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Modular data centers are increasingly being developed instead of using large data centers to save huge amount of capital investment. High energy efficiency is a priority and measures have been taken to increase it. Cooling techniques such as air-side economization and evaporative cooling are proving to be some of those very effective measures. An Information Technology (IT) pod cooled by an indirect/ direct evaporative cooling unit is the prime focus of this paper. CFD modeling helps to resolve cooling problems and predict inefficiencies in modular data centers. For existing data centers, CFD modeling is used to identify the cooling issues and explore various cooling improvements without risking the operation of the data center. In this paper, CFD analysis is performed to study the airflow pattern and temperature distribution inside the modular data center and the cooling unit. Study reveals significant increase in supply temperature due to solar loading on the supply duct.

Various factors affect performance of evaporative cooling media. Many literature papers report on factors that affect performance of cooling pads that are used in greenhouse and poultry farming applications. There is a lack of literature data that discusses the effect of these factors for data center applications. Currently various types of cooling pads are used in many data centers. This paper addresses the performance characteristics of Cellulose media and Glass-Fibre media. Various parameters that affect the efficiency of the cooling pads include surface area, thickness of pad, size of perforation of the pad, water flow rate, temperature, and relative humidity of inlet air. The experimental analysis includes changing the frontal air velocity and operating different levels of pad saturation to find out how well the pad performs under the above mentioned conditions and how the efficiency of the pad system varies. Results showed that cellulose pads have higher saturation efficiency, wetting characteristics and lesser pressure drop compared to the Glass-Fiber ones. With better cooling performance, cooler air can enter into the data center with minimal expenditure of energy spent for driving chiller and other air-handling units.