Container based data center solutions

• US 9,670,689 B2
• Filed: 04/06/2010
• Issued: 06/06/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Schneider Electric IT Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Original Assignee: Schneider Electric IT Corporation (Schneider Electric SE)
• Inventors: Dechene, Joseph, McMahan, Lianne M., Ziegler, William
• Primary Examiner(s): Aviles Bosques, Orlando E
• Application Number:
  US12/754,938
• Publication Number:
  US 20110240265A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,618 Days
• Field of Search: 622592, 16510433, 361688-727, 454184
• CPC Class Codes: E04H 2005/005 Buildings for data processing centers
• CPC Class Codes: E04H 5/02 Buildings or groups of buildings for industrial purposes, e.g. for power-plants or factories buildings forming part of cooling plants E04H5/10
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/1497 Rooms for data centers; Shipping containers therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H05K 7/20745 within rooms for removing heat from cabinets, e.g. by air conditioning device

Abstract

A cooling container comprises a container housing with a chilled water storage tank including a first interface for receiving chilled water. The chilled water tank has a plurality of straight pipes joined by elbows connections to provide a folded path, the full path length being greater than the length of the container housing, and a second interface for outputting the chilled water. A number of interfaces within the container housing are configured to receive a chiller module or a free cool unit.

Claims

1. A cooling container comprising:

a shipping container housing having a length, a width, and a height, the length greater than the width and the length greater than the height, and at least one lengthwise sidewall opening;

a chilled water storage tank including a first interface for receiving chilled water, a plurality of straight pipes joined by elbow connections to provide a folded path, a full path length of the chilled water storage tank being greater than the length of the shipping container housing, and a second interface for outputting the chilled water; and

a central spine arranged lengthwise within the shipping container housing, the central spine including a plurality of interfaces configured to provide refrigeration fluid and electrical connections and to receive at least one of a chiller module and a free cool unit.

2. A cooling container of claim 1 wherein the container is capable of N+1 redundancy operation for data center reliability and availability.

3. A cooling container of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of free cool units.

4. A cooling container of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of chiller modules.

5. A cooling container of claim 1 further comprising integrated hydronics.

6. A cooling container of claim 1 wherein the shipping container housing may be configured to receive variable number of chiller modules and free cool units, the variable number corresponding to particular capacity and efficiency requirements of a data center system.

7. A cooling container of claim 1 further comprising a plurality of chiller modules and a plurality of free cool units, wherein the plurality of chiller modules and the plurality of free cool units are hot swappable.

8. A cooling container of claim 1 wherein the free cool unit comprises a water-to-air heat exchange coil.

9. A cooling container of claim 1 wherein the plurality of interfaces are disposed at predetermined intervals along a length of the central spine.

10. A cooling container of claim 1 wherein the shipping container housing includes a first end and a second end, disposed opposite the first end, and wherein the cooling container housing is coupled to a data center system at the first end and is configured to provide air movement into and out of the data center system.

11. A cooling container of claim 1 further comprising the cooling container having dimensions matching an ISO shipping container footprint.

12. A cooling container of claim 1 wherein the cooling container comprises a top mounted cooling container disposed on top of a data center equipment container.

13. A cooling container of claim 1 wherein the plurality of interfaces are configured to allow for the at least one of a chiller module and a free cool unit to be disconnected without disrupting a refrigeration fluid supply or an electrical supply to a data center load.

14. A cooling container of claim 1 wherein the central spine is positioned over the chilled water storage tank.

15. A cooling container of claim 1 further comprising an integrated pump.

16. A cooling container of claim 15 further comprising a plurality of integrated pumps, wherein the plurality of integrated pumps provide for N+1 or 2N redundancy.

17. A cooling container of claim 15 further comprising a plurality of integrated pumps forming a plumbing circuit, wherein at least one of the plurality of integrated pumps can be isolated from the plumbing circuit.

18. A cooling container of claim 7 further comprising a master control configured to individually control operation of each chiller module of the plurality of chiller modules.

19. A cooling container of claim 18 wherein the plurality of interfaces includes at least one of chilled water headers and electrical connections disposed along the length of the central spine.

20. A cooling container of claim 19 wherein the chilled water headers and the electrical connections are disposed at predetermined intervals and configured to connect the plurality of chiller modules and the plurality of free cool units.