Distrib Parallel Databases (2007) 21:193–225 DOI 10.1007/s10619-006-7007-3 Modeling of data center airflow and heat transfer: State of the art and future trends Jeffrey Rambo · Yogendra Joshi Published online: 19 January 2007 C  Springer Science + Business Media, LLC 2007 Abstract An assessment of the current thermal modeling methodologies for data centers is presented, with focus on the use of computational fluid dynamics and heat transfer as analysis tools, and model validation. Future trends in reduced or compact modeling of data center airflow and heat transfer are presented to serve as an overview of integrating rack-level compact models into full-scale facility level numerical computations. Compact models can be used to efficiently model data centers through varying model fidelity across length scales. Dynamic effects can be included to develop next-generation control schemes to maximize data center energy efficiency. Keywords Thermal modeling . Data center . Reduced order models 1 Introduction Data centers are computing infrastructure facilities utilized to provide a consistently reliable operating environment for servers, storage and networking devices, generi- cally referred to as data processing equipment (DPE). The continuous operation of the DPE is critical to industries data centers serve, such as telecommunications, banking, and high-performance scientific computing. Thermal management issues associated with continually increasing power dissipation from DPE are further compounded by the vertical stacking of such equipment in 2-m tall racks in the data center environment. In 1990, a typical rack with a 1.07 m by 0.61 m (42 in by 24 in) footprint dissipated Recommended by: Monem Beitelmal J. Rambo Shell Global Solutions (US), Inc. Houston, TX 77082 Y. Joshi () G. W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA 30332 e-mail: yogendra.joshi@me.gatech.edu Springer