1. CFD consulting for Data Centers

Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis can provide valuable insights into the thermal performance and airflow characteristics of a data center building. By simulating the fluid flow and heat transfer within the facility, CFD analysis helps optimize cooling efficiency, identify potential hotspots, and improve overall energy usage.

Key aspects addressed in a CFD analysis of a data center typically include:

• Airflow Distribution: CFD modeling allows for visualizing the airflow patterns and predicting how air moves through the data center. By assessing the effectiveness of the ventilation system, you can identify areas of recirculation or stagnation and optimize the placement of cooling equipment, such as air conditioning units and fans.

• Temperature Distribution: CFD simulations can predict temperature distributions throughout the data center, helping to identify hotspots and areas at risk of overheating. This information enables the design or adjustment of cooling systems to ensure efficient heat dissipation and maintain proper operating temperatures for servers and other equipment.

• Cooling System Optimization: CFD analysis enables the evaluation and optimization of cooling strategies, such as the arrangement of computer room air conditioning (CRAC) units, cold and hot aisle containment, and airflow management devices like baffles and diffusers. By testing various configurations and scenarios, energy consumption can be reduced while maintaining thermal stability.

• Equipment Placement: CFD analysis can assist in determining the optimal placement of servers, racks, CRAC/PAHU units and other equipment within the data center. By considering the impact of equipment layout on airflow and temperature distribution, CFD helps minimize hotspots and ensure desired cooling throughout the facility.

• Energy Efficiency: Through CFD simulations, you can assess the energy efficiency of the data center by evaluating airflow rates, pressure drops, and cooling effectiveness. By identifying inefficiencies and proposing modifications, such as adjusting air supply temperature or implementing computational fluid management (CFM) techniques, energy consumption can be reduced, leading to cost savings and environmental benefits.

2. CFD External Flow For three towers of a DG building used to provide power to a Data Center facility in NOIDA

This CFD consulting services project evaluated external flow conditions for an upcoming data center facility in Noida, UP-India. The DG building has 3 different towers with 9 levels in each and almost 70 + gensets stack in these 9 levels. This layout made the building design challenging since heat generated by the DG on the lower level was exhausted through the side openings of the building and getting recirculated with DG sets in upper levels. The design limitations for these exhaust ports resulted in recirculated flow to the upper levels of the data center. The CFD analysis determined %age of hot air recirculation for the backup diesel generators w.r.t. to the worst case wind scenario, when all the specified units are in operation and to see interaction of discharge air on the intake air of these genset enclosures. The CFD analysis results proposed significant design modifications for managing the hot air recirculation and to increase the efficiency of these DG sets.

3. CFD Analysis of a Pool Area – Recreational facility

Building an internal environment plays an important role for people’s comfort, especially when the weather outside is too hot or cold. Projects like this, wherein the pool area should be well ventilated so that thermal comfort inside the building gives a pleasant experience to its visitors. Steady-state CFD analysis was carried out for this project located in UK, for both winter and summer mode by studying the velocity, temperature & relative humidity profiles inside the pool room for the given single scenario of air conditioning design & heat load data.

The ventilation system design was validated by achieving the appropriate air flow, temperature and RH profiles in various horizontal and vertical planes.

4. Natural Ventilation Design for Chemical Recovery Boiler

Our client has designed a Chemical recovery boiler for a paper processing plant. The design has provisions for natural ventilation with louvers and openings to provide ventilation in the occupied spaces and staircases. In this project we develop a ventilation model to represent the ventilation network, and analysed all the critical boiler operating conditions and environmental conditions to evaluate the effectiveness of the ventilation design.

The Loop Equation Design Method was used for sizing the ventilation airflow components of natural ventilation systems. Design recommendations were also provided to meet smoke and air ventilation design criteria as specified in NFPA, ASHRAE guidelines and as per client’s specification.

5. CFD for Car Parks

Underground Car parks are very common in big cities. The ventilation system used in it are typically of two types (jet fan based ventilation system and duct based ventilation system). To validate the effectiveness of the design ventilation system, it is important to get the CFD analysis done and verify the critical parameters as per local/international standards, i.e. ASHRAE, NFPA, country specific local building standards of the UAE, Qatar, KSA (Middle east), India, Australia and the European region.

Common CFD Analysis Outputs for a Car Park levels are:

• CO PPM profiles (Normal Ventilation mode)

• Velocity and Temperature Profiles,

• Visibility profiles and smoke propagation movie, in case of Fire/smoke (Emergency mode)

• Optimized Jet Fans locations along with quantity (In case of Jet fan-based ventilation system)

6. Engineering assistance in a Cement Plant

A big cement mfg. company in Rajasthan India was constructing a clinker silo in a new cement plant being constructed in Rajasthan. The client approached us to define the installation and erection process of the conical roof and penthouse on the RCC wall to ensure process safety during erection. We carried out a thorough review of the proposed design to identify critical load bearing members and define the following as scope of work for the project including:

Erection Method and Sequence of erection for steel conical roof and penthouse on the top of RCC wall. Staging Scaffold and supporting structure design with Bill of Material with load calculation. Erection plan of roof sheeting and required safety equipment for working in height. Cranes capacity and sequence of crane operation during installation process.

7. Design for Thermal Energy Storage (TES) Tanks for a Data center project in Mumbai

TES Tanks are used for storing excess thermal energy, which is used during non-peak hours to reduce energy cost. They are commonly used in projects like Data Centers, Hospitals, Commercial buildings etc. In this project, we conducted the CFD analysis to verify the tank performance in case of chiller backup line failure, to achieve optimal thermal stratification and minimal thermocline thickness during charging and discharging mode. Diffusers are a critical component of these tanks. Design validation, and optimization of diffusers design was done using CFD.

8. Engineering assistance in Jebel Dhanna field UAE – Oil & Gas

We performed various engineering consultancy services for the largest storage and export Hub for the crude oil in the UAE i.e. Jebel Dhanna field. CFD Analysis for storage tanks and multi-phase separators, AIV/FIV and TVP studies, storage tank floating roof design were carried out by us. On completion, we also received code-A approval for the completion of the work.

9. UTCI and Shading analysis

The shading assessment helps in identifying the areas that are protected from direct solar radiation and it provide the insight on the %age of shading achieved. On the other hand The Universal Thermal Climate Index (UTCI) provides an assessment of outdoor thermal comfort conditions, taking into consideration of air temperature, radiation, humidity, and wind velocity, providing a holistic overview of comfort levels for outdoor Urban spaces. We carried out this project for a large Mixed use Building Project in Saudi Arabia, wherein the day time temperature exceeded 40 degree Celsius, both the studies helped our client in redesigning the open area, so that the pedestrians/visitors get more comfort. We combined and analyzed variable like local climate data, wind pattern, sun path, role of the building complex, effect of trees and canopies etc. We offered many recommendations that could be adopted to provide comfortable conditions to people visiting the building complex.