Dropped ceiling system cooling prediction

A system for evaluating ceiling plenum airflow patterns and cooling performance of equipment in a data center, the equipment including a plurality of equipment racks and one or more cooling providers, the system comprising:

• an interface;
• a controller coupled to the interface and configured to:
• receive data related to types of equipment and an arrangement of equipment in the data center including a location and configuration of the plurality of equipment racks and one or more hot aisles;
• receive data related to locations and configurations of one or more perforated ceiling tiles providing fluid communication between the one or more hot aisles and a ceiling plenum;
• determine a first quantity of air exhausted from one of the plurality of equipment racks;
• determine a second quantity of air captured by the one or more perforated ceiling tiles which is exhausted from the one of the plurality of equipment racks using an algebraic calculation method;
• determine a hot aisle capture index for the one of the plurality of equipment racks based in part on the first quantity of air and the second quantity of air;
• and
• store, on a storage device, an indication of the sufficiency of airflow through the plurality of equipment racks.

A non-transitory computer readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instructions including instructions that will cause a processor to:

• receive data related to types of equipment and an arrangement of equipment in a data center including a location and configuration of a plurality of equipment racks and one or more hot aisles;
• receive data related to locations and configurations of one or more perforated ceiling tiles providing fluid communication between the one or more hot aisles and a ceiling plenum;
• determine a first quantity of air exhausted from one of the plurality of equipment racks;
• determine a second quantity of air captured by the one or more perforated ceiling tiles which is exhausted from the one of the plurality of equipment racks using an algebraic calculation method;
• determine a hot aisle capture index for the one of the plurality of equipment racks based in part on the first quantity of air and the second quantity of air;
• and
• store, on a storage device, an indication of the hot aisle capture index.