AN-04-09-3 – Cooling of High Heat Density Rooms Today and in the Future

Technology advances are driving the power densities of electronics to unprecedented levels. Consequently, thermal density issues for the facilities hosting the electronics have become topics of increasing interest. Trends indicate that room densities for data centers and telecom central offices will jump from less than 100 W/ft² to densities of over 500 W/ft² in the near future. This paper will identify several of the drivers of those trends and assess the impact on cooling system design for these spaces. The focus of this paper is how high heat density rooms can be cooled using current cooling technology while lowering energy cost, and how the development of new cooling technology will impact high-density spaces in the future.

Units: I-P