Coolant and ambient temperature control for chillerless liquid cooled data centers

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10238009-B2
Application number	US-201615004303-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 22, 2016
Priority date	Apr 4, 2012
Publication date	Mar 19, 2019
Grant date	Mar 19, 2019

Abstract

Cooling control methods include measuring a temperature of at least one component of each of multiple nodes and finding a maximum component temperature across all such nodes, comparing the maximum component temperature to a first and second component threshold and comparing the air temperature to a first and second air threshold, and controlling a proportion of coolant flow and a coolant flow rate to the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and the nodes based on the comparisons.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A cooling control method, comprising:
measuring a temperature of at least one component of each of a plurality of nodes and finding a maximum component temperature across all such nodes;
comparing the maximum component temperature to a first and second component threshold; and
controlling a proportion of coolant flow and a coolant flow rate to an air-to-liquid heat exchanger and the plurality of nodes based on said comparison.

2. The cooling control method of claim 1 , further comprising repeating said measuring, comparing, and controlling at periodic intervals.

3. The cooling method of claim 2 , wherein said periodic intervals are based on historical rates of temperature change.

4. The cooling method of claim 1 , wherein controlling a proportion of coolant flow to the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and the plurality of nodes comprises controlling a three-way valve that divides an input coolant flow between the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and the plurality of nodes.

5. The cooling method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of nodes are connected in series with the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and wherein controlling a proportion of coolant flow to the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and the plurality of nodes comprises controlling a two-way bypass valve that allows coolant to flow directly to the liquid cooling system.

6. The cooling method of claim 1 , wherein controlling a coolant flow rate to the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and the plurality of nodes comprises controlling a pump speed that determines a rate of input coolant flow.

7. The cooling method of claim 1 , wherein controlling a coolant flow rate to the air-to-liquid heat exchanger comprises controlling a two-way valve configured to limit a coolant flow to the air-to-liquid heat exchanger.

8. The cooling method of claim 1 , wherein controlling a coolant flow rate to the exchanger comprises controlling a two-way valve configured to limit a coolant flow to the plurality of nodes.

9. A cooling control method, comprising:
measuring a temperature of at least one component of each of a plurality of nodes and finding a maximum component temperature across all such nodes;
comparing the maximum component temperature to a first and second component threshold; and
controlling a proportion of coolant flow and a coolant flow rate to an air-to-liquid heat exchanger and the plurality of nodes based on said comparisons by adjusting one or more valves that control relative flow rate between the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and the plurality of nodes.

10. The cooling method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more valves include a three-way valve that divides an input coolant flow between the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and the plurality of nodes.

11. The cooling method of claim 9 , wherein the plurality of nodes are connected in series with the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and wherein the one or more valves include a two-way bypass valve that allows coolant to flow directly to the liquid cooling system.

12. The cooling method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more valves include a two-way valve configured to limit a coolant flow to the air-to-liquid heat exchanger.

13. The cooling method of claim 9 , wherein the one or more valves include a two-way valve configured to limit a coolant flow to the plurality of nodes.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Chainer Timothy J
• David Milnes P
• Iyengar Madhusudan K
• Parida Pritish R
• Simons Robert E

Classifications

• F24F2110/10

  Temperature · CPC title

• G05D23/1932

  to control the temperature of a plurality of spaces · CPC title

• G06F1/206

  comprising thermal management · CPC title

• F24F11/83

  by controlling the supply of heat-exchange fluids to heat-exchangers · CPC title

• F24F11/72

  for controlling the supply of treated air, e.g. its pressure · CPC title