Continuous refrigerant monitoring for pumped two-phase cooling system

A pumping apparatus for a cooling system, comprising:

• a refrigerant reservoir capable of storing a fluid refrigerant;
• at least one charge level sensor disposed within the refrigerant reservoir, the at least one charge level sensor configured to collect charge level data indicative of a current charge level of the fluid refrigerant within the refrigerant reservoir;
• a fluid network fluidly coupled to the refrigerant reservoir and to one or more downstream information technology (IT) devices, each downstream IT device physically connected to at least one power distribution unit (PDU) and capable of drawing operating power from the PDU;
• one or more pumps configured to circulate the fluid refrigerant through each downstream IT device via the fluid network;
• and
• a controller operatively coupled to the one or more pumps and to the charge level sensor, the controller including a) a memory configured for storage of encoded instructions and b) at least one processor configurable by the encoded instructions to:
• receive the charge level data from the at least one charge level sensor;
• receive sensed power data corresponding to the operating power drawn by each downstream IT device;
• determine, based on the sensed power data cumulatively associated with the one or more downstream IT devices, an expected charge level corresponding to an expected level of the fluid refrigerant within the refrigerant reservoir;
• and
• compare the current charge level to the expected charge level;
• and
• when a difference between the current charge level and the expected charge level exceeds a threshold, initiate a shutdown of the cooling system.