Data Center Warm-Air Plenum Cooling for Energy Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data centers face high operational costs due to the need for extensive cooling systems to manage heat generated by electronic equipment, which often rely on energy-intensive devices like chillers and fans, leading to inefficiencies and increased expenses.
Innovation Solution
A data center cooling system that utilizes a warm air plenum beneath the floor to capture heated air, cool it, and re-circulate it back into the workspace, combined with strategically placed fan-coil units and cooling coils, to maintain consistent temperatures and reduce the size of the cooling plant, allowing for more efficient heat removal and redundancy in the cooling system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Use of energy by stationary object
If traditional cooling systems with chillers and fans are used, then cooling capability is provided, but energy consumption increases and operational costs rise
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses the heat generated by computer equipment itself to pre-heat the cooling water through heat exchangers, making the waste heat serve a useful purpose in reducing the energy needed for cooling. This self-service approach converts harmful waste heat into a beneficial resource that reduces overall energy consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent converts the harmful waste heat generated by computers into a beneficial resource by using it to pre-heat cooling water in heat exchangers. This transforms the adverse thermal effect into a useful function that reduces the energy required for active cooling, thereby lowering operational costs while maintaining cooling capability.
2Temperature
If extensive cooling equipment is installed, then heat removal capability is improved, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges the cooling function with waste heat recovery by integrating heat exchangers into the existing cooling infrastructure. This combination allows the same system to both remove heat from equipment and utilize that heat for pre-heating cooling water, reducing overall system complexity while improving heat removal capability.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling system is designed to perform multiple functions: it removes heat from computer equipment, transfers that heat to pre-heat cooling water, and maintains operational temperatures. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate systems, thereby decreasing device complexity while improving heat removal capability.
3Power
If high power computers are used, then computing speed is improved, but heat generation increases requiring more cooling
Solution Approach 1:
The system converts the harmful waste heat generated by high-power computers into a beneficial resource by using heat exchangers to pre-heat cooling water. This transformation allows the heat that would otherwise be purely detrimental to become a useful energy source, enabling higher computing power without proportionally increasing cooling requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of discarding the waste heat from high-power computers through traditional cooling systems, the patent recovers this thermal energy via heat exchangers to pre-heat cooling water. This recovery process reduces the overall heat that needs to be removed, allowing high-power computing while minimizing the adverse effects of heat generation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enables more efficient cooling, reduces energy consumption, maintains consistent air temperatures, and allows for higher average inlet temperatures, minimizing hotspots and thermal short circuits, while maintaining system reliability and reducing the need for energy-intensive cooling equipment.
Implementation Method 1
cooling coils configured to remove heat from air that passes over the coils
Implementation Method 2
one or more fans in the below-floor space to draw air from the workspace through the floor opening and into the below-floor space
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 1C~1D
Figure 1E~2A
AI summary
A data center cooling system includes a floor structure defining a below-floor warm-air plenum and an above-floor cool air plenum, a plurality of above-floor computer assemblies arranged to exhaust warmed air into the warm-air plenum, and one or more fan-coil arrangements to draw air from the warm-air plenum, cool the air, and provide the air to the cool air plenum. The volume of the above-floor cool air plenum and the below-floor warm air plenum may both be substantial so as to minimize changes in temperature from the failure of components in the system.