B513 Planning Meeting, 3rd July 2003

Present:           Tony Cass, Anne Funken, Jukka Lindroos, Jose Miranda Vizuete, Tim Whibley

1.             Previous Minutes

  1. 2.3) Denis Raffourt has not yet been contacted about smoke detection for the substation. He will be invited to the next meeting and should also then make proposals concerning underfloor smoke detection in the machine room.
  2. 4.7) Tim Whibley has contacted Steel Systems who have informed us that they are unable to manufacture any 61cm x 61cm tiles, whether perforated or solid.
  3. 4.8) Jose has reviewed the machine room separation situation with Fabio Corsanego. Fabio confirms that the current cloison between the machine room and the barn can be kept but recommends that the underfloor separation be plasterboard based and not wooden. A detailed plan of the barrier—including details of cable routing between the machine room and the modem/fibre rooms—is needed before firms can cost installation.

2.             Machine Room Upgrade Status

  1.  Anne distributed a revised plan for the future machine room layout. The following points were raised in the discussion that followed.
    1. It is not proposed to have normabarre in the modem/fibre rooms but rather to power a dedicated PDU in the room. We need to establish if equipment here must be powered from the critical supply and, if so, whether or not we can afford to support all of the load on the critical UPS as otherwise we need to pay for two PDUs and associated connections. The total load in the room is estimated at 30A.
    2. It was agreed to move the double 9m normabarres to the front of the computing racks and to add an additional 18m normabarre per PDU.
    3. Tony and Tim felt that the layout of the critical equipment area could be adjusted such that more racks could be installed. This will be followed up later.
    4. Work is needed to modify the door layout at the end of the corridor by the operators area as otherwise access would be blocked by a row of racks.
    5. It was agreed to maintain the old canalis distribution as this is a useful backup.
  2. An order is being prepared for the 7 PDUs required for the right hand side. These are  expected to cost roughly 140KCHF. Installation work has not yet been costed but will be soon as the order must be placed soon for the work to start in September.
  3. Anne commented that we need confirmation of the requirements in terms of UPS coverage for the B31 and B513 starpoints.
  4. Cleaning of the false floor void will be arranged after the normabarres have been installed but before they are powered on.

3.             HVAC Planning

  1. Work is underway to study the flow rates, speeds, pressure drops and other relevant factors at relevant points in the chilled water piping. The results of this study, which should be finished in the next 10 days, will be used to decide whether or not the existing piping network can support the modifications. Jukka has also asked for an analysis of the state of the pipes themselves to see if they need replacement.
  2. The chilled water pipes running to B31 are known to be in a poor state as the “vapour barrier” was not installed correctly. Replacing these pipes would cost 85KCHF, but it would also be possible to install an independent chiller for B31 for an additional 65KCHF. The proposal is for a dedicated glycol chiller with a heat exchanger connecting this to the chilled water piping. Installation of such a dedicated chiller would reduce the load to be supported by the chillers in B513 by 200kW.
  3. Once the study of the B513 chilled water network is complete, the next stage is to study the temperature distribution and rates of heat rise in the machine room and the vault under various conditions.
  4. ST/CV are developing a proposal to maintain the cooling to the UPS room during the substation civil engineering. This involves modifying the ducting in order to operate with recirculated air only, i.e. no intake of fresh air. This work has to be finished by 15th August; the timing is to be discussed at the next ST Operations Committee  meeting  on 9th July.
  5. Dismantling of unnecessary piping in the CV plant room has started.
  6. Jukka commented that, given work on the CNGS project, planning to remodel ducting in the machine room would not be started until mid-September. Further, the shortage of draftsmen continues to slow planning. There has been some attempt by ST/CV to employ temporary staff, but the prices offered were considered excessive.
  7. Tthe option of a connection to the PS booster chilled water supply still needs to be recosted.

4.             AOB

  1. The temporary electrical supply for the bunker civil engineering work will be supplied directly from substation 23, not from B513.
  2. Measurements on 27 disk servers indicate that the machines take about 2A/system idle and about 2.5/system fully loaded. The start-up current is some 4-6 times the fully loaded level.
  3. The presentation of the upgrade status to IT division on 27th Junje went well. Plans for the substation were accepted and there were no objections to the proposed machine room layout.
  4. It was noted that the responses to the substation civil engineering tender would be opened at 11:30 the following day, Friday 4th July.
  5. Next meeting: 2pm on Thursday 7th August