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Heat transfer modeling : an inductive approach
Sidebotham G., Springer International Publishing, New York, NY, 2015. 516 pp. Type: Book (978-3-319145-13-6)
Date Reviewed: Jun 1 2016

This is a textbook that would be mainstream for thermal physics or perhaps chemical or mechanical engineering, but much less so for computer science. However, it is certain that the topic of heat transfer is of much contemporary relevance in computing systems. As Curtis says:

As equipment footprints shrink, free floor area is populated with more hardware. However, because the smaller equipment rejects the same amount of heat, cooling densities grow dramatically and floor space for cooling equipment increases. Traditional design using watts per square foot has grown enormously and can also be calculated as transactions per watt. All this increased processing generates heat, but if the data center gets too hot, all applications come to a halt. As companies push to wring more data-crunching capability from the same real estate, the linchpin technology of future data centers will not necessarily involve greater processing power of more servers, but improved heat dissipation [1, p. 34].

This book is meant by its author to be useful to upper-level engineering students, and is possibly not easily accessible to most computer science students as it requires some significant background in integral calculus, differential equations, and RC circuit theory. Starting with relatively simple models of heat transfer, it deals with heat transfer problems of increasing complexity, with different parameters and assumptions. A common issue dealt with in various chapters is the behavior of a hot cup of coffee that gradually cools in an ambient environment at a lower temperature.

Though the book does not deal with any topics specifically relevant to data centers, and also does not give an algorithmic or programming perspective to problem solving (as is likely to be preferred by computer science students), it is possibly more readable and applicable than other works, such as the classic of Wakao and Kaguei [2].

Computer scientists, particularly those interested in problems related to thermal modeling of data centers, would probably benefit by considering the topics in the book in conjunction with the recent survey by Fulpagare and Bhargav [3].

Reviewer:  Shrisha Rao Review #: CR144464 (1608-0566)
1) Curtis, P. M. Maintaining mission-critical systems in a 24/7 environment: IEEE Press Series on Power Engineering. Wiley-IEEE Press, Hoboken, NJ, 2007.
2) Wakao, N.; Kaguei, S. Heat and mass transfer in packed beds. Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, New York, NY, 1982.
3) Fulpagare, Y.; Bhargav, A. Advances in data center thermal management. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 43 (2015), 981–996.
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