Has anyone used CFD software to optomise Data centre cooling?
I have reviewed a few of them but none can give me exactly what I require, for example return airlow temp to the carc units, output temp from the cracs, placing different perforated tiles in the same room, obstacles under the floor(Cabling, Pipework etc).
Can anyone help?
I know of 3 packages -- Innovative Research's TileFlow, Fluent's Airpak, and Flomerics' Flotherm. Of these, I've seen an impressive demo of TileFlow, which allows you to draw and manipulate a simple 3d model of your data center. I recall the software having all of the features you mention. Worth checking out.
Ok thanks Ken, but I've also looked into this further and found that the Flowtherm package is the most accurate when I compare what measurements I have recorded to the actual software.
There is one more alternative to the three you mentioned.
It was developed by some engineers who left Flomerics.
It is specifically for datacenters, so it is more streamlined, tailored for a datacenter. http://www.futurefacilities.com/software.htm
It is very simple to set up and is great for producing outputs for writing reports and such.
We have verified it against Airpak and it seems to work well. It is very expensive however and the computing requirements are top of the line.
best CFD
