Bray White Paper
How the correct selection and specification of Isolation Valves, impact on Data Centre concurrently maintainable and Uptime Institute Tier compliant facilities
Introduction
Limited thought may have been given to the proper arrangement of Isolation Valves for a redundant and continuously available piping system.
Chilled water has been used extensively within the Data Centre industry as the primary heat exchange medium between the air moving into the data halls and the outdoor environment.
With a volumetric heat transfer capacity that is over 3,000 times greater than that of air, water based (hydronic) systems provide a much more effective solution in terms of equipment footprint and system efficiency.
However, such hydronic systems are becoming more critical and complex as they are required to provide the same standard of quality, reliability and flexibility as other computer room support systems.
The design of Data Centre cooling system topology in many existing facilities has often been limited to redundancy of the main system components like CRAH units, Chillers, Pumps and Cooling Towers, with perhaps less emphasis placed on the availability and resilience of the chilled water distribution paths. Limited thought may have been given to the proper arrangement of Isolation Valves for a redundant and continuously available piping system, with the potential for a failure across a main distribution pipe or leakage of an accessory or fitting, that cannot be resolved without a partial or complete interruption of the cooling system.
Conclusion:
The correct number and placement of Isolation Valves across any Data Centre system piping network is critical otherwise concurrent maintenance cannot be achieved. A concurrently maintainable system with an N+1 configuration of the capacity components requires two Isolation Valves in the main distribution piping, in between every two-pipe branch. This configuration ensures that each and every component can always be isolated via a pair of Isolation Valves, one located before and the other located after the component.
Tier III compliant systems have at least to be concurrently maintainable and for Tier IV systems, Isolation Valves will also have to be motor driven for automated fault tolerance.
Valves with a high dead end service rating should also be specified to allow the above principles to be easily adopted, thereby ensuring the greatest system design integrity and flexibility.
ABOUT BRAY
With 20 years of experience and an installed base of over 400 Data Centre projects across the globe, Bray has unique and innovative flow control solutions that provide dependable and continuous service in mission critical infrastructure projects, making Bray the partner of choice for many of the worlds leading operators and design teams.
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