Method for adjusting cooling device based on battery presence

• US 10,429,910 B1
• Filed: 05/03/2018
• Issued: 10/01/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 01/20/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Imwalle, Gregory, Stiver, David W., Schran, Andrew J., Newcomb, Thomas Chris
• Primary Examiner(s): Lindsay, Bernard G
• Application Number:
  US15/969,942
• Time in Patent Office: 516 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20836 Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control

Abstract

An apparatus for monitoring and maintaining thermal exhaust temperatures for monitored servers may include a processor in communication with an exhaust temperature control system. The processor may implement various control loops to monitor inlet and exhaust temperatures for one or more servers, and the processor may monitor temperatures of various hardware components within those one or more servers. When the processor determines that a hardware component for a given server is overheating, the processor may take steps to decrease the temperature of the overheating hardware component for the given server. To determine whether a hardware component is overheating, the processor may leverage the hardware component'"'"'s operating temperature margin.

Claims

1. A method for adjusting operation of at least one cooling device, comprising:

determining, with a processor in communication with a memory whether a component includes a battery;

determining whether the component is operating in a first environment or second environment, respectively;

determining an expected inlet temperature value based on whether the component includes a battery and a predetermined value, where the expected inlet temperature value is a first temperature value when the component is determined to include a battery and to be operating in the first environment, the expected inlet temperature value is a second temperature value when the component is determined to not include a battery and to be operating in the second environment, and the first temperature value is different from the second temperature value;

determining a temperature difference value;

determining an expected exhaust temperature value based on the temperature difference value and the expected inlet temperature value;

measuring an exhaust temperature value; and

adjusting an operation of the at least one cooling device based on a comparison of the measured exhaust temperature value and the expected exhaust temperature value.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein determining an expected inlet temperature comprises:

when a temperature probe is reporting an inlet temperature value associated with the component, determining the expected inlet temperature value based on the inlet temperature value reported by the temperature probe; and

when the temperature probe is not reporting an inlet temperature value associated with the component, determining the expected inlet temperature value based on the predetermined value.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the first temperature value is higher than the second temperature value.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein determining an expected inlet temperature based on an inlet temperature value derived from an inlet temperature source.

5. The method of claim 2 wherein determining a temperature difference value comprises determining the temperature difference value from a temperature difference database based on the inlet temperature value.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein determining whether the component is operating in the first environment or the second environment comprises the determination of whether the component includes the battery.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising determining the temperature difference value through interpolation when the temperature difference database does not include the inlet temperature value.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

monitoring a characteristic selected from a group of characteristics consisting of power consumption and workload; and

adjusting operation of the at least one cooling device based at least in part on the monitored characteristic.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

associating the component with at least one of a plurality of zones, each zone being associated with the at least one cooling device; and

adjusting operation of the at least one cooling device associated with a given zone based on the comparison of the measured exhaust temperature value and the expected exhaust temperature value.

10. The method of claim 9 further comprising updating a zone database when there is a change to a given zone, wherein the change is selected from a group of changes consisting of adding, removing, and replacing the component.