Noise levels in computer data centers: Potential occupational noise hazard.

Abstract

The noise levels in modern high‐density data centers are encroaching on occupational noise limits, such as those set by OSHA laws in the United States or EC Directives in Europe. This is surprising to many because the high‐tech computer data center is not usually thought of as a workplace that can cause hearing damage. Over the past decade two trends have contributed to this. First, high‐end servers are being packaged more and more densely into a single rack, where the cooling fans or blowers now have to operate at higher speeds and airflow volumes to properly cool them. Secondly, more and more of these systems are being installed on data center floors, with racks often butted one against the other “as far as the eye can see.” An associated problem is as follows: How to predict ahead of time what the sound pressure levels might be in a data center? This involves solving the following emission‐to‐immission problem: How to translate the emission sound power levels of individual racks into resulting immission sound pressure levels in the room? This paper will present an initial assessment of the noise exposures that exist in today’s data centers and present some initial modeling results.