In order to increase the cooling effect within the enclosure, the goal remains to direct conditioned air and to restrict the possibility of hot air recirculation. At the same time, any proposed solution must also allow for any desired cable management in the front of an enclosure.

Passive
The use of the Great Lakes Brush Grommet Kit, designed to mount to the proprietary Flexible Mounting Profile* found in each Great Lakes rail, helps to prevent bypass air flow and to keep conditioned air in the front of the enclosure. While brush grommet prevents hot air recirculation and prevents conditioned air from passing by the equipment mounted within the enclosure, it still allows for any desired cable management within the enclosure.

Active
A Medium Cooling solution could also include optional fans in the front mesh door in order to accelerate the intake of conditioned air into the front of the cabinet, as well as its movement through the equipment mounted within. The employment of split fan rear doors can assist in the removal of hot air from the enclosure. This solution can be further enhanced by the installation of an optional fixed/adjustable ducted chimney to channel the natural upward movement of hot air, removing it from the enclosure through an upper rear opening to which the chimney may be attached. Heat removal may be further activated by the addition of an exhaust fan, to be mounted within the chimney.

This Medium Cooling Solution is targeted at the delivery of 8 kW through the use of some simple enclosure options and accessories. Actual cooling shall be based on the options, accessories and techniques employed, as well as the conditions and efficiency of the computer room air conditioning system employed in the data center.

*The Flexible Mounting Profile (FMP) is a series of holes along each rail, installed at one-RMU increments, and located outside the standard pattern for all EIA rail-mounted equipment. From copper bus bars to cable rings, cable managment posts and other accessories, the design and manufacture of Great Lakes rails is so strong that virtually nothing mounted to the FMP will take away from the dimensional stability of the rail itself.

The rails in Great Lakes’ ES series enclosure are #12 gauge steel, formed three times for
added strength. An ES enclosure can support more than 2,000 pounds of mounted equipment.

In a typical raised floor data center, conditioned air moving vertically from a raised floor or empty data center space (white space) is being asked to pass into an enclosure, in order to cool the equipment mounted inside. The result is a lot of “white space” being cooled.

The Adjustable Air Manager mounts in the bottom of a Great Lakes ES Series Enclosure on a raised floor to bring the conditioned air inside the enclosure closer to (and helping it pass though) the equipment to be cooled. A simple slide on the Air Manager allows you to control the flow of conditioned air coming into the bottom of the cabinet. This increases air flow to and lowers intake temperatures in the front of the equipment, while also maintaining air pressure within the enclosure.

The Air Manager also uses the Great Lakes concept of “Accelerated Ambient Cooling” to greatly improve the efficiency of the available conditioned air intended to cool equipment mounted within the enclosure. By managing and directing the available conditioned air, it nearly eliminates bypass air flow outside the enclosure.

This effect can be further enhanced through the use of an optional high-efficiency fan unit, mounted within the Air Manager to increase the acceleration of air into the enclosure. Other compatible accessories include Great Lakes’ Brush Grommet Kit to keep any conditioned air from bypassing the equipment mounted within the enclosure.

An optional Exhaust Chimney can further increase CRAC unit efficiency by directing hot air to the system return, completing the “loop”. In essence, this “localizes containment” at the enclosure level. The use of these optional accessories helps the enclosure to do everything it can to maximize the existing conditions within a given data center, without adding any additional, outside cooling.

This High Cooling Solution would be targeted at the delivery of 10 kW, based on the various options, accessories and techniques employed, as well as the conditions and efficiency of the computer room air conditioning system employed in.

This enclosure design is specifically designed to provide maximum, state-of-the-art data center cooling. Great Lakes offers a fully-configured enclosure (CLWCE) or a kit to convert any 42" or deeper ES Series enclosure from an air cooled unit to a water-based, liquid cooled unit. This allows the data center manager ultimate flexibility to upgrade to high density at any time.

The CLWCE is a 38 rack mount unit, 19" EIA enclosure with an integrated closed loop cooling system. The CLWCE cooling system uses low pressure chilled water to remove the heat generated by the servers.

The CLWCE/kit includes:
An 8 RMU heat exchanger, developed in conjunction with Lytron Inc., an American company with over 50 years of experience in developing liquid cooling systems. A custom control unit to manage and monitor the system 2 doors, fans in the rear door and a plenum in the front door.

Maximizing “up time” and fault tolerance has been considered in all aspects of this liquid cooling system:
•The cabinet contains N+1 fans.
•A fan can be replaced while the system is running.
•If the temperature in the cabinet exceeds a user-defined threshold, the doors will automatically open, the fans will shut down, an alarm will be sent, and the system will use room air to cool until the problem is resolved.
• Using a Coolant Distribution Unit (CDU) with redundant pumps will ensure the coolant is delivered at a consistent temperature and consistent flow rate.
• The CDU is typically set to a temperature above the dew point so the risk of condensation is eliminated.
• A liquid manifold is available.
• The enclosure (and Lytron’s CDU) can accommodate redundant power sources and have leak detection systems.

Cool air is delivered to the front of the cabinet. This air flows through the servers picking up heat, using the same concept as an open air cooled cabinet. However instead of flowing out the back of the enclosure into the hot aisle, three fans located in the backdoor direct the hot air down to the bottom of the cabinet where it passes through a heat exchanger. In the heat exchanger, heat is transferred from the air to the coolant flowing through the heat exchanger. The temperature of air exiting the heat exchanger has been reduced and the air is now ready to begin the path again.

A typical liquid cooling configuration would be a cluster of five enclosures, supported by a single CDU, such as Lytron’s LCS50. Lytron™ offers proprietary, interactive software which can help determine your data center’s liquid cooling needs. Talk to your Great Lakes representative or call 1-866-TRY-GLCC (879-4522) for more information.

One of the most challenging aspects of emerging technology is the inability to predict how that technology will grow, evolve and adapt to meet changing data center conditions. Many of today’s data centers are facing tremendous challenges in power and cooling which can not be met simply by expanding the current infrastructure or simply adding additional CRAC units.

Today’s data center manager must often find new ways to grow the facility in its existing “footprint,” adding server density within existing enclosures, while using a “containment” strategy to capture as much conditioned air as possible or to isolate and exhaust as much hot air as possible within the data center space.

Great Lakes has taken two approaches in support of this need.

The first is the development of products which can close off the aisle via sliding or hinged doors, which attach easily to the existing enclosures. Our engineers will listen to your needs and will develop an economical approach to meet them, providing a highly affordable and yet custom solution.

For those situations which require the installation of containment curtains mounted above the enclosures themselves, we have developed a strategic alliance with Polargy, Inc., for the installation of the company’s line of Polar Plex™ containment systems which consist of structural aluminum framing and either vinyl curtains or thermoplastic panels, to create the desired environmental conditions.

The goal of Future-Proofing via the Great Lakes ES Series enclosure is very easy; however, to have the best opportunities to easily "upgrade" the enclosure, you do have to include some prior planning.

We have designed the air manager, the Lake Effect blower and the CLWC heat exchanger to occupy the bottom area of the enclsoure. If the cabinet is to progress from low to high density in its lifetime, we suggest that you use filler panels to block the bottom 8 RMU of the enclosure. In this approach, the cooling options available may be easily employed and upgraded without ever taking the enclosure out of service!

As the arises, you can improve the cooling and exhaust capabilities of the ES from the air manager and chimney, all from a single enclosure platform! It's simple and it's rocket science, both at the same time. We're talking about one enclosure platform with a lifespan beyond that of the data center itself!

Whether you need 20 enclosures for your existing space, or 2,000 enclsoures for a new data center, Great Lakes Case & Cabinet Co., Inc. has the expertise, experience and world class customer service to meet your needs, on-time and on-budget.