Data Centres
Abstruct Consulting have been involved in the design and delivery of data centres for over 10 years, working within a sector that continues to evolve at a rapid pace.
In today’s market, flexibility is key, our designs must be adaptable to keep up with changing technologies, client requirements, and new regulations.
Within structural and civil engineering design, several key themes shape the design of modern data centre infrastructure.
Floor Loading:
One of the key issues we’re seeing at the moment is around floor loading. For the past few years, 15 kPa has typically been adopted as a global floor load, however, we’re increasingly being asked—through Basis of Design documents or RFP’s—to design globally for 20 kPa or higher. We believe that this is in anticipation of the heavier next-generation AI racks and plant.
We need to assess whether a blanket increase in global design loads is the most appropriate solution, higher design loads inevitably lead to increased steel tonnage, greater embodied carbon, and less sustainable construction outcomes.
We feel that the loading should be properly tested during Stage 1 feasibility to make sure it reflects the actual requirements of the scheme. Higher rack weights can often still be accommodated within a 15 kPa design, mainly because rack numbers are reducing and there’s more flexibility in how loads are distributed.
Attenuation and EA permitting:
Another current trend is the increasing pressure on below-ground space, particularly on constrained inner city and town sites. Enhanced attenuation requirements, driven by stricter discharge rate regulations to combat climate change and EA permitting obligations, are resulting in additional below ground tanks for the capture and storage of contaminated fire water, glycol water, and biodiesel. This combined with the extensive below-ground MEP services means available below-ground space is now at a premium requiring detailed coordination in the early design stages.
Speed to market:
Speed to market remains one of the key drivers within the sector, placing increasing pressure on construction programmes. While modular construction has historically remained on the periphery of the data centre industry, it is now becoming a more viable solution to meet current delivery demands. The use of containerised external plant is now well established, and we are now seeing more specialist providers seeking to modularise the entire data hall system.
Care must be taken however to ensure that speed to market does not have a knock on effect to safety or quality. Programmes can only be compressed to a certain extent before risk levels begin to increase. In practice, projects frequently experience customer-driven changes during delivery and therefore its essential that programmes retain sufficient contingency to accommodate these changes effectively and safely.