room shape affects cooling?
 

hello,

Does anyone know if the room shape affect cooling in any way? i know that the airflow has to be systematic but if that is taken care of, can one not worry abt the shape of the room?

Sure. Check out a CFD analysis of a data center and you'll see how all of the physical characteristics interact -- room size and shape, rack and CRAC placement, ceiling height, even building materials and finishes. The impact of most of these can be minimized with air containment, of course.

Ken

i've heard that some constructors even suggest that a circular room brings down cooling requirements. how and why they arrived at that conclusion, i don't understand.

as long as you avoid too many pillars and sharp edges in the room, i think your cooling needs can be as low as they can be from a room shape point of view. although a circular room does bring down cooling, they also have limitations. the purpose is to have a spacious room with no/less obstructions.

I could see how a circular room would be more beneficial in terms of cooling, as the airflow would go in a circular motion rather than hitting the walls and decreasing the flow.

Of course it does matter, but you cannot say anything about it. It depends on all other facets within server room. From the power consumption, the amount of racks, using free cooling or just normal aircos, DX or water ooling, using cooling alleys/containers or not and so on... ;)

yes civil engineers and architects consider the heat flow patterns while designing data centers. since air is the best medium for convective heat transfer and convection is proven as the most effective way of cooling data centers.. the real innovation in design happens in balancing both achieving an effective heat flow pattern & a modular design that has an aesthetic appeal

There are several potential problems with a circular room. To make a circular airflow would require racks to be staged in wagon wheel spoke like rows. That would then push hot air into the cold isle of the next row. Also where would you place the CRACs or whatever you use. You could place the CRACs wherever and create ducting in the top space of the room to continue to cyclone effect.

Even after making the airflow as cyclonic as possible the fact that the hot air is being pushed into the cold isle of the next rack would negate and most likely reduce the cooling effect that might be gained.

Hot/cold isle containment is still the best way to go. One caveat to that is using water cooled rack doors. That would introduce another variable to the equation that could push the cooling factor for a round room higher than a square room. I think some CFD sims would really help out.

One other downside for a round room is wasted space. Square peg/round hole and all that.