Negative pressure cooling distribution system
By using a negative pressure cooling distribution system, a vacuum pump is used to reduce fluid pressure and atmospheric pressure is used to recover leaked fluid, thus solving the problem of liquid leakage in positive pressure systems and achieving system safety and stability.
Patent Information
- Authority / Receiving Office
- CN · China
- Patent Type
- Utility models(China)
- Current Assignee / Owner
- META GREEN COOLING TECH CO LTD
- Filing Date
- 2025-08-20
- Publication Date
- 2026-07-31
AI Technical Summary
Existing positive pressure cooling distribution units are prone to liquid leakage when pipe joints or components are not pressure-resistant enough, which can damage electronic equipment and pose a high safety risk.
A negative pressure cooling distribution system is adopted, which uses a vacuum pump to extract the gas in the liquid tank, reduce the fluid pressure to less than 0.98 bar, ensures that the fluid circulates under negative pressure, and uses external atmospheric pressure to pump the leaked fluid back to the liquid tank to avoid leakage.
It effectively prevents coolant leakage, ensures the safety of electronic equipment and the stability of the system, and avoids equipment damage.
Smart Images
Figure CN224581859U_ABST
Abstract
Description
Technical Field
[0001] This utility model relates to a coolant distribution system, and more particularly to a negative pressure coolant distribution system. Background Technology
[0002] With the continuous improvement of computing performance of electronic devices, the heat flux generated by processors (such as CPUs and GPUs) has increased significantly, and the requirements for heat dissipation efficiency in data centers, edge computing devices, and high-performance computing (HPC) systems are becoming increasingly stringent. Liquid cooling systems, due to their advantages such as high efficiency and low noise, are gradually replacing traditional air cooling systems and becoming the mainstream cooling technology for modern data centers.
[0003] The Cooling Distribution Unit (CDU) is a key component of a liquid cooling system. Its function is to transfer the cooling energy from the building's cooling water (primary side) to the coolant circulating inside the server (secondary side) via a plate heat exchanger, thereby achieving highly efficient heat removal. Simultaneously, the CDU also drives the liquid flow, distributing the coolant to heat sources for dissipation. Furthermore, the CDU has a controller to regulate the operation of the liquid cooling system, maintaining its stability and reliability. Utility Model Content
[0004] However, most existing CDUs are designed as positive pressure systems, meaning the pressure in the piping system is greater than the external atmospheric pressure. The biggest risk in operating such a positive pressure system is that if the pipe joints or components of the liquid cooling system are not pressure-resistant enough, age due to long-term operation, or are poorly manufactured or assembled, it will cause a large amount of liquid leakage. Liquid leakage can damage electronic equipment, which is a highly dangerous and must be avoided in data centers and similar facilities.
[0005] In view of the shortcomings of the existing technology, the inventor felt that it was not perfect, so he devoted his mind to research and overcoming it, and developed a negative pressure cooling distribution system. With the negative pressure operation mode, it can effectively prevent liquid leakage when the pipeline is damaged.
[0006] To achieve the above and other objectives, this utility model provides a negative pressure cooling distribution system, comprising: a cooling distribution unit having a main pump, a liquid inlet port, and a liquid outlet port; a liquid tank having a gas zone located above a liquid zone, the liquid zone being adapted to contain coolant; a negative pressure generating module connected to the gas zone of the liquid tank; and a piping assembly consisting of a first piping assembly connecting the liquid inlet port to the liquid zone of the liquid tank, a second piping assembly connecting the liquid zone of the liquid tank to an inlet port of the main pump, and a third piping assembly connecting an outlet port of the main pump to the liquid outlet port; wherein the negative pressure generating module is adapted to extract gas from the liquid tank during operation, thereby reducing the fluid pressure circulating in the liquid tank, the piping assembly, and a heat source end to less than 0.98 bar.
[0007] In the aforementioned negative pressure cooling distribution system, the negative pressure generating module may include at least one vacuum pump, which may be mounted on the liquid tank and connected to the gas zone by a suction pipe and to the outside by an exhaust pipe.
[0008] The aforementioned negative pressure cooling distribution system may further include a control module, which may include a controller, a liquid level sensor, and a fluid shut-off valve. The liquid level sensor is coupled to the controller and used to monitor the liquid level in the tank. The piping group may be connected to the liquid area of the tank and a drain port via a fourth piping group. The fluid shut-off valve may be located in the fourth piping group. The controller is electrically connected to the fluid shut-off valve. When the controller receives the measurement signal from the liquid level sensor and determines that the liquid level is too high, it may control the fluid shut-off valve to switch to the open state, so that excess coolant in the tank can be discharged through the drain port.
[0009] In the aforementioned negative pressure cooling distribution system, the controller can be electrically connected to the vacuum pump, and can control the vacuum pump to stop operating before detecting that the liquid level has dropped to a safe range.
[0010] In the aforementioned negative pressure cooling distribution system, the control module may include multiple pressure sensors, and the controller is coupled to the multiple pressure sensors. One pressure sensor is adapted to monitor the fluid pressure in the liquid tank, another pressure sensor is adapted to monitor the fluid pressure in the first pipe group, and yet another pressure sensor is adapted to monitor the fluid pressure in the third pipe group.
[0011] In the aforementioned negative pressure cooling distribution system, the controller can receive measurement signals from the multiple pressure sensors and analyze and determine whether the fluid pressure in each section is normal.
[0012] In the aforementioned negative pressure cooling distribution system, there can be multiple vacuum pumps. The controller can analyze the measurement signals from these multiple pressure sensors to dynamically adjust the number of vacuum pumps that need to operate simultaneously.
[0013] In the aforementioned negative pressure cooling distribution system, each vacuum pump's exhaust pipe can be equipped with a shut-off valve. The shut-off valve of the vacuum pump that needs to be started is in the open state, while the shut-off valve of the vacuum pump that is not in use is in the closed state.
[0014] In the aforementioned negative pressure cooling distribution system, the controller can be electrically connected to the main pump. The controller can analyze the measurement signals from the multiple pressure sensors and the liquid level sensor to dynamically control the operating intensity of the main pump.
[0015] In the aforementioned negative pressure cooling distribution system, the control module may include a flow meter adapted to monitor the flow rate of fluid flowing through the pipeline group.
[0016] Therefore, the negative pressure cooling distribution system of this utility model can circulate the fluid in the overall negative pressure cooling distribution system under negative pressure through the operation of the negative pressure generating module. So even if a fluid leakage point occurs, the external atmospheric pressure can be used to force all the fluid in the system back into the liquid tank without coolant leakage, thereby ensuring that coolant leakage at the heat source end will not cause damage to electronic equipment. Attached Figure Description
[0017] Figure 1 This is a three-dimensional structural diagram of an embodiment of the present utility model.
[0018] Figure 2 for Figure 1 The three-dimensional structural diagram of part of the casing is omitted.
[0019] Figure 3 This is a schematic diagram of the pipeline and control signal connection according to an embodiment of the present invention.
[0020] Figure Labels
[0021] 1 Cooling Distribution Unit
[0022] 11. Chassis
[0023] 12 Main Pump
[0024] 121 liquid inlet
[0025] 122 liquid outlet
[0026] 13 Liquid Inlet Port
[0027] 14 Liquid output port
[0028] 15 Drainage Pier
[0029] 2 Liquid Tanks
[0030] 21 Gas Zone
[0031] 22 Liquid Zone
[0032] 3 Negative pressure generating module
[0033] 31 Vacuum Pump
[0034] 32. Extraction pipe
[0035] 33 Exhaust pipe
[0036] 34 Shut-off valve
[0037] 4 Piping Assembly
[0038] 41 First Pipe Group
[0039] 42 Second Pipe Group
[0040] 43 Third Pipe Group
[0041] 44 Fourth Pipe Group
[0042] 5. Control Module
[0043] 51 controller
[0044] 52 Liquid Level Sensor
[0045] 53 Fluid shut-off valve
[0046] 54 Pressure Sensors
[0047] 55 Flow Meter
[0048] H heat source end Detailed Implementation
[0049] To fully understand the purpose, features, and effects of this utility model, the following specific embodiments, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, will provide a detailed description of this utility model:
[0050] Please refer to Figures 1 to 3 This is a preferred embodiment of the negative pressure cooling distribution system of this utility model. The negative pressure cooling distribution system includes a cooling distribution unit 1, a liquid tank 2, a negative pressure generating module 3, and a pipeline assembly 4.
[0051] The cooling distribution unit 1 in this embodiment is described below using an in-cabinet CDU as an example, but is not limited thereto. The cooling distribution unit 1 includes a housing 11, a main pump 12, a liquid inlet port 13, and a liquid outlet port 14. The main pump 12 is located inside the housing 11, and the liquid inlet port 13 and the liquid outlet port 14 are located on the circumferential side of the housing 11.
[0052] The coolant tank 2 is located inside the housing 11. Inside the tank 2, there is a gas zone 21 located above a liquid zone 22, where the liquid zone 22 is adapted to hold coolant. In other words, the coolant level in the tank 2 marks the boundary between the gas zone 21 and the liquid zone 22. Furthermore, when the negative pressure cooling distribution system is operating, the tank 2 will not be completely filled with coolant, but will retain a predetermined volume of gas zone 21. Figure 3 The two-point chain line is only used to indicate the liquid level of the coolant in the liquid tank 2, so as to mark the gas zone 21 and the liquid zone 22, but it does not limit the amount of coolant in the liquid tank 2 when the negative pressure cooling distribution system is operating.
[0053] The negative pressure generating module 3 is located inside the housing 11 and is connected to the gas zone 21 of the liquid tank 2; it is adapted to extract the gas in the gas zone 21 and discharge it to the outside by the negative pressure generating module 3, so as to reduce the fluid pressure in the liquid tank 2.
[0054] For example, but not limited to, the negative pressure generating module 3 of this embodiment may include at least one vacuum pump 31. The vacuum pump 31 may be mounted on the liquid tank 2 and connected to the gas zone 21 by a suction pipe 32 and connected to the outside of the housing 11 by an exhaust pipe 33 (please refer to the reference). Figure 1 The number of vacuum pumps 31 is mainly determined by the specifications of the vacuum pumps 31 themselves and the specifications of the heat source H (e.g., a data center with multiple servers) corresponding to the negative pressure cooling distribution system. Generally, it is preferable to have multiple vacuum pumps 31, and at least one vacuum pump 31 can be started during operation, while the unused vacuum pumps 31 can be used as backups.
[0055] In addition, each vacuum pump 31 may be equipped with a shut-off valve 34 on its corresponding exhaust pipe 33. The shut-off valve 34 may be a manual valve or an electrically controlled valve. The shut-off valve 34 of the vacuum pump 31 that needs to be started should be opened, while the shut-off valve 34 of the vacuum pump 31 that is not in use should be closed to prevent the external atmospheric pressure from exceeding the fluid pressure in the liquid tank 2, which would cause outside air to flow back into the gas zone 21 through the exhaust pipe 33.
[0056] The pipeline assembly 4 is connected by a first pipeline assembly 41 to the liquid input port 13 and the liquid area 22 of the liquid tank 2, by a second pipeline assembly 42 to the liquid area 22 of the liquid tank 2 and a liquid inlet 121 of the main pump 12, and by a third pipeline assembly 43 to the liquid outlet 122 of the main pump 12 and the liquid output port 14.
[0057] Accordingly, when the negative pressure cooling distribution system of this embodiment is in operation, the operation of the main pump 12 allows the coolant, which has absorbed heat and heated up at the heat source end H, to be input into the cooling distribution unit 1 through the liquid input port 13. The coolant then exchanges heat with the relatively low-temperature liquid on the primary side to cool down. The cooled coolant can then be input into the liquid zone 22 of the liquid tank 2, and then drawn out by the main pump 12 and reintroduced into the heat source end H through the third pipe assembly 43. On the other hand, the operation of the negative pressure generating module 3 can extract the gas from the liquid tank 2 and discharge it to the outside, thereby reducing the fluid pressure circulating in the liquid tank 2, the pipe assembly 4, and the heat source end H to less than 0.98 bar (typically around 0.7 bar), allowing the fluid in the overall negative pressure cooling distribution system to circulate under negative pressure.
[0058] Therefore, even if a fluid leak occurs during operation, the negative pressure cooling distribution system of this embodiment can use the help of external atmospheric pressure to force all the fluid in the system back into the liquid tank 2 without any coolant leakage, thereby ensuring that the heat source end H will not experience coolant leakage that could damage the electronic equipment.
[0059] Please refer to Figure 3 In addition to the above embodiments, in one embodiment of this utility model, the negative pressure cooling distribution system may further include a control module 5. The control module 5 may include a controller 51, a level sensor 52, and a fluid shut-off valve 53. The controller 51 is electrically connected to the main pump 12 and the vacuum pump 31 to electrically control the operation or shutdown of the main pump 12 and the vacuum pump 31. The level sensor 52 is coupled to the controller 51 and used to monitor the liquid level in the liquid tank 2. The piping assembly 4 is also connected by a fourth piping assembly 44 to the liquid area 22 of the liquid tank 2 and a drain port 15 of the cooling distribution unit 1. The fluid shut-off valve 53 is located in the fourth piping assembly 44 and is normally closed. The controller 51 is electrically connected to the fluid shut-off valve 53.
[0060] Thus, during the process of forcibly pumping all the fluid in the system back to the tank 2 due to a leak (or in any other situation), if the liquid level in the tank 2 becomes too high, the controller 51 will control the fluid shut-off valve 53 to switch to the open state when it receives the measurement signal from the liquid level sensor 52 and determines that the liquid level is too high. This allows excess coolant in the tank 2 to be discharged through the drain port 15. Before detecting that the liquid level has dropped to a safe range, the controller 51 can also control the vacuum pump 31 to stop operating to prevent the vacuum pump 31 from drawing in coolant and malfunctioning.
[0061] In some embodiments, the fluid shut-off valve 53 can also be manually opened and closed. The level sensor 52 may be equipped with an indicator light, for example, illuminating with a red light when the level is too high, a green light when the level is moderate, and a yellow light when the level is low. This allows the operator to visually monitor the level sensor 52 and manually control the switching of the fluid shut-off valve 53.
[0062] In addition to the above embodiments, in one embodiment of this utility model, the control module 5 may further include a plurality of pressure sensors 54, and the controller 51 is coupled to the plurality of pressure sensors 54. One pressure sensor 54 is adapted to monitor the fluid pressure in the liquid tank 2, another pressure sensor 54 is adapted to monitor the fluid pressure in the first pipe group 41, and yet another pressure sensor 54 is adapted to monitor the fluid pressure in the third pipe group 43. Thus, in this embodiment, the controller 51 can receive the measurement signals from the plurality of pressure sensors 54 and comprehensively analyze and determine whether the fluid pressure in each section is normal, which helps to quickly identify the section where a leak occurs. In addition, the controller 51 can also dynamically adjust the number of vacuum pumps 31 that need to operate simultaneously by analyzing the measurement signals from the plurality of pressure sensors, so that the fluid pressure in the system can maintain stable operation even if a leak occurs. Furthermore, the controller 51 can also comprehensively analyze the measurement signals of the multiple pressure sensors 54 and the liquid level sensor 52 to dynamically control the operating intensity of the main pump 12, ensuring that the operation of the main pump 12 will not cause excessive increase in fluid pressure and disrupt the negative pressure circulation state.
[0063] In addition to the above embodiments, in one embodiment of the present invention, the control module 5 may further include a flow meter 55, adapted to monitor the flow rate of fluid flowing in the pipeline group 4. For example, but not limited to, in this embodiment, the flow meter 55 may be installed in the third pipeline group 43, and during normal operation, the flow rate detected by the flow meter 55 may be maintained at approximately 10 to 40 L / min.
[0064] This utility model has been disclosed above with reference to preferred embodiments. However, those skilled in the art should understand that these embodiments are only used to describe this utility model and should not be construed as limiting the scope of this utility model. It should be noted that all variations and substitutions equivalent to these embodiments should be included within the scope of this utility model. Therefore, the protection scope of this utility model shall be determined by the claims.
Claims
1. A negative pressure cooling distribution system, characterized in that, Include: A cooling distribution unit has a main pump, a liquid inlet port and a liquid outlet port; A liquid tank having an internal gas zone located above a liquid zone, the liquid zone being suitable for containing coolant; A negative pressure generating module is connected to the gas zone of the liquid tank; and A pipeline assembly, consisting of a first pipeline assembly connecting the liquid inlet to the liquid area of the liquid tank, a second pipeline assembly connecting the liquid area of the liquid tank to a liquid inlet of the main pump, and a third pipeline assembly connecting a liquid outlet of the main pump to the liquid outlet. The negative pressure generating module is adapted to extract gas from the liquid tank during operation, so as to reduce the fluid pressure circulating in the liquid tank, the pipeline assembly and a heat source end to less than 0.98 bar.
2. The negative pressure cooling distribution system according to claim 1, characterized in that, The negative pressure generating module includes at least one vacuum pump mounted on the liquid tank and connected to the gas zone by a suction pipe and to the outside by an exhaust pipe.
3. The negative pressure cooling distribution system according to claim 2, characterized in that, It also includes a control module, which includes a controller, a liquid level sensor and a fluid shut-off valve. The liquid level sensor is coupled to the controller and is used to monitor the liquid level in the tank. The pipeline group connects the liquid area of the tank to a drain port via a fourth pipeline group. The fluid shut-off valve is located in the fourth pipeline group. The controller is electrically connected to the fluid shut-off valve. When the controller receives the measurement signal from the liquid level sensor and determines that the liquid level is too high, it controls the fluid shut-off valve to switch to the open state, so that the excess coolant in the tank can be discharged through the drain port.
4. The negative pressure cooling distribution system according to claim 3, characterized in that, The controller is electrically connected to the vacuum pump, and it controls the vacuum pump to stop operating before detecting that the liquid level has dropped to a safe range.
5. The negative pressure cooling distribution system according to claim 3, characterized in that, The control module includes multiple pressure sensors, and the controller is coupled to the multiple pressure sensors. One pressure sensor is adapted to monitor the fluid pressure in the tank, another pressure sensor is adapted to monitor the fluid pressure in the first tubing group, and yet another pressure sensor is adapted to monitor the fluid pressure in the third tubing group.
6. The negative pressure cooling distribution system according to claim 5, characterized in that, The controller receives measurement signals from the multiple pressure sensors and analyzes them to determine whether the fluid pressure in each section is normal.
7. The negative pressure cooling distribution system according to claim 5, characterized in that, The controller analyzes the measurement signals from the multiple pressure sensors to dynamically adjust the number of vacuum pumps that need to operate simultaneously.
8. The negative pressure cooling distribution system according to claim 7, characterized in that, Each vacuum pump has a shut-off valve on its exhaust pipe. The shut-off valve of the vacuum pump that needs to be started is in the open state, and the shut-off valve of the vacuum pump that is not in use is in the closed state.
9. The negative pressure cooling distribution system according to claim 5, characterized in that, The controller is electrically connected to the main pump. The controller analyzes the measurement signals from the multiple pressure sensors and the liquid level sensor to dynamically control the operating intensity of the main pump.
10. The negative pressure cooling distribution system according to claim 3, characterized in that, The control module includes a flow meter adapted to monitor the flow rate of fluid flowing within the pipeline assembly.