The growing computational demands have led to miniaturization of components on the PCBs for improved performance. In a similar timeline, the data center industry has also observed a rise in hardware failures for data centers located in regions with harsh environments. Such an environment, even in milder conditions, can prove detrimental for densely packed electronics in the IT equipment in terms of reliability. Airside economization has proven to be a very effective technique to reduce energy consumption in data centers by utilizing outside free air for cooling.  The associated risk of gaseous and particulate contamination is still seen as a hurdle in the widespread adoption of this cooling technique.

The present investigation uses a commercially available CFD code to simulate the corrosion of Enterprise Hard Disk Drive. A species transport approach is used to simulate the formation of corrosive products as a result of the chemical reaction between pervasive gaseous contaminants. Multiple simulations are run for a simplified CAD model of the HDD in operational conditions. The choice of contaminants and environmental parameters considered is based on the available literature. The results obtained show the variation in the rate of corrosion on the HDD with varying temperatures, humidity, and rotational speed. Quantifying the values of the rate of corrosion for storage hardware can aid in predicting the device life based on the outside air quality surrounding the data center.


Computational Study of Corrosion Due to Gaseous Contaminants in Enterprise Hard Disk Drives

Division / Sponsors: 
Electronic & Photonic Packaging Division (EPPD)

Paper Proceedings: https://asmedigitalcollection.asme.org/InterPACK/InterPACK2020/volume/84041

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