In which CFD modeling lets us compare two possible design configurations for ventilation in a hospital patient room, yielding some similarities and perhaps surprising differences in what each configuration means for pathogen control and occupant comfort.
Simple versus oversimple, Matchmaker versus Master, innovation versus inertia … our veteran data center expert looks back on time spent with an industry leader and looks forward with some lessons in mind.
The Museum of the Bible’s project team was already up against the extremes of Washington weather and the high demands of IAQ for artifact preservation. A system that harnessed adequate cooling, heating, humidification, and ventilation capabilities would still have one more hurdle: a physical footprint of hardly Biblical proportion. Get a first look at this testament to design acumen and true collaboration.
In which the design team realized they could pump irrigation water from the campus’ main distribution line at night to use for cooling during the day if they could figure out how to store thousands of gallons of water on the new building’s first floor -- a vertically small space. Piping strategy, CFD, and chilled beams fill out an innovative closing argument on behalf of this Utah law school.
This chiller plant retrofit team encountered challenging existing conditions and an-swered with savvy choices for piping and valves as well as the chillers. Good communication, accurate documentation, and a creative bidding idea you might want to borrow also contributed to bringing the mechanical work in effectively and on budget.
Are we headed for a scenario reminiscent of big-budget disaster films? Maybe not. But when it comes to water usage, it’s time for engineers to put down the popcorn and embrace a new role: designer of more responsible data centers. Optimizing cooling towers, boosting the CoC, and considering your WUE are just three steps for maintaining the flow of information while minimizing the flow of H2O.
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