Real-time control of highly variable thermal loads

• US 10,247,435 B2
• Filed: 06/29/2016
• Issued: 04/02/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 06/29/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Lambert Grossi, Charles E., Magana Renoud, Karla, Najar Petersen, Ana Maria, Rodriguez Garcia, Salvador Antonio
• Primary Examiner(s): Tran, Vincent H
• Application Number:
  US15/196,511
• Publication Number:
  US 20180003402A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,007 Days
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/30 for purposes related to the operation of the system, e.g. for safety or monitoring
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/62 characterised by the type of control or by internal processing, e.g. using fuzzy logic, adaptive control or estimation of values
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/63 Electronic processing
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/00 Control inputs relating to air properties
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/10 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2140/50 Load
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2140/60 Energy consumption
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/2614 HVAC, heating, ventillation, climate control

Abstract

A method for real-time control of thermal loads in a data center includes storing, in a database, a heat generation data associated with an electronic equipment located in a predetermined area of the data center, transmitting the heat generation data to a data analysis system in communication with a tunable temperature controller, the heat generation data provides a real-time input of an amount of heat generated in the predetermined area, the data analysis system receives and analyzes the heat generation data to determine whether the amount of heat generated in the predetermined area exceeds current settings of the tunable temperature controller, and in response to the amount of heat generated exceeding the current settings of the tunable temperature controller, updating the current settings to provide an amount of cooling that compensates for the amount of heat generated in the predetermined area in association with the electronic equipment.

Claims

1. A method for real-time control of thermal loads in a data center, the method comprising:

collecting, in real-time, power consumption data associated with an electronic equipment connected to an electrical grid and located in a predetermined area of the data center, wherein the power consumption data comprises machine type and model of the electronic equipment;

collecting, in real-time and from a plurality of sensors, a total amperage drawn by the electronic equipment;

converting the power consumption data and the total amperage drawn to heat measuring units;

combining the power consumption data and the total amperage drawn in heat measuring units to obtain heat generation data for the predetermined area in association with the electronic equipment;

storing, in a database, the heat generation data associated with the electronic equipment;

transmitting the heat generation data from the database to a data analysis system in communication with a tunable temperature controller, wherein the heat generation data provides a real-time input of an amount of heat generated in the predetermined area in association with the electronic equipment;

receiving, by the data analysis system, the heat generation data, wherein the data analysis system analyzes the heat generation data to determine whether the amount of heat generated in the predetermined area in association with the electronic equipment exceeds current settings of the tunable temperature controller; and

in response to the amount of heat generated in the predetermined area exceeding the current settings of the tunable temperature controller, updating the current settings of the tunable temperature controller to provide an amount of cooling that compensates for the amount of heat generated in the predetermined area in association with the electronic equipment.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

in response to the amount of heat generated in the predetermined area being below the current settings of the tunable temperature controller, maintaining the current settings of the tunable temperature controller.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the data analysis system analyzing the heat generation data comprises:

using a fuzzy logic system capable of analyzing a large set of analog thermal data points in the heat generation data.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the data analysis system analyzing the heat generation data comprises:

using a plurality of data mining techniques to determine patterns in a large set of data points in the heat generation data.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the data analysis system analyzing the heat generation data comprises:

using predictive analytics tools based on IBM'"'"'s Watson technology such that the data analysis system is capable of analyzing large sets of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured heat generation data,

wherein by using the predictive tools based on IBM'"'"'s Watson technology, the data analysis system is also capable of determining thermal patterns across space in real-time, predicting thermal load patterns based on historical data, and optimizing current settings of the tunable temperature controller based on the thermal patterns and according to user requirements.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

identifying, by the data analysis system, a pattern in a behavior of the amount of heat generated through time in the predetermined area based on the transmitted heat generation data;

adjusting the current settings of the tunable temperature controller based on the identified pattern such that a future increase in the amount of heat generated in the predetermined area in association with the electronic equipment is predicted; and

in response to the future increase in the amount of heat generated in the predetermined area being predicted, providing a corresponding amount of cooling to the predetermined area to prevent a temperature increase in the electronic equipment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the tunable temperature controller comprises a proportional-integral-derivative (PID) controller of a heat, venting, and air conditioning (HVAC) system.