Air cooling systems are widely used in current data centers owing to their low capital costs and high reliability. To satisfy the increasing rack power density, the optimal air-cooling technology and an economic analysis should be carefully discussed. Therefore, this study discusses four airflow management technologies: Case 1: raised floor and cold aisle containment supply/computer room air conditioning (CRAC) direct return; Case 2: CRAC direct supply/hot aisle containment (HAC) return; Case 3: overhead duct supply/CRAC direct return; and Case 4: overhead duct supply/HAC return. Using a validated model, the thermal and economic performances of each case were compared. Results showed that Case 4 exhibited the best thermal performance, followed by Cases 3, 2, and 1. Case 1 cannot satisfy the heat dissipation requirement when the rack power density is larger than 12.5 kW; whereas only Case 4 can be used when the power density is larger than 15 kW. Regarding location within China, owing to the high ambient temperature, Shenzhen showed the highest annual cost value and power usage effectiveness, followed by Shanghai, Xi’an, Beijing, and Harbin. Finally, Cases 3 and 4 are recommended for application when the rack power density is greater than 10 kW.

It is indicated that the solder joint of the metal fibrous materials is a critical factor impacting the heat conduction. To reveal the mechanism by which solder joint sizes, solder joint skips, solder flux materials, and filling media affect the thermal conductivity of fibres, pore-scale numerical simulation is employed to study the thermal transport in two-directional (2-D) random fibres. Satisfactory agreement with existing data validates the numerical model. The dimensionless effective thermal conductivity (ETC) of the porous fibres increases with the solder joint sizes. As the solder joint size (i.e., solder joint ratio) increases by 3.06%, the in-plane (k_e-in) and out-of-plane (k_e-out) dimensionless ETC increase by 9.0% and 437.2%, respectively. However, the solder joint skips will weaken the thermal conductivity of the fibres. For the same fibre, the ETC of the fibre increases as the thermal conductivity of solders increases. Further, when the dissimilarity in thermal conductivity between the filling medium and the fibre is reduced, the fibre is less affected by the solder joint skips. Finally, it should be supplemented that the in-plane and out-of-plane ETC (k_e-in and k_e-out) of the fibre without any solder joint are reduced by an average of 14.3% and 98.8%, respectively.

The integration of phase change materials (PCMs) and metal foam has been widely concerned recently. To decrease non-uniformity of uniform metal foam-PCMs, adaptive metal foam arrangement strategy with increasing porosity from inside to outside has attracted widespread attention. This work conducted a symmetric simulation model of vertical thermal energy storage (TES) tube validated by experiments, for optimization of adaptive metal foam arrangement in basic design (0.94–0.94–0.94). It was followed by assessing the performance of gradient metal foam structures that included 27 cases with radial foam gradients of larger porosity on the outside and smaller porosity on the inside. Results demonstrated that a smaller difference between the inside and outside subregions resulted in better thermal performance when the same porosity of the intermediate subregion was used. More intense natural convection with stronger liquid paraffin vortex could be obtained by an adaptive arrangement. With the same average porosity, the faster phase change evolution, which was influenced by the maximum promotion of stronger natural convection, was achieved by using a larger intermediate porosity and a larger porosity difference between the inside and outside regions. The optimal strategy (0.87–0.94–0.97) could significantly shorten the melting duration as maximal as 17.15% compared with the original uniform (0.94–0.94–0.94), which contributed to efficient vertical metal foam TES systems, also as light and cost-effective as possible while also avoiding sacrificing thermal capacity.

NO_x emission reduction from gas boilers has become a key issue in improving air quality. Combustion air humidification technology is gradually being used to reduce NO_x emissions. However, the NO_x emission reduction effect of gas boilers at a higher combustion air humidity has been studied less. A flue gas with low NO_x emissions and a waste heat recovery system using combustion air humidification technology are proposed in this study. In the ultra-low NO_x mode, the effect of high combustion air humidity on NO_x emission reduction and efficiency of the gas boiler were studied experimentally. In the waste heat recovery mode, the effects of the heat network backwater temperature on the NO_x emission reduction and system efficiency were studied experimentally. Results showed that an increase in air humidity can significantly reduce the NO_x concentration formed by combustion. The ultra-low NO_x mode reduces NO_x emissions from 130 mg/m³ to 23.3 mg/m³ and affects the boiler efficiency slightly. In the waste heat recovery mode, NO_x emissions can be reduced to 39.9 mg/m³ when the backwater temperature of the heat network is 55 °C. This condition improves the efficiency to 93.8%. The analysis results provide suggestions for the selection of the operation modes.

Insulation performance and buried depth of heating pipelines are the vital factors affecting the energy loss of directly buried heating pipelines. This study considers the thermo-economic assessment of insulation of directly buried heating pipelines for district heating. The optimal insulation thickness, energy-saving effect, and payback period of district heating pipelines with five nominal pipe diameters, four fuel types, four kinds of insulation materials, and four buried depths are calculated. A numerical code is developed based on Life Cycle Cost Analysis and is validated via comparing with results in the open literature. Three representative cities of Xi’an, Shenyang, and Harbin subjected to three different climatic zones in China are explored. The highest values of optimum insulation thickness are 176, 153, and 121 mm in Harbin, Shenyang, and Xi’an, respectively, which are reached using oil as fuel, rock wool as insulation material, nominal pipe diameter 500 mm, and buried depth 1 m. A sensitivity analysis is performed to indicate how much the optimum insulation thickness and payback period are sensitive to the changes of insulation, fuel, and buried depth. The results show that insulation and fuel have a greater influence on the optimum insulation and payback period than the buried depth.

Solar energy, as a kind of renewable energy, offers a large reserve to be harvested at a reasonably low cost for engineering applications. To decouple the temporal and spatial relevance of the continuous energy supply of solar energy, latent heat thermal energy storage can deal with this problem at different temperatures. Aiming to improve energy efficiency, a novel hybrid metal foam-pin fin structure is designed and assessed. Upon conducting measurements on a well-designed experimental bench, the phase change processes of paraffin that is filled in fins, metal foam, and a combination of both (hybrid structure) are evaluated. During the experiments, the transient melting interface is snapshotted and temperature development is documented under five different heat source temperatures of 61 °C, 63 °C, 65 °C, 68 °C, and 70 °C. In the foreground of the novel hybrid structure, each segment of the hybrid is also justified and discussed. Results indicate that the hybrid structure augments marked heat transfer. Compared to pure PCM, complete melting time decreases by 63.4% and simultaneously the temperature response rate increases by 143.9% as implementing the hybrid. Attempts to design hybrid structure find a solution to assess and operate thermal storage applications for solar engineering.