An official website of the United States government
UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) units and batteries are essential subsystems in data centers or telecom industries to protect equipment from electrical power spikes, surges and power outages. UPS units handle electrical power and dissipate a large amount of heat, and possess a high efficiency. Therefore, cooling units (e.g., CRACs) are needed to manage the thermal reliability of this equipment. On the other hand, battery operating conditions and reliability are closely related to the ambient temperature according to battery manufacturers; reliability increases when the ambient room temperature is around 25ºC. This study analyzed different room configurations and scenarios using the commercial CFD software 6Sigma Room DCXTM. As a first approach, we evaluated the thermal behavior and cooling degradation using standard thermal performance metrics SHI (Supply Heat Index) and RHI (Return Heat Index). These are frequently implemented in data centers to measure the level of mixing between cold and hot air streams. The results from this evaluation showed that standard cooling practices are inefficient, as values for the two metrics differed considerably from industry recommendations. We also considered a metric from the second law of thermodynamics using exergy destruction. This technique allowed us to find the mechanisms that increase entropy generation the most, including viscous shear and air stream mixing. Reducing exergy destruction will result in lessening lost thermodynamic work and thus reduce energy required for cooling. Typically, UPS and batteries are located in different rooms due to the hydrogen generation by the batteries. The integration of both equipment in the same room is a new concept, and this study aims to analyze the thermal performance of the room. Adding controllability showed improvements by reducing the exergy destruction due to viscous dissipation while slightly increasing thermal mixing in the rooms. Ducting the return flows to avoid flow mixing increased pressure drop, but reduced heat transfer between the hot and cold air streams, which in turn, improved the thermal performance. In the study, we determined the optimal configuration and possible strategies to improve cooling while maintaining desirable battery temperatures.
more »
« less
Open-Source Wearable Sensors for Behavioral Analysis of Sheep Undergoing Heat Stress
Heat stress (HS) negatively affects animal productivity and welfare. The usage of wearable sensors to detect behavioral changes in ruminants undergoing HS has not been well studied. This study aimed to investigate changes in sheep’s behavior using a wearable sensor and explore how ambient temperature influenced the algorithm’s capacity to classify behaviors. Six sheep (Suffolk, Dorset, or Suffolk × Dorset) were assigned to 1 of 2 groups in a cross-over experimental design. Groups were assigned to one of two rooms where they were housed for 20d prior to switching rooms. The thermal environment within the rooms was altered five times per period. In the first room, the temperature began at a thermoneutral level and gradually increased before decreasing. Simultaneously, in the second room, the temperature began at hot temperatures and gradually decreased before increasing again. Physiological responses (respiratory rate, heart rate, and rectal temperature) were analyzed using a linear mixed-effects model. A random forest algorithm was developed to classify lying, standing, eating, and ruminating (while lying and standing). Thermal stress shifted daily animal behavior budgets, increasing total time spent standing in hot conditions (p = 0.036). Although models had a similar capacity to classify behaviors within a temperature range, their accuracy decreased when applied outside that range. Although wearable sensors may help classify behavioral shifts indicative of thermal stress, algorithms must be robustly derived across environments.
more »
« less
- Award ID(s):
- 2106987
- PAR ID:
- 10469216
- Publisher / Repository:
- MDPI
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Applied Sciences
- Volume:
- 13
- Issue:
- 16
- ISSN:
- 2076-3417
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 9281
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Despite decades of research, we still lack a complete understanding of what factors influence the transition of the necessary and adaptive acute stress response to what has become known as chronic stress. This gap in knowledge has illuminated the necessity for studies that examine the thresholds between these two sides of the stress response. Here, we determine how repeated exposure to acute stressors influences physiological and behavioral responses. In this repeated measures study, house sparrows ( Passer domesticus ) were exposed to a chronic stress protocol. We took physiological and behavioral measurements before, during, and after the protocol. Blood samples were used to assess four aspects of hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function: baseline corticosterone, stress-induced corticosterone, negative feedback, and the maximal capacity to secrete corticosterone. We also assessed bacterial killing capacity and changes in uric acid concentration. Neophobia trials were used to assess behavioral changes throughout the protocol. We found no significant changes in HPA axis regulation in any of the four aspects we tested. However, we found that uric acid concentrations and neophobia significantly decreased after only four days of the chronic stress protocol, while bacterial killing capacity did not decrease until after eight days of exposure. These results indicate that different components of the stress response can be impacted by chronic stress on different timescales. Our results further indicate the importance of assessing multiple aspects of both physiology and behavior in order to understand how exposure to chronic stress may influence ability to cope with future challenges.more » « less
-
null (Ed.)Borehole breakouts are used to constrain the magnitude of maximum horizontal stress. However, when the borehole wall strength is higher than the in situ tangential stress, borehole wall failure does not develop. Additional compressive stress can be induced by heating borehole walls. To validate this concept experimentally, we conducted room-temperature and elevated temperature true-triaxial tests on Berea sandstone and Niagaran dolomite samples. We used acoustic emission sensors to capture the onset of breakout development, and we measured the temperature close to borehole wall to assess the magnitude of induced thermal hoop stress. The test results show that within a specific rock type, the breakouts develop in similar manner in room-temperature and elevated-temperature tests. Therefore, the maximum horizontal stress can be constrained from the following dataset: critical tangential stress at which breakout develops, minimum horizontal stress, elastic and thermal properties, and temperature change at the borehole wall.more » « less
-
As the online frameworks and services are growing rapidly with the evolution of web-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications, server rooms are upgrading in computational capacity and size to keep up with these demands. Enterprise companies with their limited capacity server rooms struggle to keep up with these increasing computational demands. Hence, some of them end up outsourcing their servers to co-located facilities (Co-Lo) and the others choose to upgrade their existing server rooms. Correspondingly, the thermal load associated with such upgrades is typically tremendous. Approximately around 40% of the power consumed by datacentres is dissipated as heat. Conventional HVAC systems fail to satisfy the requirements of such server capacities. Not only do they struggle to fulfil the cooling load, but their maldistribution of cool air into the server room forms a major cause for hotspots formation. To tackle this issue, Liquid-to-Air (L2A) Coolant Distribution Units (CDUs) are being used as a liquid-based cooling solution for rack-level cooling. This type of CDUs provide efficient cooling for servers through liquid coolant that is distributed into cooling loops mounted on top of each server board. The generated heat is curried away using this liquid coolant back to the CDU, which then dissipates it into the surrounding air using dedicated pumps, fans, and heat exchanger, hence the name Liquid-to-Air. In the present work, one of the most popular liquid cooling strategies is explored based on various scenarios. the performance of a 24-kW liquid to Air (L2A) CDU is judged based on cooling effect, stability, and reliability. The study is curried out experimentally, in which a test rack with three thermal test vehicles (TTVs) are used to investigate various operation scenarios. Both liquid coolant and air sides of this experimental setup are equipped with the required instrumentations to monitor and analyse the tests. All test cases were taken in a room with limited air conditioning to resemble the environment of upgraded server rooms with conventional AC systems. Moreover, the impact of using such high-power density cooling unit on the server room environment with restricted HVAC system is also brought to light. Environmental and human comfort parameters such as noise, air velocity, and ambient temperature are measured under various operation conditions and benchmarked against their ranges for human comfort as listed in ASHREE standards. At the end of this research, recommendations for best practice are provided along with areas of enhancement for the selected system.more » « less
-
ABSTRACT This study investigates linkages between volume change, pore fluid drainage, shear wave velocity, and temperature of soft clays using a thermal triaxial cell equipped with bender elements, a measurement approach that has not been explored widely in past thermo-mechanical studies. Two kaolinite specimens were consolidated mechanically to a normally consolidated state and then subjected to drained and undrained heating-cooling cycles, respectively. After cooling, the specimens were subjected to further mechanical consolidation to evaluate changes in apparent preconsolidation stress. Both specimens showed net contractive thermal strains after a heating-cooling cycle and overconsolidated behavior during mechanical compression immediately after cooling. The shear wave velocity increased during drained heating, but negligible changes were observed during drained cooling, indicating permanent hardening because of thermal consolidation during the heating-cooling cycle. The shear wave velocity decreased during undrained heating because of a reduction in effective stress associated with thermal pressurization of the pore fluid but subsequently increased when drainage was permitted at elevated temperature. The shear wave velocity increased slightly during undrained cooling but decreased when drainage was permitted at room temperature. Net increases in small-strain shear modulus of 17 and 11 % after heating-cooling cycles under drained and undrained (with drainage after reaching stable temperatures) conditions, respectively, provide further evidence to the potential of thermal soil improvement of normally consolidated clays. Transient changes in shear modulus also highlight the importance of considering drainage conditions and corresponding changes in effective stress state during heating-cooling cycles.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
-
Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3390/app13169281
