Socomec Uninterruptible
Power Supply (UPS)
  Socomec Static Transfer
Switch (STS)
  Battery Monitoring System
  Precision Air Conditioning
System (PAC)
  Early Smoke Detection System
  Water Detection System
  Infrastructure Environmental
Monitoring System (IEMS)
  Containment System for Green
/High Density Data Centre
  Green Data Centre Solution
  Active Harmonic Filter
  Fire Suppression System
  Intelligent Power Distribution
Unit (iPDU)
  Rack PDU
  Modular Data Centre
  Structured Cabling System
  Standby Genset
  Security System
 
   
 Containment System For Green & High Density Data Centres

Information Technology and data processing equipments nowadays are becoming more and more compact; however, the computing efficiency does not rise at the same rate. As a result, the power and heat density has increased tremendously. In such high heat density inside the data center, the local airflow requirement of racks has increased and it is challenging to supply adequate air to the IT equipments. As the racks take in high volume of cold air, they are also exhausting equally amount of high volume of hot air to the data center as well. With such high volume high velocity airflow, both the movement and circulation of air inside the data center would become unpredictable.

In a conventional data center with Hot/Cold aisle arrangement, when high velocity hot air is exhausted from high heat density racks, there is no way to ensure this hot air will go back to the cooling units. Simply because the design itself does not guarantee the airflow path. There is a possibility of hot air travelling to the inlet of other racks without prior mixing with cold air and thus, creating hot spot. Or, after mixing with cold air, it goes directly to the cooling units instead of providing cooling to the racks. It is however, as equally challenging to channel the cold air to the rack intakes, for the cold supply air. Placing air grilles or perforated tiles in front of equipment racks does not guarantee all cold supply air could properly provide cooling to the racks. Some cold air will bypass the racks and mix with room air before flowing back to the cooling units. Some cold air will enter the racks immediately after coming out from air grilles and thus over cooling the equipment racks. (When supply air temperature is much lower than recommended rack inlet temperature)

In low heat density data center, the air flow through equipment racks is extremely small and the air velocity is low. Therefore, the airflow inside data center is very much dictated by comparatively much higher supply air velocity and suctions of cooling units. But in high heat density data center, the air velocity that goes through equipment racks is as high as the supply air and the suction power of the racks is as great as the suction of cooling units. Hence, while conventional hot/cold aisle configuration works well in low heat density data center, it could no longer handle today’s high heat density data center.

At CSPM, we strive to eliminate hot spots and chaotic airflow inside high density data center through innovative engineering solutions. We are not only offering workable solutions for high heat density data center but also improving both efficiency and reliability in cooling data center. In order to have a predictable environment, the cooling solution deployed must be able to ensure that the environment inside data center is controllable. This is not only referring to the ability to control the airflow path and temperature but also the ability to separate cold and hot air and; the ability to measure the performance of the design to ensure it is working as planned.
Citec’s High Density Heat Containment System (HDHC) is an energy efficient and a cost effective solution for high density data center. It can cool up to 20kW per rack without the need of additional supplementary cooling units in your data center. HDHC System can be easily implemented with Citec’s state of the art CIR racks. It can also be retrofitted to other manufacturer’s racks with our compact CRF units. HDHC System contains the heat generated by equipment and directs the hot exhaust air from IT equipment to CRAC units through a predictable pathway such as short ducts and ceiling plenum. Cold air can be delivered to the room either through under floor plenum or directly from the CRAC units. As long as there is sufficient cold air being delivered to the room, this cold air will eventually flow through equipment racks and provide cooling to the IT equipment. This is simply because that is the only path for air to flow back to the cooling units.


HDHC System With Citec’s CIR Enclosure System

Citec’s state of the art CIR Enclosure System is designed to ease the implementation of HDHC System. It has 2 in-built high flow high efficiency fans to satisfy the airflow requirement of high heat density IT equipment with minimum amount of energy. Both fans are controlled by a sophisticated controller to ensure they are always operated at the optimum point. The controller will conduct real time monitoring on the temperature and pressure at various locations inside the enclosure system. Base on this set of information, it then determines the correct fan speed in order to extract just the right amount of airflow. Too much airflow means less energy efficient while lack of airflow means equipments might not get enough cooling.



CIR integrated rack system can optimize cooling infrastructure by providing physical separation of cold air and hot air. It reduce or eliminate over-provision of cold air, hot air recirculation and bypass thus restoring cooling system capacity for IT equipment loads. Its redundancy, hot-swap fan design ensures system reliability.

HDHC System for Third-Party Racks

Great improvement in efficiency can be achieved and more cooling capacity can be put in used by converting existing conventional data center to HDHC System. Citec Rack Fan (CRF) units can be fitted to third-party racks with minimum effort. Only a little modification needed to be done on the existing racks but great benefits can be grabbed by isolating hot exhaust air from the cold air inside the data center. By just improving the cooling system efficiency, more useful cooling capacity can be extracted out from the existing cooling equipment. No additional cooling units needed for that extra cooling capacity and thus operating cost can be maintained at the minimum level.

Aisle Containment

If at any circumstances that full installation of HDHC System is not possible, be it due to budget constraint or site complexity, cold/hot aisle containment deployment is the easiest way to improve cooling efficiency inside a data center. Aisle containment can be done by either enclosing the cold aisle or hot aisle or both. But practically, it will be good enough by either enclosing only the cold or hot aisle. Aisle containment system can effectively separate cold air and hot exhaust air and consequently, improving overall cooling efficiency. However, unlike HDHC system which can monitor and control the quantity of airflow through each and every rack, the aisle containment system can only direct the overall airflow path but not the quantity of airflow distribution to the racks. In a data center with multi rows of racks, delivering the right amount of cold air to each enclosed cold aisle could be challenging. Likewise, extracting the right amount of hot air from each enclosed hot aisle is as equally challenging. Doing air balancing in data center is very tricky.
Because IT equipment load is ever changing in which it depends on whether they are in idle state or in operation. Duty-standby CRAC units rotation could also change the airflow profile inside data center, making air balancing an almost impossible task. Another concern on aisle containment deployment is the complexity of *fire suppression system when there are multiple compartments (multiple enclosed rows) in data center.

Cold aisle containment (CAC) can be done by enclosing cold aisles in data center, preventing cold air from mixing with hot exhausted air. Cold air can be delivered to the enclosed cold aisles through raise floor plenum or ducts. As cold air will not be contaminated by hot air, consistent temperature is expected at the entrance of racks, as a result, ensuring all IT equipments get proper cooling. However, air balancing should be performed properly to ensure the right amount of cold air is delivered to each enclosed aisle. Otherwise the ventilation fans inside the IT equipments might need to do all the hard work to ensure the airflow requirement is met.
In worst condition, these fans might operate out of their optimum operating range.
An unpleasant scenario that is associated with cold aisle containment is the hot environment inside data center. As the hot exhausted air is not able to mix with the cold supply air and fill up the whole data center, the environment inside data center might be too hot and uncomfortable for operation or service personnel inside the data center. Hot data center also provide an unfriendly environment to non-racked equipment or devices such as UPS, control panel, electronic door lock, stand alone servers etc. Special arrangement should be made to ensure these equipment and devices operate at proper environment. For example, to re-locate them to an air-conditioned space or to duct a specific amount of cold air from cold aisle to them. Hot data center is considered non-conditioned space. It will impact the temperature of the spaces around the data center.


Hot aisle containment (HAC) can be done by enclosing hot aisles in the data center, preventing hot exhausted air from mixing with cold air inside the data center. Hot air can be extracted from the enclosed hot aisles through ceiling plenum and ducts.
Hot air can also be extracted through raise floor plenum if upflow bottom return
CRAC units are used. As hot air is contained and being directed back to CRAC units without contaminating cold air in cold aisles, consistent temperature is expected at the entrance of racks and thus ensuring all IT equipment get proper cooling.
However, like in the case of cold aisle containment, air balancing should be performed properly to ensure the right amount of hot air is extracted from each enclosed hot aisle. But unlike cold aisle containment, hot aisle containment provides a cold and comfortable environment. It does not impact the temperature of surrounding space.