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A System Level Thermal Analysis of Large Telecommunication Racks

Conference Paper · January 2003

DOI: 10.1115/IMECE2003-42416

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 Proceedings of IMECE’03
2003 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress
Washington, D.C., November 15–21, 2003
Proceedings of IMECE’03
2003 ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress
Washington, D.C., November 15–21, 2003
IMECE2003-42416
A System Level Thermal Analysis of Large Telecommunication Racks

L. T. Yeh — Thermal Consultant IMECE2003-42416

ABSTRAT

A system level thermal analysis is performed by employing the computational fluid dynamics (CFD)
method on a large telecommunication rack. Each rack consists of two identical shelves located on the top-
to-bottom orientation. Each shelf includes one fan tray with 6 fans, 3 card cages with a total of 50 printed
circuit boards (PCBs). Air enters from the front of the shelf, and then makes a 90-degree turn upwards
through PCBs, and finally turns another 90-degree to exit the system from the back of the shelf. The system
level analysis is performed independently on each shelf.

The main purpose of the analysis is to determine the air flow rate to individual printed circuit boards as
well as the air temperature distribution in the system. The computed flow rate for individual PCBs is then
used for a detailed board analysis to predict the component temperatures of individual boards.

SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

A typical telecommunication rack as shown in Figure 1 is considered. The rack consists of two identical
shelves and a front door. The overall (inside) dimensions of the shelf are 25.45 in (width) x 18.99 in
(depth) x 36.75 in (height) and the sketch of the shelf is illustrated in Figure 2. The shelf dimensions do not
include the door. The thickness of the door is 1.5 in and there is also a small gap (0.76”) between the front
door and the shelves. The shelf consists of the following major sub-systems:

1. Front door with an opening for air inlet

2. Fan tray with 6 fans
3. Shelf with 3 card cages

The only difference between the upper and lower shelves in the rack is at the opening of the front door. The
shape and size of the opening (or air inlet) on the front door are different. The lower shelf has a rectangular
opening with the cross section area identical to the inlet of the shelf (also same as the inlet of the fan tray).
On the other hand, the opening at the upper shelf has an odd shape with the cross section area smaller than
the inlet of the shelf. The odd shaped opening with the cross section area of 70.38 in2 at the front door
serves as the air inlet to the shelf and the dimensions of the opening are given in Figure 3.

The bottom of each shelf is a fan tray with the height of 7.875 in. The fan tray includes 6 fans. The outer
diameter and the thickness of the fan are 6.75 in and 2 in, respectively. The shelf consists of 3 card cages
that are located above the fan tray. The shelf is subdivided into the front and the rear sections by a mid-
plane. The front section of the shelf includes 2 identical card cages in the top-to-down arrangement while
there is only one card cage in the rear section. The mid-plane provides all electrical connection to the
boards inside the card cages. The air exit is located on the top of the card cages. In addition, the card cages
are bounded by two perforate plates in the shelf for EMI (electrical magnetic insulation) protection
purpose. The free flow area for the perforate plate is 63%. An air filter, which has a loss coefficient of 14,
is installed in the down stream of the fans.

Each small card cage in the front section of the shelf has 16 printed circuit boards (PCBs). The dimensions
of the board are 8 in x 7 in x 0.093 in. On the other hand, the card cage in the rear section includes 18 PCBs
and the dimensions of each board are 18 in x 11 in x 0.11 in. The heat dissipation for each small card cage
in the front section of the shelf is 1123 watts and the heat load for the large card cage in the rear section is
3380 watts. In addition, each fan dissipates 90 watts when it operates at 48V. Therefore, the total heat load
for this shelf is 6166 watts (the total maximum heat dissipation of the rack is 12332 watts).

Basically, air enters the system horizontal through the inlet of the door and subsequently to the fan tray.
The flow makes a 90-degree upwards and enters the fans. The flow through the air filters and lower EMI
plate is divided into 2 paths, one going to the front card cages and another to the rear card cage. The air
flow is recombined into one path after it exits from the card cages. After leaving the upper EMI plate, the

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 air flow turns a 90-degree again, , then converges along the exit path, and finally discharges to the ambient
horizontally through the exit at the backside of the shelf.

SYSTEM LEVEL ANALYSIS

As indicated previously, the only difference between the upper and lower shelves of the rack is the opening
at the door. The upper section has a smaller door opening with an odd shape as given in Figure 3. The
upper shelf of the rack is therefore considered to be the worst case. A CFD analysis is performed on the
system level for the upper shelf of the rack. A commercial software (Flotherm) is utilized for the CFD
analysis.

The odd shaped opening at the front is approximated by 4 different sizes of the rectangular openings in the
model as presented in Figure 4. The total cross section area of these four rectangular openings is equal to
that of the odd shaped opening. The major subsystems such as the fan tray and 3 card cages inside the shelf
are included the detailed thermal mode as shown in Figure 5.

Since this is a system level analysis, no detail of the board layout is needed. A large component with the
board heat dissipation is applied to each individual boards. The purpose of this assumption is just to
provide correct heat dissipation from individual boards and also to show the component side of the boards.
Furthermore, the pressure drop over individual boards is first estimated, and is then treated as the flow
resistances represented by a loss coefficient at the inlet and the exit of the boards in the thermal model. For
simplicity, the air filter and the EMI plates are modeled as a planar flow resistance with a zero thickness.
The loss coefficients for the EMI plates and the air filter are 1.7 and 14, respectively. In addition, the
ambient condition is assumed to be at 40C and at the sea level.

The main purpose of the analysis is to determine the air flow rate to individual boards. The predicted air
flow rates is then applied to the detailed board level thermal analysis. The component junction temperatures
and the pressure drop across the boards are computed from the board level analysis for individual boards.
The total number of the cells in the current model is over 433,300. There is no need to discuss the details of
fundamental heat transfer theories involved here because of using a commercial software tool.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Due to the odd shaped air inlet on the front door, the physical configuration of the shelf is not symmetrical.
In addition, the small opening of the inlet results in a relatively high pressure drop. Air entering the door is
further expanded into the bottom of the shelf (just below the fans) due to changing the across section area
from 70.38 (door opening) to 90.73 in2 (shelf rectangular opening).

All fans are installed above the inlet of the shelf in the present design. There are some advantages of using
the inlet fans as opposed to the exhaust fans. First, the inlet fan creates a positive pressure in the system that
prevents the any dust particles to be sucked into the system. Secondly, the inlet fan has a higher reliability
because it operates in the cooler air stream (near the ambient). On the other hand, the inlet fan dumps the
additional heat into the air stream that enters the system.

Although there are 6 identical fans in the system, each fan runs at slightly different operation points. The
fan locations relative to the mid-plane are shown in Figure 6. The mid-plane separates the front and rear
card cages. The velocity plot for fans is presented in Figure 7. As seen in the figure, the rear row fans
generate more air flow (higher velocity) than those of the front row. The front row fans provide about 40%
of the total air flow which is 1475 ft3/min (CFM) to the system.

Figure 7 shows the velocity at the upstream and the downstream of the air filter. The primary function of an
air filter is to prevent any dust particles from entering the downstream (e.g., card cages) of the filter. Due to
the high flow resistance of the air filter, it also provides a relatively uniform flow to the downstream of the
equipment as illustrated in Figure 8.

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 The velocity over individual boards is given in Figure 9. The figure reveals that a higher velocity flows
through the boards in the rear cage. In fact, the flow rate to the rear cage is about 69% of the total flow in
the system while it has 60% of the total heat dissipation from electronics in the shelf (excluding the heat
generated by 6 fans).

Figure 10 shows the air temperature at the downstream of the card cages. The hot regions occur right above
the high heat dissipated boards. The figure also indicates that the air mixing is not very effective at this
location which is very close to the top of the printed circuit boards. However, the air temperature decreases
in the flow direction in the exit section as illustrated in Figure 11. This is due to the fact that the air flow
from the rear cage is mixing with the flow from the front cages.

It is often thought that adding an air deflector at the dead end corner of the exit section as given in Figure
12a will always increase the system air flow . However, the results of this modification indicate no
improvement at all for the current design. Another modification is to add a slot (3.5” x 2.5”) on each side
wall of the shelf in order to increase the opening of the air inlet. Due to the physical constraints, the size of
the opening is limited to 3.5” x 2.5” and the hole on the side walls can only be located very close to the
front door as shown in Figure 11b. This arrangement results in two jets from the side walls interaction with
the main flow from the front door. The net result is that there is no increase in the total flow rate to the
system.

Other modified designs as presented in Figure 13 are proposed. One is to add additional slots on the front
door near the original opening as shown in Figure 13a and another modification is to place an air deflector
in the inlet section located at the bottom of the shelf (below the fans) as presented in Figure 13b. The total
system air flow is increased by a few percentages for these two modifications.

It is required for a telecommunication equipment to examine the case with one fan failure. Generally, the
failed fan must be replaced within a certain time frame. This time frame for replacement depends on the
specifications of the equipment. Furthermore, the fan pack is designed in such way that individual fan
module can be replaced independently. In the case of one fan failure, the air flow will leak through the
failed fan. The present analysis indicates that the flow rate to individual boards is greatly affected by the
location of the failed fan. The worst case is to occur when Fan #3 fails. The system flow is reduced by
about 25%.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

A CFD analysis is performed on the system level for a large telecommunication rack. The rack includes
two identical shelves with different size and shapes of the air inlet on the front door. The analysis is
conducted on the top shelf that has an odd shaped opening on the front door. The door opening for this case
is smaller than the opening of the shelf and is considered to be the worst case.

With 6 fans in operation, the total system air flow rate predicted is at 1475 CFM. The rear cage receives
about 69% of the total flow as compared to 31% of the air flow to two front cages arranged in the top-to-
bottom fashion. Since the air inlet at the door provides an additional flow resistance to the system, the
shape as well as the size of the door opening has a great effect on the system flow and its distribution to the
boards. The present odd shaped opening with the cross section area of 70.38 in2 appears to meet the
minimum air flow requirement. Any further reduction in the size of the opening will result in a significant
reduction in the system air flow rate that may lead to an overheating of the electronic components on the
boards.

The most important factor in this design is to provide the adequate air flow to individual boards. It is found
in this study that the flow rate to individual boards is very sensitive to the location of the failed fan. For
example, when Fan #3 fails, the system flow is reduced by 25% while the flow to some of boards is
reduced by 50%. The possible reason is that Fan #3 is not directly facing the opening of the front door. If
fact, it is located behind the door. Generally, those boards located on the top of the failed fan receive a
greater reduction in the flow rate. When the door opening is enlarged to equal to the opening of the shelf as

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 that of the lower shelf, the total system flow rate is increased fro 1475 to 1610 CFM and also the flow to
individual boards becomes less sensitive to the location of the failed fan.

Another possible effect on the system flow and its distribution to individual boards is the location of the air
filter. The air filter can be placed in the downstream or upstream of the fans. For a given system, there is an
optimum location of the air filter that gives the smallest system pressure drop. The air filters are located
within the fan tray and can not be moved in the present design. Therefore, there is no additional effort to
determine the optimum location for the air filter in the present analysis.

Four modified designs are considered in the analysis. No improvement in the system flow is found for the
first two configurations as given in Figure 12. On the other hand, a small improvement is found for the
configurations illustrated in Figure 13.

The predicted air flow rate to individual boards is applied to the detailed thermal analysis of the board.
From the board level analysis, it concludes that the current design of the rack provides adequate the air flow
rate to all printed circuit boards in the shelf.

REFERENCES

1. Blevins, R. D., Applied Fluid Dynamics Handbook, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 1984
2. Yeh, L.T., and Chu, R. C., Thermal Management of Microelectronic Equipment : Heat Transfer
Theory, Analysis Methods and Design Practices” ASME Press, New York, 2002

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 Door

Air
Inlet

Air Inlet

Figure 1 Telecommunication Rack

Overall Internal Dimensions : 25.45” (W) x 18.99” (D) x 37.75” (H)

D (18.99”)

36.75”
2.5 RU
Exit 32.375”
Upper EMI 32.125”

Card Cages
1 RU = 1.75”
14.0 RU

Low EMI 8.125”

Air Filter 7.255”
Fan Pack
4.5 RU Inlet 3.565”
0.0”
(Not to Scale)

Figure 2 Internal Dimensions of Shelf

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 F an T ray D oor
O p enin g O penin g
0.717”

1.136”
3.644” 3.565”

23.627”

25.48”

Figure 3 Upper Door Opening Versus Fan Tray (or Shelf) Opening

THERMAL MODEL

Door
Inlet

Figure 4 Equivalent Door Opening

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 LINE SHELF CONFIGURATION

Mid-Plane

Mid-Plane
Shelf
Exit

Front
Cages Upper EMI
Plate

Rear Cage
Air
Filter
Lower EMI Plate
Shelf
Inlet
Fans
Door Inlet Shelf Inlet Fans
Shelf Inlet

Figure 5 Major Components in Shelf

FAN PACK

Front Door
Fan 2

Fan 3 Fan 1

Mid-Plane

Fan 4
Fan 6
Fan 5

Figure 6 Fan Locations

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 Figure 7 Velocity at Fans

VELOCITY IN AND OUT AIR FILTER

Enter Air Filter Exit Air Filter

More
uniform
velocity
leaving air
filter

Figure 8 Velocity at Upstream and Downstream of Air Filter

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 Figure 9 Velocity of Individual Boards in Card Cages

Figure 10 Air Temperature Distribution at Downstream of Card Cages

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 Figure 11 Air Temperature Distribution over Exit Section

MODIFIED DESIGNS
Exit Deflector
Exit
Deflector

Side
openings Side Holes

(a) Air Deflector in Exit Section (b) Additional Side Openings

Figure 12 Modified Designs

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 MODIFIED DESIGNS

Inlet Deflector
4° Inclination

Holes/Slots

(a) Additional Holes/Slots on Door (b) Air Deflector in Inlet Section

Figure 13 Modified Designs

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