Review on air distribution development of air conditioning systems in data centers

In order to study the influence of air distribution on cooling efficiency of different air conditioning systems in data centers, this paper first summarizes the development history of air distribution of data center air conditioning systems, presents the characteristics and application status of air distribution forms of room-level, row-level and rack-level air conditioning systems, points out common problems such as local hot spots, cold and hot air mixing, and cooling failures, and analyses the root causes of hot air recirculation, cold air bypass, and negative pressure backflow. On this basis, the evaluation indexes of air distribution used to measure the type and severity of air turbulence are sorted out. Finally, the optimization measures of different air distribution forms are classified and summarized. It is pointed out that the air flow path can be optimized by adjusting the structure of the underfloor plenum and the cold aisle, setting the rack diversion component, adjusting the air conditioning layout and other measures, so as to improve the cooling efficiency and energy utilization rate of the server room, which can provide ideas for the selection and development of air distribution in data centers.