DATA CENTRE HVAC SIMULATION SOFTWARE

Design more resilient data centre cooling systems

Modern AI data centres demand more from HVAC engineering than ever before.

Hysopt helps engineering teams model, simulate and validate hydronic cooling systems before construction — supporting more confident design decisions, better system understanding and reduced engineering risk for mission-critical cooling infrastructure.

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Bring simulation into data centre HVAC design

Data centre cooling systems are becoming more complex. Higher rack densities, stricter uptime expectations, redundancy requirements and rising energy costs are pushing HVAC engineering teams beyond traditional calculation workflows.

For mission-critical facilities, engineers need to understand not only how a system is sized, but how it behaves under changing loads, part-load conditions, operating modes, maintenance scenarios and failure events.

Hysopt brings physics-based HVAC simulation into the data centre engineering process, helping teams evaluate cooling concepts, validate assumptions and support critical decisions with transparent system-level evidence.

You can use Hysopt to:

Simulate hydronic cooling system behaviour before construction
Compare chilled water concepts, plant configurations and operating scenarios with consistent engineering data
Understand flow, pressure, temperature and control behaviour across the system
Support design reviews, technical discussions and commissioning preparation with simulation-backed evidence

Need to validate a data centre cooling concept before detailed design?

Explore how the Hysopt Feasibility supports early-stage HVAC concept comparison

Understand hydraulic behaviour before it becomes a site problem

In data centres, conservative design choices are common. But without simulation, it can be difficult to know whether those choices are genuinely protecting uptime or simply adding unnecessary capacity, complexity and energy use.

Hysopt helps engineering teams analyse hydronic system behaviour before construction, so potential issues can be identified earlier and discussed with greater confidence.

‍Use Hysopt to support:

Hydraulic behaviour analysis under different operating conditions
Scenario-based validation of chilled water cooling concepts
Pump, valve and flow behaviour assessment
Part-load and changing-load simulation
Support for N+1, 2N and failover scenario discussions
Design decision support for complex hydronic systems
Transparent communication between consultants, contractors, owners and technical teams

Want to understand how your cooling system behaves under real operating conditions?

See how the Hysopt Simulator predicts real-world HVAC performance

Download the Data Centre HVAC Design Guide

Beyond Static Calculations: A practical guide to validating chilled water systems, failure scenarios and hydraulic behaviour before construction

‍Get practical strategies for validating cooling system performance, comparing operating scenarios and reducing engineering risk before construction.

Download the guide

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Simulate critical cooling infrastructure

Data centre HVAC systems depend on many connected components working together. Hysopt enables teams to build a system-level model of the hydronic cooling architecture and analyse how the full system behaves.

‍Typical data centre cooling components and scenarios can include:

Chillers
Pumps
Heat exchangers
Buffer tanks
CRAH and CRAC units
Cooling coils
CDUs and liquid cooling interfaces
Control valves
Variable flow systems
Primary and secondary chilled water loops
Redundant production units
N+1, 2N and maintenance scenarios
Failover and operating mode changes

The result is a clearer view of how engineering decisions affect system performance, resilience, energy use and operational behaviour.

Working from detailed HVAC calculations?

Use the Hysopt Designer to create and validate hydronic HVAC designs

Supporting confidential data centre projects across the globe

Hysopt is currently supporting multiple confidential data centre projects across Europe, North America and the Middle East.

These projects include engineering studies, hydronic simulation, transient hydraulic analysis and scenario-based validation for mission-critical cooling systems. Due to customer confidentiality agreements, project details cannot yet be publicly disclosed.

The experience from these projects continues to strengthen how Hysopt supports complex data centre HVAC engineering — particularly where teams need to understand system behaviour, validate conservative design choices and assess operational risk before construction.

For data centre teams, this means Hysopt can support the engineering questions that often sit between static design calculations and real-world operation: how the system behaves, how quickly it responds, and how design choices perform across different operating scenarios.

Support transient analysis and scenario-based validation

Large data centres need to understand how cooling systems respond when operating conditions change. Static calculations are still important, but they cannot always show how a system behaves dynamically over time.

Hysopt is especially valuable where engineering teams need to evaluate transient hydraulic behaviour, response times and scenario-based system performance. This is one of the strongest current applications for Hysopt in data centre projects, based on live project experience.

With sufficient design information, Hysopt can help teams:

Analyse response behaviour under changing operating conditions
Validate conservative pump and plant selections with simulation data
Assess hydraulic response during maintenance or failure scenarios
Compare operating modes before construction
Understand the impact of load changes across chilled water loops
Reduce uncertainty in technical decision-making

Need calculated values for sizing, presets or commissioning?

See how the Hysopt Calculator connects engineering calculations with commissioning workflows

Designed for complex data centre HVAC decisions

Hysopt is not intended to replace every specialist tool used in data centre engineering. Instead, it gives HVAC teams a physics-based simulation workflow that complements traditional design methods and helps validate critical hydronic system decisions.

This is especially relevant when teams need to move beyond disconnected spreadsheets, supplier tools and manual assumptions.

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Compare concepts

Evaluate different cooling system concepts before committing to detailed design.

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Validate behaviour

Understand how the hydronic system responds under realistic operating conditions.

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Reduce risk

Identify potential hydraulic, control or performance issues earlier in the project.

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Defend decisions

Use simulation-backed evidence to support recommendations and technical reviews.

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Improve collaboration

Give consultants, contractors, owners and technical teams a shared engineering view.

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Prepare for commissioning

Support more informed commissioning planning with better system-level understanding.

Keep HVAC design and BIM coordination aligned

Data centre projects involve multiple stakeholders, changing requirements and strict technical coordination. As designs evolve, HVAC calculations and BIM models need to stay aligned.

Hysopt BIM Syncer helps engineering teams reduce rework by connecting HVAC calculations and BIM coordination, keeping design data more consistent as projects progress.

Need to keep HVAC calculations and BIM models aligned?

Explore the Hysopt BIM Syncer

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Frequently asked questions

What is data centre HVAC simulation software?

Data centre HVAC simulation software helps engineering teams model and analyse how cooling systems behave before construction. Instead of relying only on static calculations or spreadsheets, engineers can simulate system-level behaviour, compare design scenarios and validate important cooling decisions earlier in the project.

How is data centre HVAC design different from commercial HVAC design?

Data centre HVAC design places much greater emphasis on reliability, redundancy, response behaviour and operational risk. In a typical commercial building, HVAC design is often focused on comfort and energy efficiency. In a data centre, cooling continuity is mission critical, and systems must often be designed for multiple operating, maintenance and failure scenarios.

Can Hysopt simulate chilled water systems for data centres?

Yes. Hysopt can be used to model and simulate hydronic HVAC systems, including chilled water systems, pumps, heat exchangers, control valves, cooling coils and connected cooling infrastructure. For data centre projects, Hysopt is especially valuable for understanding system behaviour, comparing scenarios and supporting engineering validation.

Can Hysopt support liquid cooling projects?

Hysopt can support the hydronic infrastructure around liquid cooling concepts, including chilled water distribution, heat exchangers, CDUs, pumps, valves and connected plant. It is not a chip-level thermal design or cold plate design tool. Instead, Hysopt helps engineering teams understand how the wider water-side cooling system behaves.

Can Hysopt model redundant data centre cooling systems?

Hysopt can support analysis of redundant cooling concepts and operating scenarios, but highly redundant, fully looped hydraulic networks can require clearly defined modelling assumptions and experienced users. Hysopt is strongest today when used to support simulation, scenario-based validation and transient hydraulic analysis rather than as a fully automated one-click static design tool for every possible redundancy configuration.

What is transient hydraulic analysis in data centre cooling?

Transient hydraulic analysis looks at how a hydronic cooling system responds over time when operating conditions change. In data centres, this can help engineering teams understand response behaviour during changing loads, equipment transitions, maintenance scenarios or potential failure conditions.

Why is simulation useful for AI data centres?

AI data centres can create higher and more concentrated cooling loads. Simulation helps engineers understand how hydronic cooling systems behave under different operating conditions, compare design approaches and validate assumptions before construction.

How does Hysopt help reduce engineering risk?

Hysopt helps reduce engineering risk by allowing teams to test HVAC concepts, analyse system behaviour and identify potential performance issues earlier. This gives engineers more evidence before making design decisions and reduces reliance on assumptions, spreadsheets and disconnected calculations.

What is the difference between CFD and hydronic HVAC simulation?

CFD is typically used to analyse air movement, airflow patterns and temperature distribution within a data hall or equipment space. Hydronic HVAC simulation focuses on the water-side system, including flow, pressure, temperatures, pumps, valves, heat exchangers, cooling coils, controls and connected plant. For data centres, both can be valuable, but they answer different engineering questions.

Is Hysopt suitable for early-stage data centre HVAC design?

Yes. Hysopt can help teams compare concepts, evaluate system-level trade-offs and understand how different hydronic cooling approaches may perform before committing to detailed design.

Can Hysopt replace traditional data centre design methods?

No. Hysopt should be seen as a specialist simulation and validation platform that complements traditional data centre design workflows. It helps engineering teams better understand hydronic system behaviour and make more confident decisions, but it does not replace every specialist tool or manual engineering method used in mission-critical design.