Airflow distribution and management architecture for large data center
AssigneeSchneider Electric It Corporation
InventorsRong Long, Kenneth Schaller
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A data center includes a structure having a floor, walls and a roof, and a plurality of rows of equipment racks positioned within the structure. The rows of equipment racks are arranged parallel to one another, with the rows of equipment racks defining alternating hot aisles and cold aisles. Each hot aisle is contained within the structure and in fluid communication with a hot aisle return. Each cold aisle includes a plurality of ceiling panels to contain air in the cold aisle. Each ceiling panel is configured to extend between equipment racks of adjacent rows of equipment racks to define the cold aisle and/or configured to extend between equipment racks of a row of equipment racks and an aisle end wall to define the cold aisle.
Claims20
A data center comprising:
- a structure including a floor, walls and a roof;
- and
- a plurality of rows of equipment racks positioned within the structure, the rows of equipment racks being arranged parallel to one another, the rows of equipment racks defining alternating hot aisles and cold aisles,
- wherein each hot aisle is contained within the structure and in fluid communication with a hot aisle return, and
- wherein each cold aisle includes a plurality of ceiling panels to contain air in the cold aisle, each ceiling panel being configured to extend between equipment racks of adjacent rows of equipment racks to define the cold aisle and/or configured to extend between equipment racks of a row of equipment racks and an aisle end wall to define the cold aisle.
A data center comprising:
- a data center module including a frame structure having floor, walls and a roof, the data center module being configured to house a plurality of rows of equipment racks positioned within the frame structure, the rows of equipment racks being arranged parallel to one another, the rows of equipment racks defining alternating hot aisles and cold aisles, the data center module further including a common roof plenum disposed between the roof and the rows of equipment racks to contain and exhaust hot air from the data center module and a common cold aisle plenum receive and deliver cold air to the data center module;
- an external duct that functions to receive exhausted hot air from the common roof plenum and to deliver cool air to the common cold aisle plenum;
- and
- at least one cooling unit in fluid communication with the external duct, the at least one cooling unit being configured to treat hot air delivered to the at least one cooling unit from the common roof plenum via the external duct.
A method of managing airflow within a data center including a plurality of rows of equipment racks positioned within the structure, the rows of equipment racks being arranged parallel to one another, the rows of equipment racks defining alternating hot aisles and cold aisles, the method comprising:
- delivering hot air to a common roof plenum disposed between a roof of the data center and rows of equipment racks, the common roof plenum being configured to contain and exhaust hot air from the data center module;
- delivering hot air from the common roof plenum to an external duct that functions to receive exhausted hot air from the common roof plenum;
- treating hot from the external duct by one or more cooling unit in fluid communication with the external duct;
- and
- delivering treated air to the external duct to a common cold in fluid communication with the cold aisles.
-19. (canceled)
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.