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US 10,945,351 B2Granted
Modular data center cooling
AssigneeZonit Structured Solutions, LLC
InventorsSteve Chapel, William Pachoud
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A modular arrangement is provided for housing electronic equipment and associated cooling structure in a data center environment. The modular units provide cooling air on an as-needed basis to individual pieces of equipment by way of individual plenums and associated valves. The units can be interconnected by vertical stacking, in side-to-side arrangements, and back-to-back arrangements. A number of units can be interconnected to form a cell. The cells can be interconnected to form larger units. In this manner, data centers can be configured in any desired arrangement without requiring complicated cooling design.
Claims11
A data center system, comprising:
- an equipment support unit for mounting electronic equipment, said equipment support unit including a number of compartments for receiving a corresponding number of electronic equipment devices, at least one of said electronic equipment devices being a server, each of said compartments defining an internal space dimensioned to receive one of said electronic equipment devices therein and having an open end adjacent said internal space;
- a modular air-based cooling assembly for delivering cool air from an air conditioning unit to said equipment support unit, said cooling assembly formed from interconnecting air conduits;
- one or more air compressors for driving said cool air through said cooling assembly;
- and
- a cooling unit matched to said equipment support unit for interfacing said equipment support unit with said cooling assembly, wherein said cooling unit comprises a number of regulator bodies, each said regulator body having an opening matched to one or more of said open ends of said compartments of said equipment support unit for supplying said cool air to said electronic equipment, and a pressurized air duct extending in series, relative to a direction of flow of said cool air through said pressurized air duct, through said number of regulator bodies, wherein an interior space of each of said regulator bodies is in selective fluid communication with said pressurized air duct via a valve disposed between said pressurized air duct and said opening of said regulator body for selectively allowing flow of said cool air from said pressurized air duct to an associated piece of electronic equipment, wherein said valve is moveable, independent of a pressure of air in said pressurized air duct, between an open position, wherein a portion of said cool air is diverted from said pressurized air duct to said associated piece of electronic equipment, and a closed position wherein said cool air flows through said pressurized air duct to successive one of said regulator bodies free from diversion to said associated piece of electronic equipment.
2 more elements
A method for use in configuring a data center, comprising:
- providing a number of base modules where each of said base modules includes an equipment support unit for mounting a number of pieces of electronic equipment and a cooling unit for supplying cool air to said electronic equipment, wherein said cooling unit comprises a number of regulator bodies and a pressurized air duct extending in series, relative to a direction of flow of said cold air through said pressurized air duct, through said number of regulator bodies, wherein an interior space of each said regulator bodies is in selective fluid communication with said pressurized air duct via a valve disposed between said pressurized air duct and an opening of said regulator body for selectively allowing flow of said cold air from said pressurized air duct to an associated piece of electronic equipment, wherein said valve is moveable, independent of a pressure of air in said pressurized air duct, between an open position, wherein a portion of said cool air is diverted from said pressurized air duct to said associated piece of electronic equipment, and a closed position wherein said cool air flows through said pressurized air duct free from diversion to said associated piece of electronic equipment;
- and
- interconnecting said base modules to form a data center of a desired configuration by vertically stacking first and second base modules of said number of base modules such that said pressurized air ducts of said first and second base modules are interconnected.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.