowrate from the grille can be measured by an air-
capture-hood (Trust Science Innovation, model PH73) with a mea-
suring resolution of 0.006 m3 s1.
In the present study, a total of eight cases designating various
blockage layouts and containments are conducted and compared
with an inlet supplied air temperature at grilles of 21 °C. The total
power from the ten racks is fixed at 30 kW with equally delivering
power of 3 kW of each rack. Note that each rack contains five heat-
ing elements and each one is capable of delivering 3 kW with an
uncertainty 10 W. A photo of back view showing the installation
of heaters and fans are shown in Fig. 3. In the present study, hea-
ters and fans in parts 1, 3, and 5 are turned on with each one being
1 kW while the fan and heaters in 2 and 4 are turned off to simu-
lates a sparse and non-uniform heating of data rack in operation.
Yet in some cases, parts 2 and 4 are blocked with plates to prevent
short circuit of airflow. The details of the test cases are schemati-
cally shown in Table 1. The reference case, case 1, represents a pre-
scribed total airflow rate of 3.52 m3 s1 from the grilles, and the
cold airflow are from the grilles 2–6 are supplied. In the meantime,
blockage is made above the rack and drop ceiling. In this study, the
control power to the DC fans of all racks are fixed, and the corre-
sponding total airflow rate are about 3.52 m3 s1 which are about
the same as the supplied airflow from all grilles. However, the air-
flow rate of this measurement is carried out once which does not
reflect the actual flowrates for other cases but the supplied power
to all the DC fans stays the same for all cases. Case 2 is similar to
case 1 except additional block plates are aligned vertically toward
CRAH next to racks A1 and A2. Case 3 is similar to case 2 except an
enclosed door locates at the end of cold aisle. In contrast to case 4,
an enclosed door is installed at the entrance of cold aisle A1/A2
while left open the end of the cold aisle near E1/E2 racks. Case 5
represents a full cold-aisle containment although the heaters/fans
in part 2 and part 4 is turned off instead of fully blockage. The
blockage plates are installed at the entrance of the computer racks.
136 C.-H. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 133–142

operation and reliability of the data processing equipment, the

temperatures distribution, however, does not provide any informa-
tion in association with the airflow arrangement like infiltration
and recirculation. The is a best practice performance metric for
quantifying the conformance with thermal data center standards
such as ASHRAE and NEBS. The RCI metric compresses the intake
temperatures (measured or modeled) into two numbers RCIHI
and RCILO where RCIHI = 100% indicates no intake temperatures
above the maximum recommended and RCILO = 100% mean no
temperatures below the minimum recommended. RCIHI is a mea-
sure of the absence of over-temperatures and 100% means that
no temperature is above the maximum recommended. Less than
100% means the greater the probability (risk) that equipment
experiences temperatures above the maximum allowable (hot-
spots). Both numbers equal to 100% signify absolute compliance,
i.e., all intake temperatures are within the recommended range.
Mathematically, the RCIHI and RCILO are given as [12]
 P 
ðT x  T maxrec ÞT x >T maxrec
RCIHI ¼ 1  100% ð1Þ
ðT maxall  T maxrec Þn

 P 
ðT minrec  T x ÞT minrec >T x
RCILO ¼ 1  100% ð2Þ
ðT minrec  T minall Þn

where Tx is the mean intake temperature into the racks. n is the

number of computer rack. Tmax-rec is the maximum recommended
temperature (= 27 °C [4]), Tmax-all is the maximum allowable tem-
perature (= 32 °C [4]), Tmax-rec is the minimum recommended tem-
perature (= 18 °C [4]), and Tmin-all is the minimum allowable
temperature (= 15 °C [4]). In the present study, since the inlet tem-
peratures from the supplied grilles are always kept at 21 °C, thus
the corresponding calculated RCI is actually RCIHI. The RCI is actu-
ally a one-dimensional index. For a better quantification of the
two-dimensional features of the intake temperature in association
with infiltration and mixing, Sharma et al. [13] and Sharma and
Bash [14] proposed for the first time two-dimensionless parame-
ters, namely, supply heat index (SHI) and return heat index (RHI),
which evaluate the thermal performance of data centers. The SHI
quantifies the infiltration of heat into the cold aisles and ideally is
desired to be zero (no infiltration). The RHI quantifies the mixing
of rack outlet air with cooler air from the cold aisles, before return-
ing to the CRAC. Ideally, the RHI is desired to be one (RHI is actually
equal to 1-SHI). Mathematically, SHI is given as

Fig. 3. Photos of the simulation rack – back view to see the installed heaters and dQ
fans. SHI ¼
Q þ dQ
Enthalpy rise due to infiltration in cold aisle
¼ ð3Þ
Case 6 represents the full cold-aisle containment with parts 2 and Total Enthalpy rise at the rack exhaust
4 being blocked entirely. Note that the airflow from grilles are fixed
at 3.52 m3 s1 for cases 1–6. Cases 7 and 8 are also identical to P P h  i
j i T rin  T ref
cases 6 except a lower supplied total air flowrate of 2.83 m3 s1
i;j
SHI ¼ P P h  i ð4Þ
for Case 7 and a higher volumetric flowrate of 3.93 m3 s1 for case j i T rout i;j
 T ref
8. Before the experimental tests, a separate experiment was con-
ducted to measure the inlet flowrate and the corresponding inlet where Q: The total heat dissipation from all the racks in the data
and outlet temperatures for each rack using the abovementioned center. dQ is the rise in enthalpy of the cold air before entering
apparatus, and the relevant energy unbalance in and out of the test the racks. T represents temperature. The superscript r denotes rack
racks were maintained to be less than 5%. and the subscripts in, out, and ref indicate inlet, outlet and reference
CRAH supply, respectively.
The temperatures in front of the computer rack may be associ-
3. Data reduction ated with the infiltration, convective mixing amid hot and cold air
stream, airflow bypassing, leakage between computer rack, air flow
Evaluation of the data center efficiency and thermal perfor- entrainment due to imbalanced pressure, and the like. Hence, Eqs.
mance is often characterized by the intake temperatures in front (1)–(4) are quite helpful for they can be used to quantify specific
of the server racks. The equipment intake temperatures character- influences. In the following section, temperature distribution as
ize the thermal environment. Despite the message is very impor- well as these indexes subject to various arrangements will be elab-
tant to ensure the appropriate ambient environment for orated in more details.
 C.-H. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 133–142 137

Table 1
Test cases of the present study.

Variants Top view Side view

Case 1
Reference case
Air flowrate of CRAH = 3.52 m3 s1

Block Fan/Heater off

Case 2
Blockage plates aligned at rack A
Air flowrate of CRAH = 3.52 m3 s1

Block Fan/Heater off

Case 3
Blockage plates aligned at rack A and located at the aisle end
Air flowrate of CRAH = 3.52 m3 s1

Block Fan/Heater off

Case 4
Blockage plate at the entrance of cold aisle but leave open at the end
Air flowrate of CRAH = 3.52 m3 s1

Block Fan/Heater off

Case 5
Full containment but part 2, part 4 is not blocked
Air flowrate of CRAH = 3.52 m3 s1

Block Fan/Heater off

Case 6
Full containment, parts 2 and part 4 are blocked
Air flowrate of CRAH = 3.52 m3 s1

Block
Case 7
Full containment, parts 2 and part 4 are blocked
Small flow rate = 2.83 m3 s1

Block
Case 8
Full containment, parts 2 and part 4 are blocked
Large flow rate = 3.93 m3 s1

Block
138 C.-H. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 133–142

(a) Case 1 (b) Case 2

(c) Case 3 (d) Case 4

(e) Case 5 (f) Case 6

(g) Case 7 (h) Case 8

Fig. 4. Measured temperature contour plot for cases 1–8.
 C.-H. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 133–142 139

4. Results and discussion Table 2

Maximum and average temperature at the intake of all racks.

Fig. 4 shows the measured temperature distribution contour for Case Tmax (°C) Tavg (°C)
all cases and Fig. 5 show the corresponding influence of aisle clap- Case1 35.1 25.6
ping or containment on the measured intake temperature distribu- Case 2 33.6 25.4
tion and RCI and SHI for cases 1–5. The measured temperatures are Case 3 33.6 25.3
Case 4 28.9 24.2
almost symmetry alongside the cold aisle due to symmetrical lay-
Case 5 38.3 25.3
out of computer racks, grilles, supplied power, and fan revolutions. Case 6 35.9 24.1
In this regard, only representative results of A1-E1 racks are dis- Case 7 33.7 23.6
played. The average and maximum temperatures for all cases are Case 8 43.3 24.8
shown in Table 2. In Fig. 5, the reference case (case 1) holds a low-
est average RCI of 87% and a comparatively high SHI value of 0.37.
This can be made clear from the temperature distribution as shown press hot air circulation at the upper part of A1 rack as shown in
in Fig. 4(a) where a much higher temperature occurs especially at Fig. 4(b). The slight improvement is attributed to lengthening the
the upper part of A1 rack, indicating part of the return hot air is cir- hot air circulation path. For further improvement of the tempera-
culated back to the rack inlet, and the maximum inlet temperature ture distribution of case 2, an enclosed door is made available at
can be as high as 35.1 °C. This phenomenon occurs not only at the the end of the cold aisle (case 3). Apparently, the hot air re-
upper portion of rack A1 but also prevails in the lower part of A1. circulation at E1 rack is conspicuously improved as shown in
This is because the air return of CRAH in this study is located at the Fig. 4(c). However, the corresponding mean RCI and SHI does not
lower middle half region. Thus hot air is forced toward the lower reflect this improvement by E racks. In fact, the higher temperature
part of CRAH while some hot air was entrained toward the lower contour shifts toward the end of the cold aisle (especially for A1
part of A1 to incur recirculation. Note that the last rack E1 also and B1 racks), suggesting a lower RCI there. The results imply
reveals some hot air recirculation with a much less extent. This enclosing the door at the end of cold aisle casts little improvements
is somewhat expected for the air return grille of CRAH is close to on the overall RCI and SHI provided the entrance of the cold aisle is
A1. To improve the hot air recirculation occurring at A1, additional open, implying enclosing the entrance of the cold aisle may be
two plates are vertically aligned to A1/A2 racks toward CRAH to more effective. In this regard, some further modifications such as
divert the hot air back to A racks. However, this design can only enclosing the entrance of cold aisle but leave the open end (case
marginally improve the mean RCI to 91%, and the maximum tem- 4) and fully cold-aisle containment (case 5) are tested and the cor-
perature is slightly reduced to 33.6 °C. The deign may slightly sup- responding temperature distribution is seen in Fig. 4(d) and (e).
Interestingly, it is found that the full containment shows a much
inferior temperature distribution (case 5) than enclosing only at
the entrance of cold aisle. Although the RCI is 91% which is slightly
100 better than the reference case but the corresponding SHI is
increased to 0.39, indicating severe hot air recirculation as com-
pared to the reference case. On the other hand, the mean RCI is
80 over 99% and the SHI is lower to 0.27 for case 4. Note that the max-
imum intake temperature for full containment reaches 38.3 °C
RCI[%]

which is the worst among cases 1–5. Conversely, the maximum

60 temperature for case 4 is only 28.9 °C. The unexpected characteris-
Case1
tics of the full containment are resorted to two reasons. Firstly,
Case2
Case3
note that part 2 and part 4 of the simulation racks is not opera-
40 Case4 tional in order to simulate the uneven heat load conditions. For
Case5 the full containment case, we found that some hot air from the
hot aisle is reversely flowing back from part 2 (much more pro-
20 nounced) and part 4 (very minor amount), and a schematic show-
A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 ing this phenomenon is depicted in Fig. 7(a). The flow reversal for
Rack ID part 2 is far more pronounced than part 4 since the pressure differ-
ence amid hot aisle and cold aisle near the bottom is reduced and
0.8 the accumulated hot air in the bottom of hot aisle is also compar-
Case1 atively small. This can be made clear form Fig. 4(e) where the
Case2
intake temperatures of part 2 is appreciably elevated for all racks,
Case3
indicating a flow reversal may occur. Notice that this phenomenon
0.6 Case4
Case5 occurs notoriously only for full containment (case 5). For the other
layouts shown in Fig. 5 (cases 1–4), the flow reversal from part 2 is
almost negligible. We will defer the explanation about this phe-
SHI

nomenon to next section. In summary of the foregoing results, it

0.4
appears that an enclosed door placing at the entrance of the cold
aisle while let open the end of cold aisle will yield the least hot
air circulation.
The full containment case shows an appreciable flow reversal
0.2
from the non-operational region of part 2. To remedy this problem,
additional blockage plates were placed on part 2 and part 4 to sim-
A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 ulate the full containment of the cold aisle (case 6), and the derived
RCI and SHI is shown in Fig. 6. Through the help of blockage plates,
Rack ID
it appears that the temperature distribution is considerably
Fig. 5. Measured RCI and SHI for cases 1–5. improved since flow reversal from part 2 is eliminated. However,
140 C.-H. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 133–142

100

95
RCI[%]

90

85 Case5
Case6

80
A1 B1 C1 D1 E1
Rack ID
0.5

(a) Without blockage plate in part 2 and part 4.

0.4
SHI

0.3

0.2 Case5
Case6

0.1
A1 B1 C1 D1 E1
Rack ID

Fig. 6. Measured RCI and SHI for cases 5 and 6.

part 1 of all racks shown in Fig. 2(f) still reveal over-temperature

conditions which are actually worse than case 4. A schematic
showing this phenomenon can be seen from a schematic of Fig. 7
(b). Although the blockage plates can remove the hot air flow
reversal from part 2, the source of over temperature in part 1 is
actually caused by the flow reversal from part 1. During the exper-
iments, we had confirmed that the hot air did flow back to the cold
aisle through part 1 via some visual aids to check the flow direc-
tion. It is found that even though the fans of part 1 are still posi-
tively rotating but the upper region of part 1 still detect hot air
return from hot aisle. To explain this phenomenon, one has to
understand that the airflow from the grilles are actually jet-like
air flow pattern. In this regard, a lower static pressure may prevail
as the cold air stream heads toward the bottom of the racks. Con-
sequently, the pressure difference at the upper part of the cold
aisle and hot aisle may be reversed and result in flow reversal that
entrains some hot air flow from hot aisle despite the fans are still in
positive revolution. Also shown in Table 2, the mean temperatures
for cases 1, 2, 3, and 5 are roughly the same (with the difference
being less than 0.3 °C) but the difference in maximum temperature
for these four cases may be as large as 4.7 °C. Thus, it implies that
the mean intake temperature may not be a good indicator as far as
the efficiency subject to various layouts is concerned.
To further address this flow reversal phenomenon, we had
adjusted the total flowrate of the supplied air flow from the grilles
to a lower value 2.93 m3 s1 (case 7) and a higher value of
3.93 m3 s1 (case 8), and the corresponding temperature distribu-
tions and RCI/SHI are shown in Fig. 8. Apparently, a lower supplied
(b) With blockage plate being placed in part 2 and part 4.
Fig. 7. Schematic showing the flow reversal between cold and hot aisle.
total flowrate yields a better temperature distribution. The corre-
sponding RCI is increased from 95% to 99% while the mean SHI
declines from 0.3 to about 0.22 when the supplied air flowrate
drops from 3.53 to 2.83 m3 s1. The corresponding RCI is increased
from 95% to 99% while the SHI declines from 0.3 to about 0.22
when the supplied air flowrate drops from 3.53 to 2.83 m3 s1.
Conversely, the RCI is decreased to 90% and SHI is raised to 0.375
when the supplied air flowrate is increased to 3.93 m3 s1. More-
over, the maximum temperature into the computer rack is raised
to 43.4 °C which is worst among the 8 cases. At first glance, one
might expect that a higher supplied air flowrate from the grilles
may assist the cooling. However, the associated jet air flow pattern
decreases the static pressure especially at part 1, leading to a con-
siderable hot air reversal and a significant drop RCI and a rise of
SHI. Note that case 4 (opening at the end of cold aisle) shows a
maximum RCI and does not reveal such flow reversal phenomenon.
This is because part 2 and part 4 is not fully enclosed and an extra
opening is located at the end of cold aisle. These openings help to
balance the static pressure between hot aisle and cold aisle,
thereby reducing the possible flow reversal from part 1. Note that
the RCI and SHI of the full containment with higher flowrates, such
 C.-H. Wang et al. / Applied Thermal Engineering 112 (2017) 133–142 141

Note that the zigzag phenomenon becomes less pronounced when

the supplied airflow is reduced to 2.83 m3 s1, indicating the
100
Coanda effect is suppressed, and the zigzag phenomenon of RCI/
SHI is almost diminished as shown in Fig. 8. In summary of the
foregoing discussion, it is found that a full cold-aisle containment
must accompany with a lower supplied air flowrate, and a jet air-
RCI[%]

90
flow pattern from the grilles will jeopardize the RCI and SHI
significantly.

Case7
80 Case6 5. Conclusions
Case8
The present study experimentally investigates the relevant
blockage layouts as well as cold-aisle containment on the overall
70
A1 B1 C1 D1 E1 efficiency of a datacenter within a typical container size datacenter
with a total of 10 racks. Tests are performed with an constant inlet
Rack ID
air temperature of 21 °C at all grilles and airflow is supplied from
drop ceiling. The total power generated from the ten racks is
0.5
30 kW with equally delivering power of 3 kW for each rack. A total
of eight arrangements are examined and compared, including ref-
0.4 erence case, case 1 with a prescribed total airflow rate of
3.52 m3 s1 from the grilles, and other cases are subject to various
blockage arrangement, containment types, and supplied air flow-
0.3 rates. Based on the foregoing discussions, the following conclu-
SHI

sions are made.

0.2
Case7
0.1 Case6
Case8
0.0
A1 B1 C1 D1 E1
Rack ID
Fig. 8. Measured RCI and SHI for cases 6, 7, and 8.
as case 6 and case 8, show a zigzag behavior (A1..E1) and the RCI
reveals a very slight increasing trend from rack A1 to E1. There
are two reasons for this result. Firstly, with the presence of
enclosed door at both ends of cold aisle and the corresponding
jet air flow will introduce the so-called Coanda effect which is
the phenomena in which a jet flow attaches itself to a nearby sur-
face and remains attached even when the surface curves away
from the initial jet direction. This phenomenon becomes more pro-
nounced for a higher flowrate such as case 6 and case 8. In this
regard, the main flow from A1 and E1 grille is directed toward
the enclosed doors and only comparatively lower portion of the
air flow is directly heading toward the bottom of A1 and E1 racks.
This eventually leads to an increase of the static pressure at part 1,
and suppresses the flow reversal from hot aisle. Thus, a compara-
tively higher RCI and a lower SHI in association with B1 or D1 racks
emerge. The corresponding comparatively higher static pressures
at A1/E1 will enforce some air flow toward B1/D1 that may
increase the effective airflow volume from B1/D1 further down-
stream. The comparatively high stream airflow of B1/D1 produces
a local low pressure zone and entrain some air flow from C1 grille.
As a result, the effective air flow heading toward C1 rack is reduced
which result in another local high pressure zone at part 1, thereby
increasing the RCI of C1 rack. Secondly, although the RCI displays a
zigzag trend, it also shows a slightly increasing tendency from A1
to E1. This is associated with the branching design of air supplying
duct. The static pressure normally increases from the first (A1) to
the last (E1), despite the variation is small, it will impose some
effect to prevent airflow reversal and reveals an increasing trend.
(1) An appreciable hot air recirculation occurs for the reference
case without any blockages or containment (in full or in par-
tial), and adding a blockage plates vertical to the CRAH at the
entrance of cold aisle can only improve marginally the asso-
ciated RCI.
(2) Layout with enclosing the end of cold aisle while let open
the entrance of cold aisle also performs poorly.
(3) Full containment of the cold aisle with a high jet airflow pat-
tern from the supplied grilles gives the worst performance
and the highest intake temperatures due to significant hot
air reversal across the upper part of computer racks.
(4) Layout with enclosing door at the entrance of cold aisle but
let open the cold aisle shows a much superior temperature
distribution and a rather high RCI of 99%. This is applicable
even at a high jet airflow rate due to sufficient pressure bal-
ancing of the cold and hot aisle.
(5) A full containment design having higher jet airflow pattern
with full containment layout may cause the Coanda effect
that lead to zigzag results of RCI and SHI. A lower supplied
air flowrate without Coanda effect for a full containment of
cold aisle gives the best overall performance.
Acknowledgements
The authors are indebted to the financial support from Ministry
of Science and Technology, Taiwan under contract 105-3113-E-
009-003.
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