ALBUQUERQUE, N.M., and SAN JOSE, Calif. — Upsite Technologies Inc., a provider of data center airflow management solutions, announced that computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling has demonstrated the energy savings outlined by its 4 R’s of Airflow Management™ methodology. The company utilized Future Facilities North America, a supplier of engineering simulation software for data center design and operational planning, to demonstrate the findings through the use of its 6SigmaDCX CFD simulation tool.

Upsite’s 4 R’s of Airflow Management provides a guide for implementing changes to optimize cooling and achieve the greatest benefits of airflow management, including a lower power usage effectiveness (PUE) score, reduced energy costs, and increased IT equipment reliability. The 4 R’s methodology details the improvements and best practices made to a data center’s racks, raised floor, rows, and room that will provide these benefits and optimize the cooling infrastructure. 6SigmaDCX was used to model a 4,000-square-foot data center and provide engineering simulation to assess the impact of the changes made to these four areas: rack, raised floor, row, and room. The simulation provided information about how problem areas (e.g., hot spots) could be rectified and how capacity and operating cost benefits could be realized after making improvements to each of the 4 R’s. The execution of the steps resulted in:

• Reduction in the maximum IT inlet temperature of 8.4°F.