Automated, adaptive ventilation for a data center

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9995500-B2
Application number	US-201514846901-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 7, 2015
Priority date	Apr 29, 2015
Publication date	Jun 12, 2018
Grant date	Jun 12, 2018

Abstract

An adaptive ventilation system and method for a data center are provided. The adaptive ventilation system includes: one or more system-controlled vents facilitating dynamic redirection of airflow passing through the vent(s), and including (for instance) a plurality of adjustable louvers; and a plurality of sensors dispersed within the data center for ascertaining one or more feedback parameters within different zones of the data center. The system also includes a controller configured or programmed to automatically manage adjustment of the system-controlled vent(s) based on the ascertained feedback parameter(s) within the data center. The automatically managing includes, for instance, automatically controlling orientation of multiple louvers of the system-controlled vent(s) to dynamically facilitate a desired airflow discharge adjustment to at least one system-controlled vent based, at least in part, on the sensed feedback parameter(s) within the different zones.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method comprising:
providing adaptive ventilation for a data center having a plurality of electronics racks arranged with at least one cold-air aisle and at least one hot-air aisle defined, at least in part, by the plurality of electronics racks, the providing comprising:
providing multiple system-controlled vents within the data center, the multiple system-controlled vents being adjustable to facilitate dynamic redirection of airflow passing therethrough;
providing a plurality of sensors dispersed within the data center for ascertaining at least one feedback parameter within different zones of multiple zones of the data center, one sensor of the plurality of sensors being associated with one electronics rack of the plurality of electronics racks;
providing a controller automatically managing adjustment of identified vents of the multiple system-controlled vents based on the ascertained at least one feedback parameter determined, in part, from the one sensor associated with the one electronics rack of the plurality of electronics racks within the data center, the automatically managing comprising automatically providing respective desired airflow discharge adjustments to the identified vents of the multiple system-controlled vents based, at least in part, on the ascertained at least one feedback parameter; and
wherein the identified vents comprise a cool air supply vent within a cold-air aisle of the at least one cold-air aisle of the data center and an adjustable exhaust vent coupled to the one electronics rack at an air-outlet side of the one electronics rack within the data center, the cool air supply vent within the cold-air aisle providing, at least in part, cold air to the one electronics rack, and the adjustable exhaust vent exhausting hot air from the one electronics rack into a hot-air aisle of the at least one hot-air aisle of the data center, and wherein the controller automatically manages adjustment of the identified vents of the multiple system-controlled vents to dynamically optimize airflow patterns within the data center in both the cold-air aisle at the air-inlet side of the one electronics rack and the hot-air aisle at the air-outlet side of the one electronics rack to enhance data center airflow cooling efficiency, the dynamically optimizing including adjusting orientation of the exhausting hot air from the one electronics rack based on the exhausting hot air having an airflow rate above a set threshold.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controller automatically manages adjustment of the identified vents based on changes in the ascertained at least one feedback parameter over time within at least one zone of the data center.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controller automatically, periodically polls the plurality of sensors for current values of the at least one feedback parameter within the different zones of the data center, and based thereon determines whether to automatically provide the respective desired airflow adjustments to the identified vents.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least one feedback parameter comprises at least one of temperature within the data center, speed of one or more air-moving devices within the plurality of electronics racks, or measured or projected workload data for the plurality of electronics racks.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controller determines the respective desired airflow discharge adjustments to at least one of optimize a distribution of cool air supply within at least one cold-air-aisle of the data center, or optimize a hot air exhaust pattern within at least one hot-air-aisle of the data center.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the controller identifies at least one zone within the data center within which to provide the respective desired airflow discharge adjustments, the at least one zone comprising a feedback parameter value outside a desired range, and the controller automatically determining for the at least one zone the at least one desired airflow discharge adjustments to the identified vents.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein the controller automatically determines that a temperature value of the at least one zone of the data center is outside a desired temperature range.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the cool air supply vent of the identified vents is adjusted to change a supply of cool air to at least one electronics rack of the one electronics rack and another electronics rack of the plurality of electronics racks.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the one electronics rack and the another electronics rack currently have different cooling requirements based, at least in part, on the ascertained at least one feedback parameter, and wherein the controller automatically adjusts the cool air supply vent to distribute more cool air to the one electronics rack than to the another electronics rack.

10. The method of claim 8 , wherein the cool air supply vent comprises multiple, separately adjustable regions of louvers, and wherein the automatically managing by the controller comprises differently orienting louvers in a first region and a second region of the multiple, separately adjustable regions of louvers of the cool air supply vent based, at least in part, on the sensed at least one parameter, the differently orienting allowing more cool air to discharge through the first region than the second region.

Assignees

• IBM

Inventors

• Dow Eli M
• Harvey Joseph D
• Rohde Douglas E

Classifications

• H05K7/20736

  within cabinets for removing heat from server blades · CPC title

• F24F11/006 Primary

  Mechanical Engineering · mapped topic

• H05K7/20836

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

• H05K7/20745

  within rooms for removing heat from cabinets, e.g. by air conditioning device · CPC title

• F24F2140/00

  Control inputs relating to system states · CPC title