Thermal analysis of electronics racks

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10161812-B2
Application number	US-201615149090-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 7, 2016
Priority date	May 7, 2015
Publication date	Dec 25, 2018
Grant date	Dec 25, 2018

Abstract

A technique for performing thermal analysis of an electronics rack is disclosed. In one embodiment, the electronics rack having multiple heat generating components is modeled. Further, thermal boundary conditions for each of the heat generating components are computed, by a computation fluid dynamics tool (CFD) tool, based on an initial temperature and a heat flux corresponding to each of the heat generating components in a first cycle, upon modeling the electronics rack. Furthermore, an actual temperature of each of the heat generating components is determined, by a one dimensional (1D) tool, using the computed thermal boundary conditions for estimating heat dissipated by each of the heat generating components in the first cycle.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
modeling an electronics rack having multiple heat generating components, comprising:
creating a bounding box around the electronics rack with interfaces representing the heat generating components; and
creating at least one layer of a fluid volume mesh around the created bounding box by a mesh generation tool;

computing thermal boundary conditions for each of the heat generating components, by a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool, based on an initial temperature and a heat flux corresponding to each of fhe heat venerating components in a first cycle, upon modeling the electronics rack;
determining actual temperature of each of the heat generating components, by a one dimensional (1D) tool, using the computed thermal boundary conditions in the first cycle; and
controlling heat dissipated by each of the heat generating components based on the actual temperature of each of the heat generating components.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein computing the thermal boundary conditions for each of the heat generating components, by the CFD tool, based on the initial temperature and the heat flux corresponding to each of the heat generating components in the first cycle, comprises:
providing the initial temperature of a heat generating component as a temperature boundary condition to a corresponding interface in the bounding box, by the CFD tool;
providing a net heat flux corresponding to the heat generating components as a net heat flux boundary condition to the at least one layer of the fluid volume mesh, by the CFD tool; and
computing the thermal boundary conditions for the heat generating component, by the CFD tool, based on the temperature boundary condition and the net heat flux boundary condition in the first cycle.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the thermal boundary conditions comprise a heat transfer co-efficient and a reference temperature.

4. The method of claim 3 , whereinthe actual temperature of each of the heat generating components is determined, by the 1D tool, using a below equation:
Q=A*H* ( T equip −T ref )

wherein,
Q is a heat transfer rate from a surface of a heat generating component,
H is a heat transfer co-efficient,
A is an area of the heat generating component,
T ref is a reference temperature of the heat generating component, and
T equip is the actual temperature of the heat generating component.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
repeating the steps of computing the thermal boundary conditions for each of the heat generating components using the actual temperature determined in the first cycle and determining an actual temperature of each of the heat generating components using the computed thermal boundary conditions for a predefined number of cycles.

6. A system, comprising:
a processor; and
a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory comprises:
a mesh generation tool to:
model an electronics rack having multiple heat generating components by:
creating a bounding box around the electronics rack with interfaces representing the beat generating components; and
creating at least one layer of a fluid volume mesh around the created bounding box;

a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool to:
compute thermal boundary conditions for each of the heat generating components, upon modeling the electronics rack, based on an initial temperature and a heat flux corresponding to each of the heat generating components in a first cycle; and

a one dimensional (1D) tool to:
determine an actual temperature of each of the heat generating components using the computed thermal boundary conditions in the first cycle, wherein the actual temperature of each of the heat generating components is used to control heat dissipated by each of the heat generating components.

7. The system of claim 6 , wherein the CFD tool is configured to:
provide the initial temperature of a heat generating component as a temperature boundary condition to a corresponding interface in the bounding box;
provide a net heat flux corresponding to the heat generating components as a net heat flux boundary condition to the at least one layer of the fluid volume mesh; and
compute the thermal boundary conditions for the heat generating component based on the temperature boundary condition and the net heat flux boundary condition in the first cycle.

8. The system of claim 6 , wherein the thermal boundary conditions comprise a heat transfer co-efficient and a reference temperature.

9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the 1D tool determines the actual temperature of each of the heat generating components using a below equation:
Q=A*H* ( T equip −T ref )

wherein,
Q a heat transfer rate from a surface of a heat generating component,
H is a heat transfer co-efficient,
A is an area of the heat generating component,
T ref is a reference temperature of the heat generating component, and
T equip is the actual temperature of the heat generating component.

10. The system of claim 6 , wherein the CFD tool is further configured to:
compute the thermal boundary conditions for each of the heat generating components using the actual temperature, determined in the first cycle, in a next cycle.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the 1D tool is further configured to:
determine an actual temperature of each of the heat generating components using the computed thermal boundary conditions in the next cycle.

12. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium including instructions executable by a processor to:
model an electronics rack having multiple heat generating components by:
creating a hounding box around the electronics rack with interfaces representing the heat generating components; and
creating at least one layer of a fluid volume mesh around the created bounding box, by a mesh generation tool;

compute thermal boundary conditions for each of the heat generating components, by a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tool, based on an initial temperature and a heat flux corresponding to each of the heat generating components in a first cycle, upon modeling the electronics rack;
determine an actual temperature of each of the heat generating components, by a one dimensional (1D) tool, using the computed thermal boundary conditions in the first cycle; and
controlling heat dissipated by each of the heat generating components based on the actual temperature of each of the heat generating components.

13. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein computing the thermal boundary conditions for each of the heat generating components, by the CFD tool, based on the initial temperature and the heat flux corresponding to each of the heat generating components in the first cycle, comprises:
providing the initial temperature of a heat generating component as a temperature boundary condition to a corresponding interface in the bounding box, by the CFD tool;
providing a net heat flux corresponding to the heat generating components as a net heat flux boundary condition to the at least one layer of the fluid volume mesh, by the CFD tool; and
computing the. thermal boundary conditions for the heat get erating component, by the CFD tool, based on the temperature boundary condition and the net beat flux boundary condition in the first cycle.

14. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 12 , wherein the thermal boundary conditions comprise a heat transfer co-efficient and a reference temperature.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium

Assignees

• Airbus Group India Private Ltd
• Airbus Operations Gmbh

Inventors

• Tiwari Punit
• Chugh Krishan
• Giese Tim

Classifications

• G06F30/23 Primary

  using finite element methods [FEM] or finite difference methods [FDM] · CPC title

• G06F2119/08

  Thermal analysis or thermal optimisation · CPC title

• G01K13/00 Primary

  Thermometers specially adapted for specific purposes · CPC title

• G01N25/18

  by investigating thermal conductivity (by calorimetry G01N25/20; by measuring change of resistance of an electrically-heated body G01N27/18) · CPC title

• G06F17/5018

  Physics · mapped topic