Controlled Warm Air Capture

• US 20080055848A1
• Filed: 06/01/2007
• Published: 03/06/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 06/01/2006
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Hamburgen, William, Clidaras, Jimmy, Whitted, William, Aigner, Gerald, Carlson, Andrew, Beaty, Donald
• Application Number:
  US11/757,316
• Publication Number:
  US 20080055848A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 361/691
• CPC Class Codes: A62C 3/16 in electrical installations, e.g. cableways
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/20 Cooling means
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1497 Rooms for data centers; Shipping containers therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20136 Forced ventilation, e.g. by fans H05K7/202 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20727 within server blades for removing heat from heat source
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20736 within cabinets for removing heat from server blades

Abstract

A system for providing air circulation to rack-mounted computers can include a plurality of rack-mounted computers on a plurality of motherboards, each motherboard having a front end near a work space and a back end; one or more fans associated with the plurality of motherboards and adapted to deliver heated air from the computers to a common warm-air plenum; and one or more motor controllers coupled to the plurality of fans and adapted to maintain a substantially constant sensed exhaust temperature for air moved by the fans.

Claims

1. A system for providing air circulation to rack-mounted computers, the system comprising:

a plurality of rack-mounted computers on a plurality of motherboards, each motherboard having a front end near a work space and a back end;

one or more fans associated with the plurality of motherboards and adapted to deliver heated air from the computers to a common warm-air plenum; and

one or more motor controllers coupled to the plurality of fans and adapted to maintain a substantially constant sensed exhaust temperature for air moved by the fans.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein each of the plurality of fans is mounted to a power supply to draw heated air through the power supply.

3. The system of claim 1, further comprising walls extending from a top surface of each of the plurality of motherboards and arranged to direct air passing over each of the plurality of motherboards to the plurality of fans.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the walls separate low heat-generating computer components from high heat-generating components that are located in a flow path for each of the fans.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein one or more of the fans delivers air from more than one motherboard.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising a warm-air plenum, wherein the warm-air plenum is configured to receive warm exhaust air from a plurality of racks of computers.

7. The system of claim 6, further comprising a fan-coil arrangement in fluid communication with the warm-air plenum to cool air from the warm-air plenum and to deliver the cooled air to the work space.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the warm air plenum comprises an attic space above the work space.

9. The system of claim 1, further comprising one or more pressure sensors connected to one or more motor controllers and configured to maintain a set pressure difference between an air intake for the motherboards and an air exit for the motherboards.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the set pressure difference is substantially zero.

11. The system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of open-front cabinets to hold the plurality of motherboards.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the sensed exhaust temperature exceeds 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

13. The system of claim 1, further comprising a system controlled configured to maintain the temperature in the work space below 78 degrees Fahrenheit, and the exhaust temperature in excess of 110 degrees Fahrenheit.

14. A cooling method, comprising:

providing cooling air to a human operator workspace adjacent to a plurality of computers;

drawing air from the workspace across the plurality of computers and into a common warm-air plenum; and

controlling a plurality of fans drawing the air to maintain a substantially constant temperature of the air passing through the fans at a constant temperature.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein each fan of the plurality of fans is associated with one computer motherboard.

16. The method of claim 14, wherein each of the plurality of fans is set to maintain a common temperature.

17. The method of claim 14, wherein the cooling air is provided to the workspace by a common fan-coil unit.

18. The method of claim 17, further comprising controlling the fan-coil unit to maintain a set temperature in the workspace.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein the fans are controlled to maintain a temperature of 104-122 degrees Fahrenheit for air entering the common warm-air plenum, and the fan-coil unit is controlled to maintain a temperature of 70-86 degrees Fahrenheit for air entering the workspace.

20. The method of claim 14, wherein the air is drawn from the workspace through the front of one or more open-front cabinets that face the workspace and that house the computers.

21. A system for removing heat from a volume supporting electronic equipment, the system comprising:

one or more enclosures defining an interior space and an exterior workspace;

a plurality of supports for holding heat-generating electronic devices in the interior space;

an air moving device positioned to create a flow of air in the enclosure across the electronic devices and to maintain the air temperature through the air moving device at a set temperature; and

one or more heat exchangers in the interior space located to receive substantially only air heated by the electronic devices, to cool the air, and to return the cooled air for recirculation across the electronic devices.

22. The system of claim 21, further comprising one or more air distributors to pass the cooled air to the exterior workspace.

23. The system of claim 21, further comprising an air intake opening in the enclosure, wherein the plurality of heat generating devices are positioned downstream from the opening.

24. The system of claim 21, further comprising a plurality of heat generating electronic devices attached to the supports and mounted on a plurality of spaced, substantially planar boards, and the flow of air occurs in the spaces between adjacent pairs of boards.

25. The system of claim 21, wherein the air moving device and heat exchanger are configured to maintain the air above the air'"'"'s dew point under expected standard operating conditions.

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the air moving device and heat exchanger are configured to maintain the exterior workspace temperature below 100 degrees Fahrenheit when the interior space temperature is substantially above 120 degrees Fahrenheit.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the expected operating conditions comprise a heated air temperature of approximately 45 degrees Celsius and a cooled air temperature of approximately 25 degrees Celsius.

28. The system of claim 27, wherein the expected operating conditions further comprise a supply water temperature to the heat exchanger of approximately 20 degrees Celsius and a return water temperature of approximately 40 degrees Celsius.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein the plurality of supports are part of a vertical rack server cabinet, and the one or more enclosures comprise a plenum attached to a side of the cabinet.

30. The system of claim 21, wherein the air moving device comprises a fan located downstream of the heat exchanger.

31. A system for removing heat from a volume supporting a plurality of computers, the system comprising:

a rack server cabinet configured to hold a plurality of computer motherboards that are positioned to permit airflow over components mounted on the motherboards;

a plenum having an air intake side attached to a side of the rack server cabinet, the plenum configured to capture airflow over the components;

a fan between the components and the plenum having a controller set to maintain a constant temperature for air entering the plenum; and

a heat exchanger in fluid communication with an air output side of the plenum to receive and cool heated air that has passed over the components and recirculate the cooled air back to the cabinet.

32. A method for removing heat from a volume supporting electronic equipment, the method comprising:

creating an airflow from an ambient space over a plurality of computers and controlling a rate of airflow to maintain a temperature of air exiting the plurality of computers;

capturing heated air from the airflow in a plenum;

cooling the captured heated air; and

returning the cooled air to the ambient space.

33. The method of claim 32, wherein the step of cooling the heated air comprises cooling the air from a temperature above 45 degrees Celsius to a temperature below 25 degrees Celsius.

34. The method of claim 32, wherein the step of creating an airflow from an ambient space over a plurality of computers comprises drawing air from a computer room across an opening in a side of a rack server.

35. The method of claim 32, further comprising capturing airflow from a plurality of racks of computers in a common plenum.

36. The method of claim 32, further comprising mixing the heated air in the plenum with outside air when the outside air is lower in temperature than the cooled air.

37. A system for removing heat from a volume supporting electronic equipment, the system comprising:

one or more enclosures defining an interior space and an exterior space;

a plurality of heat generating electronic devices in the interior space; and

means for cooling the air heated by the electronic devices and for re-circulating the air across the electronic devices

38. A method for cooling electronic equipment, comprising:

drawing air into a computer enclosure from a human operator workspace adjacent to a plurality of computers in the computer enclosure; and

controlling the flow rate of the air across a computer to obtain a temperature rise across the computer of greater than 18 degrees Celsius.

39. The method of claim 38, further comprising controlling the flow rate of the air across the computer so that the air temperature is below but close to an expected failure temperature of a component in the computer having a lowest failure temperature of the components needed to operate the computer.

40. A method for cooling electronic equipment, comprising:

drawing air into a computer enclosure from a human operator workspace adjacent to a plurality of computers in the computer enclosure; and

controlling the flow rate of the air across a computer to maintain a temperature so that the air temperature is below but close to an expected failure temperature of a component in the computer having a lowest failure temperature of the components needed to operate the computer.

42. The system of claim 40, further comprising warm air plenums at back ends of the computer server racks.

43. The system of claim 42, wherein the warm air plenums are each in communication with a plurality of racks.

44. The system of claim 42, further comprising a plurality of cooling coils defining a boundary of the warm air plenum.

45. The system of claim 44, wherein the air circulation fans pull air through the cooling coils and direct the air into the central aisle.

46. The system of claim 45, wherein the air circulation fans release the air near planes defined by the front ends of the computer server racks.

47. The system of claim 46, further comprising a plurality of computers mounted in the plurality of server racks.

48. The system of claim 47, further comprising power and data connections on front side of the plurality of computers adjacent the central aisle.

41. A data center system, comprising:

a shipping containing defining an interior volume;

two rows of a plurality of computer server racks having front ends on opposed sides of a central aisle in the volume, each of the server racks open to the central aisle and having a top, bottom, and two sides defining a rack perimeter; and

air circulation fans adjacent the rack perimeters of the server racks and configured to release cooled air to the front of the racks.