[Beowulf] Power per area

[David Mathog]

On Tue, 10 Mar 2020 15:36:42 -0400 Scott Atchley wrote:

> To make the exercise even more fun, what is the weight per square foot 
> for
> immersion systems? Our data centers have a limit of 250 or 500 pounds 
> per
> square foot.

I am not an architect but...

Aren't there two load values for a floor?  The one I think you are 
citing is the amount of weight which can safely be placed in a "small" 
floor area without punching through or causing other localized damage, 
the other is the total weight that can be placed on that floor without 
the building collapsing.  If the whole data center is on the ground 
floor sitting right on a concrete slab with no voids beneath it I would 
expect the latter value to be huge and not a real concern, but it might 
be less than (500 pounds per square foot) X (total area) on the 2nd or 
higher floors.

Regards,

David Mathog
mathog at caltech.edu
Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech