DE-13-007 -- Thermal Energy Storage for Emergency Cooling, Part 2 (RP-1387) PDF

A disruption of electrical power causing the lack of cooling to temperature sensitive equipment (for example, internet data centers) can cause failure in a matter of several minutes or less. The availability of appropriately designed and built emergency cooling systems would prevent data loss and failure of the equipment. The objective of this research is to develop useful and practical design methodologies for the design of emergency cooling systems. To accomplish this, ten candidate facility types were examined concerning their cooling load profile and design variables. Three of these - data center, manufacturing clean room, and specialized laboratory -were examined in greater detail in conjunction with five conceptual chilled water emergency cooling designs, including chilled water and ice-storage systems. The software Transient System Simulation (TRNSYS) was used to develop and examine the transient behavior of all the chilled water systems when applied to the three emergency cooling applications. From these designs and their associated cost analyses, a design methodology consisting of a general approach to cooling system type selection, component sizing, economic analysis, and design criteria was developed.