Water-Cooled Rack Burn-In Room, San Jose, CA
Vertiv Liebert XDU1350 Cooling Distribution Unit (CDU) (Image Credit: Vertiv)
Category: Data Centers
Overall Area: 1,500 ft² white space; 2,300 ft² outdoor chiller, economizer, and pump pad.
Services Provided: HVAC and Plumbing
Completion Date: 2024
Owner: Undisclosed
Contractor: D. Webber Consulting
Project Description
The project involved the engineering of a Burn-In Room with a cooling load well above 100-kW per rack. The servers are water-cooled, as most artificial intelligence (AI) racks are designed, and Pragmatic PE worked with a chiller manufacturer to configure it for operation at elevated temperatures compared to conventional chillers. This obviated the need for a separate primary loop keeping installation cost and time to a minimum which was a priority on this fast-track project. The Burn-In Room required tight temperature and humidity control behooving us to add a heating system to bring the room up to testing conditions quickly and efficiently. The water-cooling system was designed for 80% of the load and an airside cooling system handled the remaining 20%.
Pragmatic PE managed the HVAC and plumbing scopes of work, including the implementation of a 275-ton air-cooled chiller system dedicated to the server room's water and air cooling needs. The system was designed to comply with California Title-24 requirements and all local ordinances. The client designed the servers in parallel with the design of this facility which instigated a host of changes mid-stream. Pragmatic PE responded to each change within hours which helped the electrical, structural, and architectural professionals accommodate the changes and keep the project on schedule.
The facility included several advanced components, such as in-row coolers for an accompanying electrical infrastructure room, computer room air handling units (CRAH), pump skids with plate and frame heat exchangers, humidifiers, customized controls for air-cooled chilling, and coolant distribution units (CDUs) to serve the water-cooled racks. The burn-in room ran at variable high temperatures depending on the type of testing required and Pragmatic PE tailored the equipment and control sequences to achieve these outcomes.
Pragmatic PE faced several challenges on this project, the foremost of which was the tight deadline. Within two weeks of being released, the drawings were completed for permit submission despite the client changing the Owner Project Requirements within the two week period. Pragmatic PE designed for the appropriate redundancy given that this was a burn-in room. Despite these challenges, the project was completed successfully, ensuring a reliable and efficient HVAC system that met all client requirements. Pragmatic PE delivered so well on this project that the second high-density rack server room project on the campus was negotiated to keep the same engineering team on the job.