A Novel Linear Air Amplifier Technology to Replace Rotary Fans in Data Center Server Rack Cooling

Abstract

This paper investigates the potential of a novel linear airflow amplifier designed to replace rotary fans for various industries where their performance is undesirable like electronics cooling applications in compact data center servers. The device operates with no moving parts and generates a high-speed uniform flow attached to the rack server surface with a need for a detailed investigation into the mechanism of fluid flow, heat transfer,and noise generation associated with its operation. To progress the state of the art, a high aspect ratio rectangular air amplifier is developed and characterized from various engineering aspects to address the flow performance, energy efficiency and acoustic performance of the new devices in a side by side comparison versus high-speed axial fans. As the preliminary effort in the development of the novel air amplifier, this paper aims to investigate the hydrodynamic characteristics of the air amplifier using analytical and experimental methods