Figure 15. Ducted fan cross-section and ducted fan blade compared to traditional server fan 
 
 
HP PARSEC architecture 
The c3000 enclosure uses PARSEC architecture—parallel, redundant, scalable, enclosure-based 
cooling. In this context, parallel means that fresh, cool air flows over all the server blades (in the front 
of the enclosure) and all the interconnect modules (in the back of the enclosure). The enclosure is 
divided into four cooling zones with fans in each. The Active Cool fans provide cooling for their own 
zone and redundant cooling for the rest of the enclosure. To ensure scalability, HP designed both the 
fans and the power supplies with enough capacity to meet the needs of compute, storage, and I/O 
components well into the future.  
Parallel 
To optimize thermal design, HP developed a relatively airtight center air plenum, or air chamber. In 
the c3000 enclosure, all device bays include a shutoff door that is normally closed to prevent air 
leakage through that device bay into the center air plenum. When a server blade is inserted, it seals 
into the plenum docking collar, and the server shutoff door opens to allow airflow across that server 
blade. Similarly, Active Cool fans seal into the center air plenum docking collar. Each fan bay 
includes louvers that automatically open when a fan is installed. If a fan is not installed or is not 
functional, the pressure distribution around the fan changes. This pressure change causes the louvers 
to close, ensuring that cool air is not diverted through the inoperative fan (Figure 16).  
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