Over-Floor Air Supply Corridors for Modular Data Centre Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Data centres face challenges in efficiently cooling electronic equipment due to rapid growth in IT capacity, leading to bottlenecks and inefficiencies in cooling systems, with traditional methods requiring significant time and resources to expand and often resulting in suboptimal use of space and energy.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a data centre design featuring controllable air circulation systems, over-floor air supply corridors acting as cooling ducts, and modular construction, which allows for efficient air flow management and reduced need for under-floor ducts, enabling high air flow rates while optimizing space usage and allowing for flexible expansion.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If traditional under-floor air ducts are used for cooling, then cooling air can be supplied to racks, but the system requires significant space, complex construction, and long expansion time
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the traditional under-floor air supply approach by implementing over-head air supply corridors. Instead of routing cooling air through raised floors and under-floor ducts, the system delivers cooled air through overhead corridors that distribute air to rear rack intakes, eliminating the need for complex under-floor infrastructure and enabling rapid deployment
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from two-dimensional under-floor air distribution to three-dimensional overhead corridor systems. By utilizing vertical space and creating overhead air supply pathways, the system achieves efficient air distribution without requiring floor raises or under-floor ductwork, significantly reducing construction time and complexity
2Adaptability or versatility
If data centre capacity is expanded rapidly to meet growing IT demands, then more cooling capacity is required, but traditional cooling systems become bottlenecks and require extensive renovations
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the cooling system into modular overhead corridors that can be independently configured and expanded. Each corridor serves specific rack rows and can be added or modified without affecting other sections, allowing incremental capacity expansion to match growing IT demands without requiring complete system redesign
Solution Approach 2:
The overhead corridor system provides dynamic adaptability through adjustable air distribution mechanisms and flexible routing options. The system can be reconfigured to accommodate changing rack layouts and cooling demands, enabling the data centre to adapt rapidly to evolving IT infrastructure requirements
3Temperature
If more air conditioning units are added to cool expanding IT racks, then cooling capacity increases, but energy consumption and system inefficiency increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the air supply function from the traditional under-floor CRAC unit configuration and relocates it to dedicated overhead corridors. This separation allows for more efficient air delivery directly to rack rear intakes, reducing air leakage and mixing with hot exhaust air, thereby improving cooling effectiveness and reducing the energy required to maintain target temperatures
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 enhances cooling efficiency, reduces energy consumption, and enables rapid expansion of data centre capacity without the need for extensive renovations, improving power usage effectiveness (PUE) and operational continuity.
Implementation Method 1
an air supply corridor for transporting cooling air, above the floor, to the one or more cold aisles
Implementation Method 2
The IT products installed in the racks contain integral fans which draw the cooled air from the front across the circuitry and heat is exhausted via vents in the products to the rear
Data Source
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AI summary
A data centre (100) includes at least one rack room (in for example module 140)having a floor and a plurality of rack storage areas on the floor, each rack storage area being arranged to accommodate a plurality of racks (143) in which a plurality of rack-mountable electronic components may be housed, one or more controllable air circulation systems (in for example module 122), one or more cold aisles (144) in the rack room, each cold aisle being adjacent to a rack storage area, and one or more hot aisles (145) in the rack room, each hot aisle being adjacent to a rack storage area. There may be a large air duct, in the form of a personnel corridor (123), for transporting, under the control of the one or more air circulation systems, cooling air, above the floor, to the one or more cold aisles. The air supply corridor/duct (123) may have a height greater than 1.5m above the floor and a cross-sectional area of at least 2m2 and a maximum dimension in the plane of the cross-section of less than 3m.