Method and system for thermal management by quantitative determination of cooling characteristics of data center

1. A method for facilitating thermal management of a data center comprising a plurality of components, the method comprising:

selecting, by a processor having a non-transitory computer readable storage, a source component and a target component from the plurality of components, wherein the source component is selected from the group consisting of tiles, parts of racks, cooling units and flow generating devices, and the target component is selected from the group consisting of tiles, parts of racks, sensors, cooling units, and flow generating devices;

defining, by the processor, influence indices for the source component and the target component, wherein the influence indices correspond to a pre-defined parameter of a plurality of pre-defined parameters, wherein the predefined parameters include design parameters and operational parameters, the design parameters and the operational parameters being related to cooling infrastructure, cooling units, parts of racks, heat generating equipment, and air flow altering components, the design parameter include configuration of the data center, and the operational parameters include air flow, power consumption by the source component and by the target component, and temperature and heat pertaining to the source component and the target component,

quantifying, by the processor, the influence indices using a quantification method to obtain quantified influence indices,

normalizing the quantified influence indices into a predefined scale to obtain normalized influence indices;

comparing, by the processor, the normalized influence indices with a predefined influence index;

determining, by the processor, cooling characteristics of the source component and the target component based upon the comparison, wherein the cooling characteristics include at least one of hot air recirculation, cold air short-circuiting, loading of the source component and of the target component, and influence region of the source component and of the target component;

identifying, by the processor, thermal inefficiencies associated with the source component and in the target component using the cooling characteristics; and

optimizing configuration of the data center based upon the thermal inefficiencies, thereby facilitating thermal management of the data center.

2. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the quantifying the influence indices further includes predicting temperature at various locations in the data center based upon the pre-defined parameter.

3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the influence indices are non-dimensional numbers.

4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein each of the influence indices is a function of one of heat flow between the source component and the target component, flow rate of air from the source component to the target component, and temperature of the source component and of the target component.

5. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the predefined influence index is a threshold value.

6. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the quantification method is selected from the group consisting of air tracer method, heat tracer method, mass-less particles method, and temperature and flow measurement based method.

7. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein optimization of the configuration of the data center is performed by selectively designing a new data center and transformation of the data center.

8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein optimization of the configuration of the data center is performed by changing at least one of the design parameters and the operational parameters.

9. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein optimizing configuration of the data center is performed by using at least one event including:

changing positions of the source component and the target component;

changing a heat load distribution between the source component and the target component; identifying suitable racks for increased heat load; and

changing a depth of a plenum of the data center.

10. A system for facilitating thermal management of a data center, the system comprising:

a processor; and

a non-transitory computer-readable memory coupled to the processor, wherein the processor executes program instructions, stored in the memory, to:

select a source component and a target component from the plurality of components, wherein the source component is selected from the group consisting of tiles, parts of racks, cooling units, and flow generating devices, and the tar let component is selected from the group consisting of tiles, parts of racks, sensors, cooling units, and flow generating devices;

define influence indices for the source component and the target component, wherein the influence indices correspond to a pre-defined parameter of a plurality of pre-defined parameters, wherein the predefined parameters include design parameters and operational parameters, the design parameters and the operational parameters being related to cooling infrastructure, cooling units, parts of racks, heat generating equipment, and air flow altering components, the design parameter include configuration of the data center, and the operational parameters include air flow, power consumption by the source component and by the target component, and temperature and heat pertaining to the source component and the target component;

quantify the influence indices using a quantification method to obtain quantified influence indices;

normalize the quantified influence indices into a predefined scale to obtain normalized influence indices;

compare the normalized influence indices with a predefined influence index;

determine cooling characteristics of the source component and the target component based upon the comparison, wherein the cooling characteristics include hot air recirculation, cold air short-circuiting, loading of the source component and of the target component, and influence region of the source component and of the target component; and

identify thermal inefficiencies in the source component and in the target component using the cooling characteristics to optimize configuration of the data center based upon the thermal inefficiencies, thereby facilitating thermal management of the data center.

11. The system as claimed in claim 10 , wherein optimization of the configuration of the data center is performed by selectively designing a new data center and transformation of the data center.

12. The system as claimed in claim 10 , wherein optimization of the configuration of the data center is performed by changing at least one of the design parameters and the operational parameters.