scope:

INTRODUCTION

A key focus in the IT market continues to be on cooling strategies and heat removal from medium to high-density heat loads. Whether at the component, enclosure or room level, end users are struggling to keep up with constantly escalating heat loads. And a condition being addressed almost as rapidly as the heat buildup, with a wide variety of solutions, configurations and components, either available now or in the near future, that will help, at the least, reduce the impact of having too much heat to get rid of.

Every facility operator-small to large, end user to hosting site, private or public sector, is aware of this situation and trying to cope as best as possible. Many strategies have already been successfully implemented: Use of rack mount blank panels, vertical air baffles, improved floor tile management, hole grommets, CRAC/CRAH unit placement, etc. are all in current use to maximize facility climate control capacity. Improved cable management and control and use of under floor and overhead ceiling spaces can also stretch these resources. Even the revised ASHRAE specifications for operating conditions can increase heat removal capacity. But only up to a point.

And at many locations, that point has been reached.

With these greater loads and higher density installations becoming more commonplace, two newer methods are being deployed-aisle containment solutions and close-coupled heat transfer systems. Both product sets are designed to increase heat removal capacity in the IT space. However, the IT community-from the design engineer, through component vendor and ultimately the end user, are tasked to not only design, install and operate a solution but to also provide the data-operational performance results, to justify the expense and verify the claims. This has led to a new awareness of best practices for data centers, with the clear goal to improve facility operations and performance. This situation has also expended a great deal of planning resources to insure IT facilities will be able to handle future growth and new product deployments.

This paper will review some of the design considerations for a Cold Aisle Containment (CAC) installation and operational capacities that can be achieved with the system.