UNDERWATER DATA CENTER

• US 20180054916A1
• Filed: 07/03/2017
• Published: 02/22/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/16/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Original Assignee: Fujitsu Limited
• Inventors: KOSUGI, NAOFUMI, TAKAHASHI, Susumu, Kamei, Kiyomasa
• Granted Patent: US 10,136,562 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• CPC Class Codes: B63C 11/00 Equipment for dwelling or working underwater; Means for searching for underwater objects composition of chemical substances for use in breathing apparatus A62D9/00; swimming aids or equipment A63B31/00 - A63B35/00; submarines B63G8/00
• CPC Class Codes: B63C 11/42 with independent propulsion or direction control
• CPC Class Codes: B63C 11/46 Divers' sleds or like craft, i.e. craft on which man in diving-suit rides
• CPC Class Codes: B63C 11/49 Floating structures with underwater viewing devices, e.g. with windows ; Arrangements on floating structures of underwater viewing devices, e.g. on boats arrangement of visual equipment on submarines B63G8/38
• CPC Class Codes: B63C 11/52 Tools specially adapted for working underwater, not otherwise provided for
• CPC Class Codes: B63G 8/001 Underwater vessels adapted for special purposes, e.g. unmanned underwater vessels; Equipment specially adapted therefor, e.g. docking stations self-propelled or direction controlled diving chambers with mechanical link to a base B63C11/42
• CPC Class Codes: B63G 8/22 Adjustment of buoyancy by water ballasting; Emptying equipment for ballast tanks conduits for emptying or ballasting on vessels in general B63B13/00; stabilising vessels using ballast tanks B63B43/06
• CPC Class Codes: G01C 13/00 Surveying specially adapted to open water, e.g. sea, lake, river or canal liquid level metering G01F
• CPC Class Codes: G03B 17/08 Waterproof bodies or housings
• CPC Class Codes: H04B 13/02 Transmission systems in which the medium consists of the earth or a large mass of water thereon, e.g. earth telegraphy
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1497 Rooms for data centers; Shipping containers therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20709 for server racks or cabinets; for data centers, e.g. 19-inch computer racks
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/2079 within rooms for removing heat from cabinets
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20818 within cabinets for removing heat from server blades

Abstract

An underwater data center includes an electronic device; a housing member that houses the electronic device and that is configured to be disposed under water; and a heat exchanger that is provided at the housing member and that is configured to discharge, into the water, heat discharged from the electronic device, with a face of the heat exchanger that discharges the heat making contact with the water, an opening being formed in a bottom face of the housing member and placing an inside of the housing member in communication with the water.

Claims

1. An underwater data center, comprising:

an electronic device;

a housing member that houses the electronic device and that is configured to be disposed under water; and

a heat exchanger that is provided at the housing member and that is configured to discharge, into the water, heat discharged from the electronic device, with a face of the heat exchanger that discharges the heat making contact with the water,

an opening being formed in a bottom face of the housing member and placing an inside of the housing member in communication with the water.

2. The underwater data center of claim 1, wherein a liquid film is provided at the opening.

3. The underwater data center of claim 2, wherein the liquid film is formed by a nonvolatile liquid that has a lower specific gravity than water and that is insoluble in water.

4. The underwater data center of claim 1, wherein a plurality of floating solid bodies that have a lower specific gravity than water, and that are insoluble in water, are provided at the opening.

5. The underwater data center of claim 1, wherein an opening-and-closing member that opens and closes the opening is attached to the housing member.

6. The underwater data center of claim 1, further comprising a partitioning plate that partitions an inside part of the housing member into an inlet side for gas entering the heat exchanger and an outlet side for gas leaving the heat exchanger.

7. The underwater data center of claim 1, further comprising:

a support plate that is provided inside the housing member at a position above the opening; and

a gap that is provided at the opening between a liquid surface and the support plate,

wherein a through-hole, through which gas flows from the gap to the electronic device, is formed in the support plate.

8. The underwater data center of claim 1, wherein an outlet for gas from the heat exchanger faces the electronic device.

9. The underwater data center of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of legs that extend downward from the housing member.

10. The underwater data center of claim 1, further comprising a mooring member that moors the housing member at an installation site.

11. The underwater data center of claim 1, wherein the heat exchanger is mounted to a top face of the housing member.

12. The underwater data center of claim 1, wherein the heat exchanger forms part of the bottom face of the housing member.

13. The underwater data center of claim 1, wherein the housing member has a hemispherical shape that is upwardly convex.