Abstract
This study describes the analysis of a 20 MW chilled water plant used for the IT cooling of a recently constructed data center in Korea. The CFD model was developed with the aim of evaluating the impact of problems such as chiller failure on the water and air temperatures in the cooling system. The numerical model includes the chilled water hydraulic network and individual water-to-air CRAC units. The coupling between the IT server room air temperature levels and the cooling plant has enabled a full assessment of the cooling system design in response to system fault conditions to be performed. The paper examines an emergency situation involving the failure of the cooling plant, and shows how the inherent thermal inertia of the system along with additional inertia achieved through buffer systems allowed a suitable design to be achieved.