Manipulating environmental conditions in an infrastructure

• US 8,744,631 B2
• Filed: 01/28/2011
• Issued: 06/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 01/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Company)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Wang, Zhikui, Bash, Cullen E., McReynolds, Alan A., Hoover, Christopher Edward, Shih, Chih C., Felix, Carlos J., Zhou, Rongliang
• Primary Examiner(s): Masinick, Michael D
• Application Number:
  US13/016,278
• Publication Number:
  US 20120197444A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,222 Days
• Field of Search: 700/276, 165/67
• US Class Current: 700/276
• 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 11/46 Improving electric energy efficiency or saving
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/58 using Internet communication
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/63 Electronic processing
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/76 by means responsive to temperature, e.g. bimetal springs
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/77 by controlling the speed of ventilators
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 11/80 for controlling the temperature of the supplied air
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 13/08 Air-flow control members, e.g. louvres, grilles, flaps or guide plates F24F7/013, F24F13/06 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F24F 2110/10 Temperature
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 23/1932 to control the temperature of a plurality of spaces
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/20 Cooling means
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/206 comprising thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20836 Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control

Abstract

A system and method for manipulating environmental conditions in an infrastructure containing a fluid moving device are disclosed that include identifying correlations between operational settings of the fluid moving device and environmental conditions resulting from changes to the operational settings. In addition, an environmental condition detected at a location proximate to or within the plenum following supply of fluid into the plenum by the fluid moving device is received and errors between the received environmental condition and a reference environmental condition are identified. Operational settings for the fluid moving device to achieve the reference environmental condition are determined based upon the identified correlations and errors.

Claims

1. A method for manipulating environmental conditions in an infrastructure containing a fluid moving device having a first actuator for varying a volume flow rate of fluid supplied into a plenum and a second actuator for varying a supply temperature of the fluid supplied into the plenum, said method comprising:

in a computing device, identifying correlations between operational settings of the fluid moving device and environmental condition values resulting from changes to the operational settings;

receiving an environmental condition measurement detected at a location proximate to or within the plenum following supply of the fluid into the plenum by the fluid moving device;

identifying errors between the received environmental condition measurement and a reference environmental condition value;

determining operational settings for the fluid moving device to achieve the reference environmental condition value based upon the identified correlations and errors, wherein the operational settings for the fluid moving device include a volume flow rate set point and a supply temperature set point of the fluid supplied by the fluid moving device; and

controlling one or both of the first actuator and the second actuator to vary one or both of the volume flow rate to attain the determined volume flow rate set point and the supply temperature to attain the determined supply temperature set point.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein identifying the correlations further comprises modeling the correlations.

3. The method according to claim 2, wherein modeling the correlations further comprises implementing a computational fluid dynamics tool to model the correlations.

4. The method according to claim 2, wherein modeling the correlations further comprises modeling the correlations through one of an offline operation using historical information and an online operation using at least one of detected environmental condition information, a computational fluids dynamics tool, and recursive techniques.

5. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining a model of infrastructure performance;

receiving a cost associated with operating the infrastructure; and

determining the reference environmental condition value using the model of infrastructure performance based on the cost associated with operating the infrastructure.

6. The method according to claim 1, further comprising:

determining whether the identified correlations between the operational settings of the fluid moving device and the environmental condition values resulting from changes to the operational settings require modification; and

modifying the identified correlations in response to a determination that the identified correlations require modification.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining the operational settings for the fluid moving device to achieve the reference environmental condition value further comprises determining an operational setting for the fluid moving device that substantially minimizes cooling resource use in the infrastructure while meeting predefined environmental condition value thresholds.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the infrastructure further contains an adaptive vent tile and wherein identifying correlations between the operational settings of the fluid moving device and the environmental condition values resulting from changes to the operational settings comprises identifying correlations between the operational settings of the fluid moving device, operational settings of the adaptive vent tile, and environmental condition values resulting from changes to the operational settings of the fluid moving device and the operational settings of the adaptive vent tile;

wherein receiving the environmental condition measurement detected at the location proximate to or within the plenum further comprises receiving an environmental condition measurement detected at a location proximate to or within the heat dissipating device; and

wherein identifying errors between the received environmental condition measurement detected at the location proximate to or within the plenum and the reference environmental condition value comprises identifying errors between the received environmental condition measurement detected at the location proximate to or within the heat dissipating device, the received environmental condition measurement detected at the location proximate to or within the plenum, the reference environmental condition value at the heat dissipating device and the reference environmental condition measurement detected at the location proximate to or within the plenum, and wherein determining operational settings for the fluid moving device to achieve the reference environmental condition value comprises determining at least one of the operational settings for the fluid moving device, and the operational settings for the adaptive vent tile based upon the identified correlations and errors.

9. The method according to claim 8, wherein determining at least one of the operational settings for the fluid moving device and the operational settings for the adaptive vent tile further comprises determining at least one of the operational settings for the fluid moving device and the operational settings of the adaptive vent tile that substantially minimizes cooling resource use in the infrastructure while meeting predefined environmental condition value thresholds.

10. A controller for manipulating environmental conditions in an infrastructure containing a fluid moving device having a first actuator to vary a volume flow rate of fluid supplied into a plenum and a second actuator to vary a supply temperature of the fluid supplied into the plenum, said controller comprising:

a module to access a model that identifies correlations between operational settings of the fluid moving device and environmental condition values resulting from changes to the operational setting, to receive an environmental condition measurement detected at a location proximate to or within the plenum following supply of the fluid into the plenum by the fluid moving device, to identify errors between the received environmental condition measurement and a reference environmental condition value, to determine operational settings for the fluid moving device to achieve the reference environmental condition value based upon the identified correlations and errors, wherein the operational settings for the fluid moving device include a volume flow rate set point and a supply temperature set point of the fluid supplied by the fluid moving device, and to control one or both of the first actuator and the second actuator to vary one or both of the volume flow rate to attain the determined volume flow rate set point and the supply temperature to attain the determined supply temperature set point; and

a processor to implement the module.

11. The controller according to claim 10, wherein the module is further to generate the model.

12. The controller according to claim 11 wherein the module is further to generate the model at least one of online using recursive techniques and offline using historical information.

13. The controller according to claim 11, wherein the module is further to generate the model using detected environmental condition information.

14. The controller according to claim 11, wherein the module is further to generate the model through implementation of a computational fluid dynamics tool.

15. The controller according to claim 10, wherein the infrastructure contains an adaptive vent tile and wherein the module is further to access a model that identifies correlations between operational settings of the fluid moving device, an operational setting of the adaptive vent tile and environmental condition values resulting from changes to the operational settings and the operational settings of the adaptive vent tile, to receive a plurality of environmental condition measurements detected at locations proximate to or within a heat dissipating device, to identify errors between the received environmental condition measurement detected at the location proximate to or within the heat dissipating device, the received environmental condition measurement detected at the location proximate to or within the plenum, the reference environmental condition value at the heat dissipating device and the reference environmental condition measurement detected at the location proximate to or within the plenum, and to determine at least one of the operational settings of the fluid moving device, and the operational settings for the adaptive vent tile based upon the identified correlations and errors.

16. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium on which is embedded a computer program, said computer program implementing a method for manipulating environmental conditions in an infrastructure containing a fluid moving device having a first actuator to vary a volume flow rate of fluid supplied into a plenum and a second actuator to vary a supply temperature of the fluid supplied into the plenum, said computer program comprising computer readable code that when executed by a processor cause the processor to:

identify correlations between operational settings of the fluid moving device and environmental condition values resulting from changes to the operational settings;

receive an environmental condition measurement detected at a location proximate to or within the plenum following supply of fluid into the plenum by the fluid moving device;

identify errors between the received environmental condition measurement at the location proximate to or within the plenum and a reference environmental condition value;

determine operational settings for the fluid moving device to achieve the reference environmental condition value based upon the identified correlations and errors, wherein the operational settings for the fluid moving device include a volume flow rate set point and a supply temperature set point of the fluid supplied by the fluid moving device; and

control one or both of the first actuator and the second actuator to vary one or both of the volume flow rate to attain the determined volume flow rate set point and the supply temperature to attain the determined supply temperature set point.

17. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 16, wherein the infrastructure further contains an adaptive vent tile and wherein to identify correlations between the operational settings of the fluid moving device and environmental condition values resulting from changes to the operational settings, the computer readable code is further to cause the processor to identify correlations between the operational settings of the fluid moving device, an operational setting of the adaptive vent tile, the reference environmental condition value at the plenum, and a reference environmental condition value at a heat dissipating device, said computer program further comprising computer readable code to cause the processor to:

receive an environmental condition detected at a location proximate to or within the heat dissipating device;

identify errors between the received environmental condition measurement detected at the location proximate to or within the heat dissipating device, the received environmental condition measurement detected at the location proximate to or within the plenum, the reference environmental condition value at the heat dissipating device and the reference environmental condition value at the location proximate to or within the plenum; and

determine at least one of the operational settings of the fluid moving device, and the operational setting for the adaptive vent tile based upon the identified correlations and errors.