ASHRAE TC9.9 Research Priorities

The research priority list was developed in 2008 and is updated each year following the ASHRAE annual meeting.  The committee has one work statement (1499) in process now: ‘The Effect of Humidity on Static Electricity Induced Reliability Issues of ICT Equipment in Data Centers’.  An RTAR is under development addressing gaseous contamination in data centers.  Both of these research topics align with the highest priority topic in the priority list.

TC9.9 Research Priorities:

Sub-items highlighted in bold red are the TC’s consensus highest priority items at this time. Other listed subtopics are areas of interest with lower priority.

1. Energy consumption effects driven by the thermal guidelines (e.g. humidity and inlet temperature)
• Expansion of the thermal guidelines – energy consumption impact
• Reliability impact of expanding the RH/room temp – recommended and allowed
  
  
  
2. Cooling proof of concepts
• Adaptation of data centers for multi-mode cooling – liquid, air, multiphase
• Removing barriers to liquid cooling
• Rating methods, free cooling techniques, metrics for comparison Metrics – (true) inlet air temperature, flow rate, total heat load, etc.
• Optimal cooling implementations for ITE equipment based on power saving
• RAS impacts of various cooling implementations at data center level
• Optimal integration of data center cooling with ITE cooling
  
  
  
3. Uniformity/specification in real-time data reporting between ITE and data center management
• Metrics – (true) inlet air temperature, flow rate, total heat load, etc.
• Standardized protocols for data reporting
• Power saving modes for ITE and integration with data center management
• Optimization of data center cooling parameters for power-saving ITE operation – flow and inlet temperatures, workload
• Algorithms for managing varying ITE demand
  
  
  
4. Airflow Management
• Practical achievements for fan to server flow ratios 
• Influences of aisle containment
• Blank-off plates and containment of cable penetrations 
• Selection of floor diffusers 
  
  
  
5. Matching of ΔT’s between ITE and cooling equipment in common configurations
• Avoiding hot spots when shutting off cooling units
  
  
  
6. Ride-through when losing a chiller – guidelines and sizing for typical configurations
   
   
   
7. Guideline for floor diffusers for cold aisles — Placement of cold aisle diffusers and optimization using adjustable diffusers
   
   
   
8. Integration of telecom equipment within a data center
• Considerations for side-to-side-cooled ITE  
• Mixed front-to-back/top and side-to-side equipment

For more information, please email TC 9.9 Research Subcommittee Chairperson, Robin Steinbrecher at robin.steinbrecher@intel.com.