DescriptionIn this work, the physical problem associated with heat removal from data centers is studied. The governing equations and boundary conditions are written and solved numerically using the commercial code Fluent. The model is validated via a classic benchmark problem: natural convection in a square cavity. The problem of cooling the different servers in a data center is discussed in detail. Three configurations of a typical data center are considered. In these configurations, the data center has different locations of the outlet, and all other dimensions are kept the same. Two conditions of constant temperature and constant heat input are considered. The inlet flow velocity, the strength of server volume heat source and the temperature of server are chosen as the main variables during the simulations. By comparing the Nusselt Numbers and the dimensionless temperatures at the surfaces of the servers, the configuration with the best cooling characteristics is determined. The temperature and velocity fields in the data center are given to explain the native of the basic principle and the theory behind the differences among the three configurations.