US 5,410,448 AGranted

Adaptive cooling system

AssigneeDigital Equipment Corporation

InventorsCharles R. Barker, III, Richard E. Olson

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Abstract

A parallel air flow system which automatically maintains proper coolant flow regardless of the number of circuit boards installed in an enclosure. The enclosure is constructed such that air flow path through any one slot does not affect the air flow through any other slot. Proper air flow through the entire system is maintained by an air flow sensor disposed in an air flow path having a known air flow resistance. This sensor controls the speed of an air-mover in order to maintain a constant predetermined air flow through the known resistance, in such a way that a constant static air pressure is maintained at each slot. Baffle modules are preferably inserted into the enclosure to prevent air flow into any empty slots, to reduce the total air volume necessary to achieve the predetermined static pressure, thereby reducing the audible noise generated by the air-mover.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An apparatus for packaging and cooling electronic components, the components mounted on a plurality of circuit boards, the apparatus comprising:

A. an enclosure, including a plurality of parallel enclosure slots, each of said enclosure slots including:
(i) a top wall,
(ii) a bottom wall
(iii) longitudinal seals extending along the bottom wall, and
(iv) an end seal extending along the bottom wall between the longitudinal seals and in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal seals;
the enclosure including at least one slot in which air flow resistance is known;
B. circuit board modules for accepting circuit boards, each of the circuit board modules being shaped to fit into an enclosure slot and including
(i) a first opening,
(ii) a second opening, and
(iii) flanges which mate with the longitudinal and end seals of the enclosure slot, the circuit board module and slot forming an isolated air flow path in which air flows through the first opening around a circuit board included therein and out the second opening;
C. an airflow sensor, positioned to determine static air pressure in the enclosure slot having a known airflow resistance, the airflow sensor producing an air pressure signal indicative of the static air pressure in said enclosure slot;
and
D. an air-mover for moving air through the enclosure, the air-mover receiving the air pressure signal from the airflow sensor and controlling the speed with which air is moved through the enclosure so as to maintain a predetermined static air pressure in the enclosure slot with known airflow resistance, the air-mover thereby maintaining predetermined airflows through the other enclosure slots which contain circuit board modules.

10 more elements

An enclosure for connecting circuit boards into a back plane of a computer system, the enclosure having a plurality of parallel slots, each of which is aligned with a connector for receiving a circuit board, the enclosure including an air-mover that moves ambient air across the circuit boards in parallel, the enclosure further comprising:

circuit board modules, shaped to fit into the enclosure slots, each circuit board module accepting a circuit board and, when fit into an enclosure slot, aligning the circuit board with one of the connectors, the circuit board modules having first and second openings, respectively, on two opposing sides such that when the circuit boards and circuit board modules are positioned within the enclosure slots the air-mover causes ambient air to flow, at each circuit board module through the first of said openings, across the circuit board, and through the second of said openings, the circuit board modules isolating the air flow paths across the circuit boards;
baffle modules, shaped to fit into the enclosure slots, each of the baffle modules including at least one side disposed to block ambient air flow from the air-mover through the slot into which the baffle module is inserted;
an airflow sensor, for determining static air pressure at a position within the enclosure which has a predetermined air flow resistance;
and
an air-mover controller for controlling the speed of the air-mover and thus the volume of ambient air presented to the circuit boards, the controller controlling the speed of the air-mover based on the static air pressure determined by the air sensor so as to maintain a predetermined static air pressure at said position within the enclosure and thereby maintain predetermined air flows at the first openings of the circuit board modules.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.