NY-14-001 -- Hydraulic Modeling as a Tool to Enable Design Resiliency for Data Center Chilled Water Systems PDF

This paper looks at hydraulic modeling as a tool to examine failure modes of a central plant chilled-water system. The program is capable of solving for balanced flows and pressures throughout the system and includes detailed models of all pumps, heat exchangers, valves, pipes, and fittings. It allows individual pipelines to be easily shut off, simulating failure modes, and also allows redundant pumps and chillers to be turned on in response to failures. The procedures and results are demonstrated for a theoretical data center with a 5 MW IT load and 12°F (6.6°C) water-side delta t. The results are visualized by creating 2-D plots of the control valve pressure drops in the distribution grid.