Effects of Gaseous and Particulate Contaminants on Information Technology Equipment Reliability—A Review

Abstract Over the last decade, several hyper-scale data center companies such as Google, Facebook, and Microsoft have demonstrated cost-saving capabilities of airside economization with direct/indirect heat exchangers by moving to chiller-less air-cooled centers. Under pressure from owners, information technology equipment OEMs like Dell IBM are developing that can withstand peak excursion temperature ratings up 45 °C, clearly outside recommended envelope, into ASHRAEs A4 allowable envelope. As popular widespread these cooling technologies becoming, comes its challenges. There is a risk premature hardware failures or reliability degradation posed uncontrolled fine particulate gaseous contaminants in presence humidity transients. This paper presents an in-depth review contamination-related challenges faced modern-day facilities use economization. summarizes specific experimental computational studies characterize airborne associated failure modes mechanisms. In addition, standard lab-based in-situ test methods for measuring corrosive effects particles gases, means testing robustness against contaminants, under different relative conditions also reviewed. It outlines cost-sensitive mitigation techniques improved filtration strategies be utilized efficient implementation