Cold aislescontainmentsareusedindatacentersbuildingstoimprovethethermalmanagementsoftheIT
servers.Inthepresentstudy,anexperimentalinvestigationofair flow andthermalmanagementofdata
center buildingsisconductedfordifferentarrangements of coldaislescontainments.Ascaledphysicalmodel
simulating realdatacentersisdesignedusingscalemodelingtheoryandconstructedforthesakeofthe
presentexperimentalwork.Thedatacenterscaledmodelaccommodatearowofthreeracks;eachrack
included fourserversfortestingpurposes.Threearrangementsofcoldaislesaretested:(i)freeopencoldaisle,
(ii)semi-enclosedcoldaisleswheretheaislesareenclosedfromthesides,and(iii)fullenclosedcoldaisles,
wheretheaislesareenclosedfromsidesandtop.Frontandrearrackstemperaturesprofile, serverstem-
peraturesandperformancemeasuringparametersSupply/ReturnHeatIndex(SHI/RHI)areusedtoevaluate
the thermalmanagement/performanceofthedatacentersracks.Experimentswereconductedatdifferent
rackspowerdensities.Theresultsshowedthat(i)increasingdatacenterspowerdensityandsuppliedair flow
ratesimprovesSHIbutincreasesserverstemperature,(ii)usingsemi-enclosedcoldaislesrelativelyimprove
the thermalperformanceofthedatacenters,(iii)using fullenclosedcoldaislesdramaticallyimprovethe
thermal performanceofthedatacenterservers,and(vi)thepercentageofenhancementindatacenters
performance duetousingcoldaislecontainmentsdramaticallyincreaseswithincreasingthepowerdensity.