India is seeing a sudden rise in the creation of data centres, where the capacity enhancement is primarily driven by conventional data centre services companies, which are now investing to serve the accelerated growth demand in the next 3-5 years. Indian data centre market is expected to grow at a rate of 8 per cent over the next six years. The drivers for this sudden increase in data centre construction include rapid adoption/growth of the web-based economy and the ever-increasing need for personal, corporate and government data security. These facilities are being built not only in major cities but also in remote locations and are often driven by weather and infrastructure considerations. Data centre companies across the globe are facing some challenges in the design and operation of their facilities to reduce environmental impact without sacrificing the performance and reliability. It is important to run data centres as efficient as possible through more renewable/green energy sources and solutions.

The selection of building type can significantly affect the occupancy costs, security, scalability, and operational flexibility of the data centre. One of the best practices in data centre infrastructure design is a single storey, industrial type building with large floor space that offers ideal solution in terms of lower operating costs and provision of ramping up of data centre capacity. These single-storey industrial sheds with Tata Structura hollow sections as a primary load carrying member offer superior strength, making the steel construction more sustainable. By making the design of these structures modular, the potential for ramping up the capacity as per demand can be achieved easily. Steel is the right material which would help in encountering these challenges and building sustainable infrastructure for data centres with efficient design solutions. Decision makers are wisely choosing steel for these robust, warehouse-type facilities for several reasons:

• Enhanced framing quality with off-site fabrication for better tolerances
• Faster building occupancy thanks to quick erection, which reduces overall on-site construction, labour and associated time and costs
• Innovative solutions decreasing erection time for a structural steel building
• Cost advantages in terms of faster construction, lighter foundations, and adaptability
• Flexible spaces with long column-free areas

A data centre structure design with steel as primary material of construction comes with added advantages of faster execution times and better quality as steel fabrication is done in controlled manner with the requirement of less manpower for construction. With an average steel intensity of 11-12 kg/sq ft for a typical data centre structure, there exists an opportunity for steel consumption of 120 KT in this segment by end of 2025.

Fire protection of data centres is very important as both the human and electronic assets need to be protected. In addition to fire protection, considerations must be made for the building contents and especially protection of the electronic elements from dust during and after construction. Intumescent coatings and fire-resistant boards can be used to improve the fire protection of structural components. Another way of increasing the fire resistance of a steel building is by using concrete filled tubes for primary column and load bearing members. Concrete filled tubes (CFT) are a good example of composite structures which are mainly used for high-rise steel buildings. Large dia structural tube offerings from Tata Structura such as Square Hollow Sections (SHS) 400X400, Rectangular Hollow Sections (RHS) 400X200 and Circular Hollow Sections (CHS) 450NB when filled with concrete provide superior structural strength and load carrying capabilities.

When overall lifecycle cost of a typical data centre is considered, steel-based data centre structure provides better value when compared with conventional RCC construction. Energy efficiency of the data centre plays a vital role in making a data centre more sustainable. Use of Green-Pro certified products such Tata Structura hollow sections are very essential for obtaining Green Certifications for buildings, such as LEED, GreenGlobes, Energy Star, etc.

The tubular sections from Tata Steel offer inherent strength and efficiency in terms of optimised designs. They give buildings a better strength-to-weight ratio than those using comparable steel and concrete products. In construction, this strength-to-weight ratio reduces material usage and allows for greater spans. This results in lightweight, airy structures that are aesthetically pleasing within our communities and environments. Some of the benefits of Tata Structura hollow sections are as follows:

• Smooth profile of hollow sections enhances the aesthetic appeal
• High quality surface finish
• Superior strength properties and torsional rigidity
• Higher grades of steel and better ductility ensure lighter weight of structural system
• Easy to bend into various forms and shapes
• High strength-to-weight ratio
• Green-Pro certified by CII-IGBC

Tata Structura sections can be manufactured up to a maximum size of 400×400 mm for square sections, 400×200 mm for rectangular sections and 600 NB for circular sections. These sections can be rolled in thickness ranging from 2 mm to 20 mm. Tata Structura finds its use across multiple segments & applications such as Airport terminal buildings, Foot over bridges (FoBs) & Cover over Platforms (CoPs) of Railway Stations & Metros, Infrastructure Projects, Industrial Sheds & Steel buildings etc. Tata Structura-Yst 355 high strength steel hollow sections are superior in quality and are manufactured using the best grade raw materials (HR coils) from Tata Steel’s world-class Hot Strip Mill. Tata Structura-Yst 355 comes with a minimum yield strength of 355 MPa and minimum UTS of 490 MPa, providing better strength-to-weight ratio and sectional properties. This in turn helps in steel savings of up to 40 per cent as compared to conventional angles/channels and up to 20 per cent compared to local steel hollow sections. This steel savings ultimately leads to more economical project execution.

Tata Structura hollow sections have been used as primary load bearing members in some of the recently completed data centre projects namely, Amazon Data Center in Hyderabad and Adani Data Center in Chennai. The data power capacity of Amazon Data Center in Hyderabad is about 25 MW covering over an area of 2.65 lakh sq ft where more than 2,000 MT of Tata Structura hollow sections were used. In this project, rolled tubular sections have been used because of their easy availability and better quality. The use of tubular sections has enhanced the safety at construction site by eliminating on-site welding.

The technical team of Tata Structura actively engages with consultants right from the design stage to finalisation of Bill of Quantities (BoQ) by providing the required technical details about tubular sections and literature for member design, enabling the backward integration of structural consultant’s design requirement with production and plant quality assurance practices for delivering better value to end-customers.

Source: Construction Times