Corrosion management for data centers

Abstract

The recent interest in air-side cooling and the spread of data centers into geographies with higher levels of atmospheric contamination is requiring more attention towards air quality management in data centers. One concern of air side economization is an increase in contamination levels potentially leading to more failures and outages of the IT equipment. In this paper we describe a corrosion measurement and management technology that enables high accuracy and real time monitoring of the gaseous contamination. The synergistic effects of indoor air temperature and relative humidity on corrosion rates are investigated and the spatial and the temporal variations of the corrosivity are established. Filtering of the outside air, both for particulate and gaseous contamination can mitigate air contamination in data centers. Implementing a facility wide air quality monitoring system promises the safe use of air-side economizers and would establish appropriate filtering, which enable early prevention of critical situations for information technology (IT) equipment operations.