Thermal Design of Portable Modular High Performance Computing Data Centers

Abstract

High performance computing and data center design and infrastructure is vital for the efficient use of supercomputers for applications such as AI and Machine Learning. This work investigates the thermal/fluid characterization of a water-cooled modular data center for the Department of Defense (DoD) High Performance Computing Modernization Program (HPCMP). This program requires a shipping container to be deployed to support a number of significant militarily use cases that are not possible with non-transportable supercomputers. One significant challenge with the design of these types of supercomputers is the limited space and therefore higher power density of the electronic equipment. To understand the impact of these constraints, detailed computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations were performed of the IT equipment and the data center. These simulations analyzed the effect of the back pressure on the ability to provide sufficient cooling through the servers. These computational models were developed based on experiment testing to validate the numerical approach. Additionally, a detailed model of the data center was developed to elucidate the impact of the room level impedances such as hoses, overhead power distribution, and other architectural features. The models were used to assess both the operational performance of the system as well as the maintenance on the data center. Lastly, the model was used to assess the impact of the server-level cooling on the overall data center energy efficiency optimization and air flow delivery.