Open spaces at the bottom of the data center cabinet and between the mounting rails and side of the cabinet allow hot exhaust air to re-circulate to the front of the cabinet where it is ingested by IT equipment. Sealing these openings will help to ensure conditioned air is delivered properly to IT intakes, points out a new technology brief from Upsite Technologies.
Related Products: High-volume airflow manager for data centers
Vertical exhaust ducts optimize data center airflow
The open space between server mounting rails and the sides, top and bottom of the enclosure is particularly important to seal, stresses the data. As these spaces are so close to IT equipment intakes, server exhaust air often circulates through these spaces and is ingested by IT equipment.
A typical 42 U rack has an open area of 74” x 2” on each side of the rails. This equates to 148 sq. in. or approximately 1 sq. ft. per rack. This translates to 100 sq. ft. of open space per 100 racks.
View Full PDF:Enclosure Openings, The Often Overlooked “Holes” in Data Centers (upsite.com)
More: Data center seminar covers design, airflow, power distribution