Controlled cooling of an electronic system for reduced energy consumption

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9410751-B2
Application number	US-201313775529-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 25, 2013
Priority date	Jun 20, 2012
Publication date	Aug 9, 2016
Grant date	Aug 9, 2016

Abstract

Energy efficient control of a cooling system cooling an electronic system is provided. The control includes automatically determining at least one adjusted control setting for at least one adjustable cooling component of a cooling system cooling the electronic system. The automatically determining is based, at least in part, on power being consumed by the cooling system and temperature of a heat sink to which heat extracted by the cooling system is rejected. The automatically determining operates to reduce power consumption of the cooling system and/or the electronic system while ensuring that at least one targeted temperature associated with the cooling system or the electronic system is within a desired range. The automatically determining may be based, at least in part, on one or more experimentally obtained models relating the targeted temperature and power consumption of the one or more adjustable cooling components of the cooling system.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method of controlling cooling of an electronic system comprising:
providing a cooling system comprising a controller controlling operation of the cooling system, the cooling system cooling the electronic system, the controller:
automatically determining, for a current operating condition of the cooling system and the electronic system, an adjusted control setting for an adjustable power-consuming cooling component of multiple different adjustable power-consuming cooling components of the cooling system cooling the electronic system and affecting a system target temperature of at least one of the cooling system or the electronic system, at least two adjustable power-consuming cooling components of the multiple different adjustable power-consuming cooling components having different cooling efficiencies, the cooling efficiency of each adjustable power-consuming cooling component comprising a respective predetermined model relating, at least in part, for the current operating condition of the cooling system and the electronic system, a given adjustment in power to that adjustable power-consuming cooling component to a change in the system target temperature of at least one of the cooling system or the electronic system while power to other adjustable power-consuming cooling components of the multiple different power-consuming cooling components remains unchanged, the automatically determining being based, at least in part, on a comparison of the cooling efficiency of the adjustable power-consuming cooling component at the current operating condition, for the given adjustment in power to the component, to the cooling efficiency of at least one other adjustable power-consuming cooling component of the multiple different adjustable power-consuming cooling components at the current operating condition for the given adjustment in power to that at least one other component, and based on a determination of power currently being consumed by the cooling system and a measurement of current ambient temperature of an air or water heat sink to which heat extracted by the cooling system is designed to be rejected; and

applying the automatically determined adjusted control setting to the adjustable power-consuming cooling component, wherein the comparison facilitates reducing power consumption of at least one of the cooling system or the electronic system while ensuring that the system target temperature associated with at least one of the cooling system or the electronic system is within a desired range.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the automatically determining comprises automatically determining respective partial derivatives (δT/δP) with respect to power consumed by each of the multiple different adjustable power-consuming cooling components of the cooling system and using the respective partial derivatives in selecting a particular cooling component of the multiple adjustable, power-consuming cooling components to adjust at a current time to ensure that the system target temperature is within the desired range while, at least in part, minimizing power consumption of the cooling system.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the system target temperature comprises a temperature of coolant within the cooling system cooling the electronic system.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the system target temperature comprises at least one of a temperature associated with an electronic component of the electronic system or an air temperature across the electronic system.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the heat sink comprises outdoor ambient air, and the adjustable power-consuming cooling component comprises an adjustable coolant pump or adjustable fan, and wherein the method further comprises applying the automatically determined adjusted control setting to the adjustable power-consuming cooling component of the cooling system to incrementally reduce power consumption of the cooling system while ensuring that the system target temperature is within the desired range.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the system target temperature comprises a temperature of coolant within the cooling system cooling the electronic system, and wherein the desired range is between a specified upper temperature for the system target temperature and a dew point temperature of the coolant within the cooling system, and wherein the automatically determining incrementally reduces power consumption of at least one of the cooling system or the electronic system while ensuring that the system target temperature is within the desired range.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising, based on the system target temperature being below the dew point temperature, automatically adjusting the adjustable power-consuming cooling component of the cooling system to increase the system target temperature while optimizing energy efficiency of the cooling system.

8. The method of claim 6 , further comprising, based on the system temperature temperature being between the specified upper temperature and a critical temperature for the system target temperature, automatically adjusting the adjustable power-consuming cooling component of the cooling system to decrease the system target temperature while optimizing energy efficiency of the cooling system.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• David Milnes P
• Iyengar Madhusudan K
• Schmidt Roger R

Classifications

• G05B2219/2614

  HVAC, heating, ventillation, climate control · CPC title

• F28F27/00 Primary

  Control arrangements or safety devices specially adapted for heat-exchange or heat-transfer apparatus (control arrangements in general G05) · CPC title

• G05B15/02

  electric · CPC title

• H05K7/20836 Primary

  Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control · CPC title