METHOD FOR COMPUTING COOLING REDUNDANCY AT THE RACK LEVEL

• US 20100256959A1
• Filed: 04/01/2009
• Published: 10/07/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 04/01/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric IT Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: American Power Conversion Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Healey, Christopher M., VanGilder, James W.
• Granted Patent: US 9,904,331 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 703/6
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/20 Cooling means
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20836 Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control

Abstract

A system and method for designing aspects of a cooling system for a data center is provided. A method is provided including computing cooling redundancy at each rack position in a data center, in real time. The redundancy can be reported using the traditional N+1, N+2, etc. notation, where N is the number of coolers required to meet the primary cooling load type specification. The redundancy can also be reported in terms of a Cooling Reliability Index (CRI) which also takes into account the inherent availability of the specific cooling units in the design.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method of determining cooling redundancy information, comprising:

modeling in a computer a location to be cooled by a plurality of coolers;

for each possible combination of shut down coolers, determining whether adequate cooling is available at the location;

recording information identifying each combination along with whether each combination results in adequate cooling; and

identifying the cooling redundancy information as a function of the recorded information.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

aggregating the identified cooling redundancy at plural locations to determine cooling redundancy information for a site including the plural locations.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein aggregating further comprises:

selecting as the cooling redundancy for the site, a smallest redundancy identified.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

computing an aggregate availability, a, of adequate cooling based on the recorded information and individual cooler availability information; and

wherein the identified information includes a Cooling Redundancy Index (CRI) based on the aggregate availability, a.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

computing the CRI as;

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

performing the determining on combinations from least number of coolers shut down to most number of coolers shut down;

terminating the determining and recording when a least number of coolers shut down in a combination results in inadequate cooling; and

wherein identifying comprises;

identifying as the cooling redundancy information, one less than the number of coolers shut down in that combination of shut down coolers having the smallest number of coolers shut down and also having inadequate cooling available.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

setting a desired test level of redundancy;

performing the determining on combinations from least number of coolers shut down to most number of coolers shut down;

terminating the determining and recording when either a least number of coolers shut down in a combination results in inadequate cooling or the test level of redundancy is reached; and

wherein identifying comprises;

identifying as the cooling redundancy information, whether the test level was reached.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

iteratively performing the method at each of a plurality of locations in an environment.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

iteratively performing determining and recording at each of a plurality of locations in an environment.

10. A computer-implemented method of presenting cooling redundancy information, comprising:

modeling a location to be cooled as an array in a computer memory having a cell for each cooler contributing to cooling of the location;

loading each cell of the array with a first value;

searching the array from a first end to a second end for a second value

if the second value is not found, change the first value in the cell at the second end to the second value;

checking the cell one towards the first end of the first cell containing the second value, and if that cell contains the first value, swap the values in the those cells, otherwise perform searching on all cells towards the second end of the first cell containing the second value; and

for each configuration defined by the array during searching determining whether cooling is adequate, and stopping when cooling is inadequate.

11. A computer readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instruction including instructions that will cause a processor to:

model in a computer a location to be cooled by a plurality of coolers;

for each possible combination of shut down coolers, determine whether adequate cooling is available at the location;

record information identifying each combination along with whether each combination results in adequate cooling; and

identify the cooling redundancy information as a function of the recorded information.

12. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further having stored thereon sequences of instruction including instructions that will cause a processor to:

aggregate the identified cooling redundancy at plural locations to determine cooling redundancy information for a site including the plural locations.

13. The computer readable medium of claim 12, wherein aggregating the identified cooling redundancy at plural locations further comprises:

selecting as the cooling redundancy for the site, a smallest redundancy identified.

14. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further having stored thereon sequences of instruction including instructions that will cause a processor to:

compute an aggregate availability, a, of adequate cooling based on the recorded information and individual cooler availability information; and

wherein the identified information includes a Cooling Redundancy Index (CRI) based on the aggregate availability, a.

15. The computer readable medium of claim 14, further having stored thereon sequences of instruction including instructions that will cause a processor to:

compute the CRI as;

16. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further having stored thereon sequences of instruction including instructions that will cause a processor to:

perform the determining on combinations from least number of coolers shut down to most number of coolers shut down;

terminate the determining and recording when a least number of coolers shut down in a combination results in inadequate cooling; and

wherein to identify comprises;

to identify as the cooling redundancy information, one less than the number of coolers shut down in that combination of shut down coolers having the smallest number of coolers shut down and also having inadequate cooling available.

17. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further having stored thereon sequences of instruction including instructions that will cause a processor to:

set a desired test level of redundancy;

perform the determining on combinations from least number of coolers shut down to most number of coolers shut down;

terminate the determining and recording when either a least number of coolers shut down in a combination results in inadequate cooling or the test level of redundancy is reached; and

wherein to identify comprises;

to identify as the cooling redundancy information, whether the test level was reached.

18. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further having stored thereon sequences of instruction including instructions that will cause a processor to:

iteratively perform the method at each of a plurality of locations in an environment.

19. The computer readable medium of claim 11, further having stored thereon sequences of instruction including instructions that will cause a processor to:

iteratively perform determining and recording at each of a plurality of locations in an environment.

20. A computer readable medium having stored thereon sequences of instruction including instructions that will cause a processor to:

model a location to be cooled as an array in a computer memory having a cell for each cooler contributing to cooling of the location;

load each cell of the array with a first value;

search the array from a first end to a second end for a second value;

if the second value is not found, change the first value in the cell at the second end to the second value;

check the cell one towards the first end of the first cell containing the second value, and if that cell contains the first value, swap the values in the those cells, otherwise perform searching on all cells towards the second end of the first cell containing the second value; and

for each configuration defined by the array during searching determine whether cooling is adequate, and stopping when cooling is inadequate.

21. A system for determining cooling redundancy information, comprising:

a computer memory holding a data structure model of a location cooled by a plurality of coolers;

a display through which a user views a representation of the model; and

a computer processor which accesses the computer memory and which further executes a sequence of instructions which cause the processor to;

for each possible combination of shut down coolers, determine whether adequate cooling is available at the location;

record in computer memory locations information identifying each combination along with whether each combination results in adequate cooling;

identify the cooling redundancy information as a function of the recorded information; and

display to a user the identified cooling redundancy information.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the sequence of instructions further comprise:

aggregating the identified cooling redundancy at plural locations to determine cooling redundancy information for a site including the plural locations.

23. The system of claim 22, wherein aggregating further comprises:

selecting as the cooling redundancy for the site, a smallest redundancy identified.

24. The system of claim 21, wherein the sequence of instructions further comprise:

computing an aggregate availability, a, of adequate cooling based on the recorded information and individual cooler availability information; and

wherein the identified information includes a Cooling Redundancy Index (CRI) based on the aggregate availability, a.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the sequence of instructions further comprise:

computing the CRI as;

26. The system of claim 21, wherein the sequence of instructions further comprise:

performing the determining on combinations from least number of coolers shut down to most number of coolers shut down;

terminating the determining and recording when a least number of coolers shut down in a combination results in inadequate cooling; and

wherein identifying comprises;

identifying as the cooling redundancy information, one less than the number of coolers shut down in that combination of shut down coolers having the smallest number of coolers shut down and also having inadequate cooling available.

27. The system of claim 21, wherein the sequence of instructions further comprise:

setting a desired test level of redundancy;

performing the determining on combinations from least number of coolers shut down to most number of coolers shut down;

terminating the determining and recording when either a least number of coolers shut down in a combination results in inadequate cooling or the test level of redundancy is reached; and

wherein identifying comprises;

identifying as the cooling redundancy information, whether the test level was reached.

28. The system of claim 21, wherein the sequence of instructions further comprise:

iteratively performing the method at each of a plurality of locations in an environment.

29. The system of claim 21, wherein the sequence of instructions further comprise:

iteratively performing determining and recording at each of a plurality of locations in an environment.

30. A system for determining cooling redundancy information, comprising:

a computer memory holding a data structure model of a location cooled by a plurality of coolers, the data structure including an array having a cell for each cooler contributing to cooling of the location;

a display through which a user views a representation of the model; and

a computer processor which accesses the computer memory and which further executes a sequence of instructions which cause the processor to;

load each cell of the array with a first value;

search the array from a first end to a second end for a second value;

if the second value is not found, change the first value in the cell at the second end to the second value;

check the cell one towards the first end of the first cell containing the second value, and if that cell contains the first value, swap the values in the those cells, otherwise perform searching on all cells towards the second end of the first cell containing the second value; and

for each configuration defined by the array during the search determining whether cooling is adequate, and stop when cooling is inadequate.