Atmospheric cooling of servers in a data center

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9668375-B2
Application number	US-201414210171-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2014
Priority date	Mar 15, 2013
Publication date	May 30, 2017
Grant date	May 30, 2017

Abstract

A building for a data center (or server farm) includes a stack structure that interfaces with an environment and one or more housings coupled to a floor and the stack structure. Each of the housings includes one or more racks with a plurality of servers and each of the servers includes a computer fan capable of varying speed or reversing direction. The building also includes one or more filters between the one or more housings and the environment and one or more walls operable to be between the one or more filters and the environment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus, comprising:
a stack structure that interfaces with an environment;
one or more housings coupled to a floor and the stack structure, wherein each of the housings includes one or more racks with a plurality of servers and wherein each of the servers includes a computer fan capable of varying speed or reversing direction;
one or more filters between the one or more housings and the environment;
one or more walls operable to be between the one or more filters and the environment, wherein at least one of the walls is a roll-up wall; and
a controller that rolls down or rolls up the roll-up wall depending at least in part on a temperature measurement of the air proximate to the servers, wherein the temperature measurement determines whether a rate of change in temperature has occurred that exceeds an allowable rate of change in temperature determined by the manufacturer of the servers.

2. An apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the apparatus does not include a mixing chamber.

3. An apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein each filter is an air filter.

4. An apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein each filter is a mesh filter.

5. An apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the allowable rate of change in temperature is approximately a drop of nine degrees Fahrenheit within approximately one hour.

6. An apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the chimney structure includes a damper.

7. An apparatus as in claim 6 , further comprising a controller that opens or closes the damper depending at least in part on a temperature measurement of the air proximate to the servers.

8. An apparatus as in claim 7 , wherein the temperature measurement determines whether a rate of change in temperature has occurred that exceeds an allowable rate of change in temperature determined by the manufacturer of the server.

9. An apparatus as in claim 8 , wherein the allowable rate of change in temperature is a drop of approximately nine degrees Fahrenheit within approximately one hour.

10. An apparatus as in claim 1 , further comprising a fan that pushes or pulls air into the stack structure.

11. An apparatus as in claim 10 , further comprising a controller that controls the fan depending at least in part on a temperature measurement of the air proximate to the servers.

12. An apparatus as in claim 11 , wherein the temperature measurement determines whether a rate of change in temperature has occurred that exceeds an allowable rate of change in temperature determined by the manufacturer of the server.

13. An apparatus as in claim 12 , wherein the allowable rate of change in temperature is a drop of approximately nine degrees Fahrenheit within approximately one hour.

14. An apparatus as in claim 1 , wherein the stack structure includes components or materials that warm air passing through the stack structure.

15. An apparatus, comprising:
an attic coupled to a floor, wherein the attic includes a stack structure that interfaces with an environment;
one or more housings coupled to the floor, wherein each of the housings includes one or more racks with a plurality of servers and wherein each of the servers includes a computer fan capable of varying speed or reversing direction;
one or more filters between the one or more housings and the environment;
one or more walls operable to be between the one or more filters and the environment, wherein at least one of the walls includes one or more louvers; and
a controller that opens or closes the one or more louvers depending at least in part on a temperature measurement of the air proximate to the servers, wherein the temperature measurement determines whether a rate of change in temperature has occurred that exceeds an allowable rate of change in temperature determined by the manufacturer of the servers.

16. An apparatus as in claim 15 , wherein the attic includes a bottom surface that is coupled to the one or more housings.

17. An apparatus as in claim 15 , wherein the apparatus does not include a mixing chamber.

18. An apparatus as in claim 15 , wherein each filter is an air filter.

19. An apparatus as in claim 15 , wherein each filter is a mesh filter.

20. A method, comprising:
ascertaining a geographic location where the rate of environmental temperature change per time interval is relatively small compared to other geographic locations; and
erecting a building at the ascertained geographic location, wherein the building comprises:
a stack structure that interfaces with an environment;
one or more housings coupled to a floor and the stack structure, wherein each of the housings includes one or more racks with a plurality of servers and wherein each of the servers includes a computer fan capable of varying speed or reversing direction;
one or more filters between the one or more housings and the environment;

one or more walls operable to be between the one or more filters and the environment, wherein at least one of the walls is a roll-up wall; and
a controller that rolls down or rolls up the roll-up wall depending at least in part on a temperature measurement of the air proximate to the servers, wherein the temperature measurement determines whether a rate of change in temperature has occurred that exceeds an allowable rate of change in temperature determined by the manufacturer of the servers.

Assignees

• Yahoo Inc

Inventors

• Totani Mozan
• Bianculli Barry

Classifications

• H05K7/20736

  within cabinets for removing heat from server blades · CPC title

• H05K7/20709 Primary

  for server racks or cabinets; for data centers, e.g. 19-inch computer racks · CPC title

• H05K7/20836

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

• H05K7/20136 Primary

  Forced ventilation, e.g. by fans (H05K7/202 takes precedence) · CPC title

• E04H2005/005

  Buildings for data processing centers · CPC title