Methodology for electronic equipment to self-identify submersion in mineral oil

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9622376-B2
Application number	US-201514703839-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 4, 2015
Priority date	May 4, 2015
Publication date	Apr 11, 2017
Grant date	Apr 11, 2017

Abstract

An information handling system (IHS) automatically responds to a change in cooling medium that cools functional components. A cooling medium sensor senses a material characteristic of the cooling medium. A thermal management controller determines whether the material characteristic received from the cooling medium sensor is in one of a first range that is associated with the air cooling medium and a second range that is associated with the liquid cooling medium. In response to determining that the material characteristic is within the second range, the thermal management controller disables a thermal mitigation component that reduces a temperature of the functional components of the IHS.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An information handling system (IHS) that automatically responds to a change in cooling medium, the IHS comprising:
a chassis that has an interior space;
functional components that are disposed within the interior space of the chassis and that require cooling;
a cooling medium sensor that is positioned to sense a material characteristic of a cooling medium that is present in the interior space and that is one of an air cooling medium and a liquid cooling medium;
a thermal mitigation component that is utilized to reduce a temperature of one or more of the functional components when the functional components are operating in an air cooling medium; and
a thermal management controller in communication with the thermal mitigation component and the cooling medium sensor and which:
determines whether the material characteristic received from the cooling medium sensor is in one of a first range that is associated with the air cooling medium and a second range that is associated with the liquid cooling medium; and
in response to determining that the material characteristic is within the second range, disables the thermal mitigation component.

2. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the thermal mitigation component comprises a power throttle to reduce heat generation by one or more of the functional components.

3. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the thermal mitigation component comprises an air mover that is positioned to move air within at least a portion of the interior space.

4. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the cooling medium sensor comprises a parallel plate capacitor and an electrical stimulus driver to inject an electrical stimulus across the parallel plate capacitor to measure a capacitance, which correlates to the cooling medium to which the parallel plate capacitor is exposed.

5. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the thermal management controller enables the thermal mitigation component in response to determining that the material characteristic is within the first range.

6. The IHS of claim 1 , wherein the thermal management controller comprises a memory and a processor that is in communication with the memory and which:
determines whether the IHS is in a calibration mode; and
in response to determining the calibration mode, stores, in the memory, a material characteristic that is currently sensed by the cooling medium sensor as one of the first range and the second range.

7. The IHS of claim 6 , wherein the IHS determines the calibration mode by determining a first time power up condition.

8. The IHS of claim 1 , further comprising a power supply unit (PSU) that comprises:
electrical conversion components that supplies electrical power to the functional components; and
a housing that contains the thermal management controller and the cooling medium sensor.

9. The IHS of claim 8 , wherein:
the PSU further comprises a PSU fan to cool the electrical conversion components;
the IHS further comprises a system controller to control the thermal mitigation component; and
the thermal management controller, in response to determining that the material characteristic is within the second range, disables the PSU fan and to communicate with the system controller to disable the thermal mitigation component.

10. A power supply unit (PSU) of an information handling system (IHS) that automatically responds to a change in cooling medium, the PSU comprising:
a housing that has an interior space;
electrical conversion components that are disposed within the housing and that supply electrical power to functional components of the IHS;
a thermal mitigation component to reduce a temperature of one of the functional components of the IHS and the electrical conversion components of the PSU that are operating in an air cooling medium;
a cooling medium sensor that is positioned to sense a material characteristic of a cooling medium that is present in the interior space and that is one of the air cooling medium and a liquid cooling medium; and
a thermal management controller in communication with the thermal mitigation component and the cooling medium sensor to:
determine whether the material characteristic received from the cooling medium sensor is in one of a first range that is associated with the air cooling medium and a second range that is associated with the liquid cooling medium; and
in response to determining that the material characteristic is within the second range, disable the thermal mitigation component.

11. The PSU of claim 10 , wherein the thermal mitigation component comprises a PSU fan to cool the electrical conversion components.

12. The PSU of claim 10 , wherein:
the IHS comprises a system controller and the thermal mitigation component is to cool the functional components in the air cooling medium; and
the thermal management controller communicates with the system controller to disable the thermal mitigation component.

13. A method of automatically responding to a change in cooling medium in an information handling system (IHS), the method comprising:
sensing, via a cooling medium sensor, a material characteristic of a cooling medium that is present in an interior space of a chassis of an IHS;
a thermal management controller determining whether a material characteristic that is received from the cooling medium sensor is in one of a first range that is associated with an air cooling medium and a second range that is associated with a liquid cooling medium; and
the thermal management controller, in response to determining that the material characteristic is within the second range, disabling a thermal mitigation component utilized to reduce a temperature of functional components that are operating in the air cooling medium.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the thermal mitigation component comprises a power throttle to reduce heat generation by the functional components.

15. The method of claim 13 , wherein the thermal mitigation component comprises an air mover that is positioned to move air within at least a portion of the interior space.

16. The method of claim 13 , wherein sensing the material characteristic comprises injecting an electrical stimulus across a parallel plate capacitor to measure a capacitance, which correlates to the cooling medium to which the parallel plate capacitor is exposed.

17. The method of claim 13 , further comprising enabling the thermal mitigation component in response to determining that the material characteristic is within the first range.

18. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
determining whether the IHS is in a calibration mode;
in response to detecting the calibration mode, storing, in a memory, a material characteristic that is currently sensed by the cooling medium sensor as one of the first range and the second range, which is separated from the first range by a threshold; and
in response to detecting a subsequent power up condition, determining whether the material characteristic received from the cooling medium sensor is in one of the first range that is associated with the air cooling medium and the second range that is associated with the liquid cooling medium.

19. The method of claim 13 , further comprising supplying electrical power to the functional components by electrical conversion components of a power supply unit (PSU) that houses the thermal management controller and the cooling medium sensor.

20. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
cooling the electrical conversion components with a PSU fan;
the therm

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Mathew Abey K
• Cook Wayne K

Classifications

• H05K7/1492

  having electrical distribution arrangements, e.g. power supply or data communications · CPC title

• H05K7/20781

  within cabinets for removing heat from server blades · CPC title

• H05K7/20236 Primary

  by immersion · CPC title

• H05K7/20836

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

• H05K7/20718

  Forced ventilation of a gaseous coolant (in closed loop H05K7/20754) · CPC title