Parallel refrigerant cooling in datacenter cooling systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2023127470-A1
Application number	US-202117510057-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Oct 25, 2021
Priority date	Oct 25, 2021
Publication date	Apr 27, 2023
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems and methods for cooling a datacenter are disclosed. In at least one embodiment, multiple parallel refrigerant paths are associated with one or more flow controllers to cool multiple computing devices associated therewith, so that one or more flow controllers can distribute equal measures of a liquid phase of refrigerant, relative to a vapor phase of a refrigerant, to such parallel refrigerant paths based in part on a cooling requirement from at least one of such multiple computing devices.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A datacenter cooling system, comprising:
a plurality of parallel refrigerant paths associated with one or more flow controllers to cool a plurality of computing devices, the one or more flow controllers to distribute equal measures associated with a liquid phase of the refrigerant, relative to a vapor phase of the refrigerant, to the plurality of parallel refrigerant paths based in part on a cooling requirement from at least one of the plurality of computing devices.

2 . The datacenter cooling system of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one processor to determine the cooling requirement and to cause the one or more flow controllers to distribute the equal measures associated with the liquid phase of the refrigerant, relative to the vapor phase of the refrigerant, to the plurality of parallel refrigerant paths.

3 . The datacenter cooling system of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one processor to determine the cooling requirement using an average temperature associated with multiple ones of the plurality of computing devices and to cause the one or more flow controllers to distribute the equal measures associated with the liquid phase of the refrigerant, relative to the vapor phase of the refrigerant, to the plurality of parallel refrigerant paths.

4 . The datacenter cooling system of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one processor to determine the cooling requirement using a temperature associated the at least one of the plurality of computing devices and to cause the one or more flow controllers to distribute the equal measures associated with the liquid phase of the refrigerant, relative to the vapor phase of the refrigerant, to the plurality of parallel refrigerant paths.

5 . The datacenter cooling system of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one processor to receive sensor inputs from a Coriolis mass flow meter, a green laser transmitter and receiver, or a high speed camera to capture the refrigerant flow through a sight glass of at least one of the parallel refrigerant paths, the at least one processor to determine an equal percentage, an equal ratio, an equal quality, or equal void fraction for the equal measures of the liquid phase of the refrigerant to be distributed to the parallel refrigerant paths to address the cooling requirement.

6 . The datacenter cooling system of claim 5 , further comprising:
one or more neural networks to receive the sensor inputs and to infer the cooling requirement.

7 . The datacenter cooling system of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one processor to determine that a temperature associated with the cooling requirement requires a measure of the liquid phase of the refrigerant, and the at least one processor to cause the one or more flow controllers to allow the equal measures of the liquid phase of the refrigerant to flow through expansion valves associated with the parallel refrigerant paths based in part on the measure.

8 . The datacenter cooling system of claim 1 , wherein the equal measures associated with the liquid phase, relative to the vapor phase, are an equal percentage, ratio, quality, or void fraction.

9 . The datacenter cooling system of claim 1 , further comprising:
at least one optical sensor located before at least one of the parallel refrigerant paths to determine boundaries between the liquid phase and the vapor phase of the refrigerant, the boundaries used to determine a measure associated with the liquid phase of the refrigerant, relative to the vapor phase of the refrigerant, the measure to be used as the equal measures of the liquid phase in the parallel refrigerant paths.

10 . The datacenter cooling system of claim 1 , further comprising:
an accumulator to store the liquid phase refrigerant so that the equal measures associated with the liquid phase of the refrigerant, relative to the vapor phase of the refrigerant, is maintained by a steady output enabled from the accumulator.

11 . A processor comprising one or more circuits and associated with one or more flow controllers to cool a plurality of computing devices through a plurality of parallel refrigerant paths, the one or more circuits to determine a cooling requirement from at least one of the plurality of computing devices, and the processor to cause the one or more flow controllers to distribute equal measures associated with a liquid phase of the refrigerant, relative to a vapor phase of the refrigerant, to the plurality of parallel refrigerant paths based in part on the cooling requirement from at least one of the plurality of computing devices.

12 . The processor of claim 11 , further comprising:
an output to provide signals for the one or more flow controllers to enable the equal measures of the liquid phase of the refrigerant to pass through expansion valves of the parallel refrigerant paths.

13 . The processor of claim 11 , further comprising:
an input to receive the sensor inputs from a Coriolis mass flow meter, a green laser transmitter and receiver, or a high speed camera to capture the refrigerant flow through a sight glass of at least one of the parallel refrigerant paths, the processor to determine an equal percentage, an equal ratio, an equal quality, or equal void fraction for the equal measures of the liquid phase of the refrigerant to be distributed to the parallel refrigerant paths to address the cooling requirement.

14 . The processor of claim 13 , further comprising:
one or more neural networks to receive the sensor inputs and to infer the equal measures as an equal percentage, ratio, quality, or void fraction associated with the liquid phase, relative to the vapor phase of the refrigerant, to be distributed to the parallel refrigerant paths.

15 . The processor of claim 11 , further comprising:
at least one logic unit to determine a temperature associated with the cooling requirement and to determine a measure of the liquid phase of the refrigerant to address the temperature, the processor to cause the one or more flow controllers to allow the equal measures of the liquid phase of the refrigerant to flow through expansion valves associated with the parallel refrigerant paths based in part on the measure.

16 . A method for datacenter cooling system, comprising:
providing a plurality of parallel refrigerant paths associated with one or more flow controllers to cool a plurality of computing devices; determining a cooling requirement for at least one computing device associated with the parallel refrigerant paths; and enabling the one or more flow controllers to distribute equal measures associated with a liquid phase of the refrigerant, relative to a vapor phase of the refrigerant, to the plurality of parallel refrigerant paths based in part on the cooling requirement from at least one of the plurality of computing devices.

17 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
determining, using at least one processor, the cooling requirement associated with the at least one computing device; and causing the one or more flow controllers to distribute the equal measures associated with the liquid phase of the refrigerant, relative to the vapor phase of the refrigerant, to the plurality of parallel refrigerant paths.

18 . The method of claim 16 , further comprising:
determining, using at least one processor, the cooling requirement using an average temperature associated with multiple ones of the plurality of computing devices; and causing the one or more flow controllers to distribute the equal measures associated with the

Assignees

• Nvidia Corp

Inventors

• Heydari Ali

Classifications

• F25B2600/2511

  Evaporator distribution valves · CPC title

• F25B25/005

  using primary and secondary systems · CPC title

• F25B41/42

  Arrangements for diverging or converging flows, e.g. branch lines or junctions · CPC title

• F25B49/02

  for compression type machines, plants or systems · CPC title

• F25B5/02

  arranged in parallel · CPC title