Abstract
Air-side economizers are increasingly used to take advantage of “free-cooling” in data centers with the intent of reducing the carbon footprint of buildings. However, they can introduce outdoor pollutants to indoor environment of data centers and cause corrosion damage to the information technology equipment. To evaluate the reliability of information technology equipment under various thermal and air-pollution conditions, a mechanistic model based on multi-ion transport and chemical reactions was developed. The model was used to predict Cu corrosion caused by Cl2-containing pollutant mixtures. It also accounted for the effects of temperature (25 °C and 28 °C), relative humidity (50%, 75%, and 95%), and synergism. It also identified higher air temperature as a corrosion barrier and higher relative humidity as a corrosion accelerator, which agreed well with the experimental results. The average root mean square error of the prediction was 13.7 Å. The model can be used to evaluate the thermal guideline for data centers design and operation when Cl2 is present based on pre-established acceptable risk of corrosion in data centers’ environment.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Asdrubali F, Baldinelli G (2011). Thermal transmittance measurements with the hot box method: Calibration, experimental procedures, and uncertainty analyses of three different approaches. Energy and Buildings, 43: 1618–1626.
ASHRAE (2011). Thermal guidelines for data processing environments-expanded data center classes and usage guidance. Atlanta, GA, USA: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
ASHRAE (2021). Thermal guidelines for data processing environments (5th edn). Atlanta, GA, USA: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers.
Bacarella AL, Griess JC (1973). The anodic dissolution of copper in flowing sodium chloride solutions between 25°C and 175°C. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 120: 459.
Bortels L, Deconinck J, Van Den Bossche B (1996). The multi-dimensional upwinding method as a new simulation tool for the analysis of multi-ion electrolytes controlled by diffusion, convection and migration. Part 1. Steady state analysis of a parallel plane flow channel. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 404: 15–26.
Chang C, Liu TH, Jeng FT (2004). Atmospheric concentrations of the Cl atom, CIO radical, and HO radical in the coastal marine boundary layer. Environmental Research, 94: 67–74.
Chen ZY, Zakipour S, Persson D, et al. (2004). Effect of sodium chloride particles on the atmospheric corrosion of pure copper. CORROSION, 60: 479–491.
Cho WJ, Oscarson DW, Gray MN, et al. (1993). Influence of diffusant concentration on diffusion coefficients in clay. Radiochimica Acta, 60: 159–164.
Clarelli F, De Filippo B, Natalini R (2014). Mathematical model of copper corrosion. Applied Mathematical Modelling, 38: 4804–4816.
Deconinck D, Van Damme S, Deconinck J (2012). A temperature dependent multi-ion model for time accurate numerical simulation of the electrochemical machining process. Part I: Theoretical basis. Electrochimica Acta, 60: 321–328.
Kalamees T, Alev Ü, Pärnalaas M (2017). Air leakage levels in timber frame building envelope joints. Building and Environment, 116: 121–129.
Kallikragas DT, Plugatyr AY, Svishchev IM (2014). High temperature diffusion coefficients for O2, H2, and OH in water, and for pure water. Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data, 59: 1964–1969.
Kear G, Barker BD, Walsh FC (2004). Electrochemical corrosion of unalloyed copper in chloride media—A critical review. Corrosion Science, 46: 109–135.
Kibria AKM, Tarafdar SA (2002). Electrochemical studies of a nickel-copper electrode for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 27: 879–884.
Kim SI, Kim DJ, Kim DH, et al. (2023). Corrosion lifetime estimation of printed circuit board in marine atmosphere environment using multiphysics simulation. International Journal of Precision Engineering and Manufacturing-Green Technology, 10: 789–805.
King F, Quinn MJ, Litke CD (1995). Oxygen reduction on copper in neutral NaCl solution. Journal of Electroanalytical Chemistry, 385: 45–55.
Kuncoro IW, Pambudi NA, Biddinika MK, et al. (2019). Immersion cooling as the next technology for data center cooling: a review. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1402: 044057.
Larson RS (2002). A physical and mathematical model for the atmospheric sulfidation of copper by hydrogen sulfide. Journal of the Electrochemical Society, 149: B40.
Lawless KR (1974). The oxidation of metals. Reports on Progress in Physics, 37: 231–316.
Liao X, Cao F, Zheng L, et al. (2011). Corrosion behaviour of copper under chloride-containing thin electrolyte layer. Corrosion Science, 53: 3289–3298.
Moinuddin M (2018). COMSOL modelling of uniform corrosion of used nuclear fuel canisters. Master Thesis, York University, Canada.
Muller CO (1991). Multiple contaminant gas effects on electronic equipment corrosion. CORROSION, 47: 146–151.
Nadjahi C, Louahlia H, Lemasson S (2018). A review of thermal management and innovative cooling strategies for data center. Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems, 19: 14–28.
Payer JH, Ball G, Rickett BI, et al. (1995). Role of transport properties in corrosion product growth. Materials Science and Engineering: A, 198: 91–102.
Poisson A, Papaud A (1983). Diffusion coefficients of major ions in seawater. Marine Chemistry, 13: 265–280.
Popov BN (2015). Corrosion Engineering: Principles and Solved Problems. New York: Elsevier.
Ribeiro ACF, Esteso MA, Lobo VMM, et al. (2005). Diffusion coefficients of copper chloride in aqueous solutions at 298.15 K and 310.15 K. Journal of Chemical & Engineering Data, 50: 1986–1990.
Salahinejad E, Eslami-Farsani R, Tayebi L (2017). Corrosion failure analysis of printed circuit boards exposed to H2S-containing humid environments. Engineering Failure Analysis, 79: 538–546.
Sander R (2015). Compilation of Henry’s law constants (version 4.0) for water as solvent. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 15: 4399–4981.
Shackelford JF (1996). Introduction to Materials Science for Engineers, 3rd edn. New York: Macmillan Publishers.
Sondur S, Gross K, Li M (2018). Data center cooling system integrated with low-temperature desalination and intelligent energy-aware control. In: Proceedings of 2018 Ninth International Green and Sustainable Computing Conference (IGSC).
Sun AC, Moffat HK, Enos DG, et al. (2007). Pore corrosion model for gold-plated copper contacts. IEEE Transactions on Components and Packaging Technologies, 30: 796–804.
Tidblad J, Graedel TE (1996). Gildes model studies of aqueous chemistry. III. Initial SO2-induced atmospheric corrosion of copper. Corrosion Science, 38: 2201–2224.
ToolBox E (2008). Gases Solved in Water—Diffusion Coefficients Available at https://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/diffusion-coefficients-d_1404.html
Venkatraman MS, Cole IS, Emmanuel B (2011). Model for corrosion of metals covered with thin electrolyte layers: Pseudo-steady state diffusion of oxygen. Electrochimica Acta, 56: 7171–7179.
Zhang R, Zhang J, Schmidt R, et al. (2020). Effects of moisture content, temperature and pollutant mixture on atmospheric corrosion of copper and silver and implications for the environmental design of data centers (RP-1755). Science and Technology for the Built Environment, 26: 567–586.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-conditioning Engineers and Syracuse University. The authors appreciate the writing support from the US Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Rui Zhang developed the mechanics model, performed the analytic calculation, and wrote the paper. Jianshun Zhang critically reviewed the manuscript and supervised the project. Roger Schmidt and Jeremy L. Gilbert provided feedback and helped shape the research and manuscript.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Declaration of competing interest
Jeremy L. Gilbert receives research funding through Clemson University from DePuy Synthes and Bayer Inc. Gilbert has consulting relationships with DePuy Synthes, Stryker Inc., Smith & Nephew, and OMNIlife science, Inc. Gilbert is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Biomedical Materials Research - Part B: Applied Biomaterials and is on the council of the Society for Biomaterials. Jianshun Zhang is an Editorial Board member of Building Simulation.
Ethical approval
This study does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.
Additional information
Copyright and permissions
This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/downloads/doe-public-access-plan).
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhang, R., Zhang, J., Schmidt, R. et al. Mechanistic modeling of copper corrosions in data center environments. Build. Simul. 17, 483–492 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-023-1088-z
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12273-023-1088-z