Abstract: I will describe and offer up for discussion a series of fluid mechanic problems I’ve encountered through my work as an engineering consultant working on so-called ‘chilled water systems’ and heat rejection in data centres.
I don’t have full solutions to any of these problems. What I propose to do is to describe the problems as I understand them, and share the approaches we have taken to try and address them. I will very much welcome input from the audience on different approaches which might be useful, simplifications to the problems which might lead to improved understanding, and/or complications not yet included which might be important to consider.
Example Problems:
- Heat rejection to the air from external plant – focussing on rooftop air-cooled chillers.
- Creating a system-level model to study the dynamic response of a data centre chilled water system to prescribed scenarios; such as IT load surge driven by AI inference compute, general fluctuating IT load, and mains power loss / transition to backup generation.
- Characterising a chilled water ‘buffer’ tank for inclusion in a system-level dynamic model – then optimising the size and dynamics of that tank.
Short bio: Dr Owen Connick is the director of AdvanTEC EMEA at Carrier. After a first degree in Aerospace Engineering at Imperial College London, Owen stayed in academia and completed his PhD on the fluid mechanics of hybrid natural ventilation. His career in industry spans building sustainability, environmental engineering, natural ventilation, and energy systems. He has also contributed to wider industry efforts to accelerate the transition to net zero buildings through organisations such as the CIBSE and ASHRAE.