Perforated Floor Tile Airflow Measurements
Data center cooling is key to protecting IT equipment, maximizing capacity, and optimizing efficiency. In a raised floor data center, cool air is pumped into an underfloor plenum and delivered to IT equipment through perforated floor tiles. Measuring airflow rates through these floor tiles is essential to validate CFD models, inform cooling designs, and verify cooling distribution. The °C Grate system is ideal for measuring volumetric flow rates through floor tiles. It is a purpose-built diagnostic instrument for data center airflow measurement and analysis and addresses the shortcomings of air flow capture hoods designed for HVAC applications.
°C Grate is more accurate than commercially available balometers and capture hoods and provides users with data, analytics, and insight that are just not available with ordinary flow hoods. Air flows freely through the °C Grate system, unlike balometers and capture hoods which impart back pressure to a floor tile during testing. With zero impedance architecture, °C Grate avoids errors induced by flow hoods which restrict airflow exiting floor tiles. In a raised floor tile system, opposing the flow of any one tile forces airflow through neighboring tiles, thus creating erroneous measurements.
See whitepaper: Measurement of Air Flow Rate Through Perforated Floor Tiles in a Raised Floor Data Center, Anemometric Tool. Degree Controls partnered with Georgia Institute of Technology for instrumentation validation.
°C Grate measures the airflow rate directly, as opposed to capture hoods which rely on a single pressure sensor for an indirect calculation of airflow rate. Using a grid array of thermal anemometers for multipoint measurement of air exiting a floor tile, °C Grate creates real-time gradient mapping of air velocity as well as air temperature.
°C Grate’s output for airflow measurement at the floor tile and server rack level is comprehensive, surpassing what single point measurement systems can provide. °C Grate allows users to see nonuniformities in the flow field and direction of flow, invaluable in identifying plenum obstructions or adjusting floor vent dampers.
Facilitate your datacenter management and improve efficiencies with thorough and reliable airflow measurement results from °C Grate. We look forward to working with you soon.
See our HotSpotr™ HT-510 underfloor air movers for datacenter cooling. HotSpotr™ fan tray cooling tilesdeliver a variable volume of cool air to computer, server, and IT equipment, based on sensed temperature.