Soluble Gasket Cooling Seal for Leak-Triggered Coolant Drainage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing liquid cooling systems in datacenters face challenges in managing coolant leaks within sealed airflow domains, leading to coolant pooling, which affects air cooling effectiveness and are difficult to scale due to complex drainage designs.
Innovation Solution
Implementing liquid soluble seals/gaskets made of sacrificial materials that dissolve upon contact with coolant, creating a drain path for automatic coolant drainage without the need for electromechanical devices, allowing flexible drain path design.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If unsealed drain outlet is used to allow drainage, then coolant pooling is prevented, but air cooling effectiveness is negatively impacted
Solution Approach 1:
The seal is pre-installed in the drain outlet position before operation. During normal operation, the seal maintains the sealed state to preserve air cooling effectiveness. When a coolant leak occurs, the seal automatically dissolves to enable drainage, thus the preliminary placement of the soluble seal resolves the contradiction between maintaining seal integrity and enabling emergency drainage.
Solution Approach 2:
The sealing function is extracted from a permanent seal and implemented through a temporary soluble seal that can be removed (dissolved) when needed. This allows the system to have both sealed operation during normal conditions and open drainage during leak conditions, resolving the contradiction between these two opposing requirements.
2Reliability
If separate drainage paths for each domain are implemented, then coolant drainage is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
A single common drain outlet is designed to serve multiple airflow domains. The soluble seal is placed at this common drain outlet, and when it dissolves, it enables drainage for all domains simultaneously. This universal drain design eliminates the need for separate drainage paths for each domain, thus reducing system complexity while maintaining effective drainage capability.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple drainage functions are merged into a single common drain outlet. Instead of having separate drainage paths for each airflow domain, the patent combines them into one shared drainage path with a single soluble seal, simplifying the overall drainage system while ensuring all domains can drain when needed.
3Stability of the object's composition
If liquid soluble seals are used to maintain sealed domains, then airflow domain integrity is maintained during normal operation, but drainage capability is lost until leak occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The seal material's solubility parameter is utilized to change its state from solid (sealed) to dissolved (open). During normal operation, the seal maintains its solid state to preserve domain integrity. When coolant leaks occur, the seal dissolves due to contact with the coolant, changing its physical state and enabling drainage. This parameter-based state change resolves the contradiction between maintaining seal integrity and enabling drainage capability.
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
Enables effective and scalable coolant drainage by dissolving upon leak detection, maintaining airflow domain integrity during normal operation and ensuring controlled coolant evacuation.
Implementation Method 1
the separating member includes a first section that is insoluble to a cooling liquid and one or more second sections, wherein each of the one or more second sections is soluble to the cooling liquid
Data Source
Figure 1A~1B
Figure 1C~1D
Figure 2A~2B
AI summary
An apparatus that first and second volumes are fluidly separated by a combination of a first section and second sections, where the first section is insoluble to a cooling liquid and the second section is soluble to the cooling liquid. In the event of a leak of coolant liquid, the second sections dissolve, forming a fluid path from the first volume to the second volume. The coolant liquid may then escape the first volume in spaces that result from the dissolution of the second sections.