# US 9,521,787 B2 · Provisioning cooling elements for chillerless data centers > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 9,521,787 B2 - Document ID: US9521787B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 13/439,433 - Filed: 2012-04-04 - Published: 2013-10-10 - Granted: 2016-12-13 - Earliest claimed: 2012-04-04 - Assignees: International Business Machines Corporation - Applicants: Timothy J. Chainer; Pritish R. Parida - Inventors: Timothy J. Chainer; Pritish R. Parida - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9521787B2 ## CPC - H05K 7/20836: {Thermal management, e.g. server temperature control} - G06F 1/206: {comprising thermal management} - G06F 1/3287: by switching off individual functional units in the computer system - H05K 7/20263: {Heat dissipaters releasing heat from coolant} - H05K 7/20272: {Accessories for moving fluid, for expanding fluid, for connecting fluid conduits, for distributing fluid, for removing gas or for preventing leakage, e.g. pumps, tanks or manifolds} - H05K 7/20763: {Liquid cooling without phase change} - H05K 7/20772: {within server blades for removing heat from heat source} - H05K 7/2079: {within rooms for removing heat from cabinets} - G06F 2200/201: Cooling arrangements using cooling fluid - Y02D 10/00: Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management - H05K: PRINTED CIRCUITS; CASINGS OR CONSTRUCTIONAL DETAILS OF ELECTRIC APPARATUS; MANUFACTURE OF ASSEMBLAGES OF ELECTRICAL COMPONENTS - G06F: ELECTRIC DIGITAL DATA PROCESSING (computer systems based on specific computational models G06N) - Y02D: CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES [ICT], I.E. INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES AIMING AT THE REDUCTION OF THEIR OWN ENERGY USE ## Abstract Systems and methods for cooling include one or more computing structure, an inter-structure liquid cooling system that includes valves configured to selectively provide liquid coolant to the one or more computing structures; a heat rejection system that includes one or more heat rejection units configured to cool liquid coolant; and one or more liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers that include valves configured to selectively transfer heat from liquid coolant in the inter-structure liquid cooling system to liquid coolant in the heat rejection system. Each computing structure further includes one or more liquid-cooled servers; and an intra-structure liquid cooling system that has valves configured to selectively provide liquid coolant to the one or more liquid-cooled servers. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method for providing multi-level distributed cooling to a data center, comprising: providing a flow of liquid coolant to one or more racks in proportion to a number of operating servers in the data center; monitoring a liquid coolant temperature before the coolant has entered into one or more racks; monitoring ambient temperature information; adjusting cooling of the data center in accordance with the ambient temperature information, wherein cooling of the data center is adjusted by decreasing cooling of the liquid coolant if the coolant temperature falls below a first coolant threshold temperature by disengaging one or more liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers, or increasing cooling of the coolant if the coolant temperature exceeds a second coolant threshold temperature by engaging one or more liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers; and turning on additional servers if the coolant temperature is below the first coolant threshold and all liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers have been disengaged. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting cooling of the liquid coolant in accordance with the ambient temperature information includes increasing cooling if an ambient temperature goes above a threshold by engaging one or more liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers, and decreasing cooling by shutting off the flow of coolant through one or more liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers to increase the coolant temperature that returns to the racks if the ambient temperature goes below a second threshold. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting cooling of the liquid coolant in accordance with weather information includes engaging heat rejecters having an optimal operating range that includes an ambient temperature and disengaging heat rejecters having an optimal operating range that does not include the ambient temperature. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers convey heat from the one or more racks to one or more heat rejecters. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein increasing and decreasing cooling of the liquid coolant comprises engaging or disengaging heat rejecters that remove heat from the liquid coolant. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising: monitoring an intra-data center liquid coolant temperature before the liquid coolant has entered one or more servers within a data center; decreasing cooling to one or more of the servers if the intra-data center liquid coolant temperature falls below the first coolant threshold temperature by decreasing liquid coolant flow to the one or more servers; and increasing cooling to one or more of the servers if the intra-data center liquid coolant temperature exceeds the second coolant threshold temperature by increasing liquid coolant flow to the one or more servers. ### Claim 7 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, further comprising selectively cooling one or more liquid-cooled components in each server. ### Claim 8 (depends on 6) The method of claim 6, wherein monitoring an intra-data center liquid coolant temperature includes monitoring the intra-data center coolant temperature after the coolant has exited one or more servers within a rack. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein monitoring includes monitoring the coolant temperature after the liquid coolant has exited one or more racks. ### Claim 10 A method for providing multi-level distributed cooling to a data center, comprising: shifting workloads between servers to consolidate running servers into a minimum number of racks; providing liquid coolant to one or more racks in proportion to a number of operating servers in the data center; monitoring a liquid coolant temperature before the coolant has entered into one or more racks; decreasing cooling to one or more of the racks if the liquid coolant temperature falls below a first threshold by disengaging one or more liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers; increasing cooling to one or more of the racks if the liquid coolant temperature exceeds a second threshold by engaging one or more liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers; monitoring an intra-rack liquid coolant temperature before the coolant has entered one or more servers within the rack; decreasing cooling to one or more of the servers if the intra-rack liquid coolant temperature falls below a first threshold by decreasing liquid coolant flow to the one or more servers; increasing cooling to one or more of the servers if the intra-rack liquid coolant temperature exceeds a second threshold by increasing coolant flow to the one or more servers; and turning on additional servers if the coolant temperature is below the first coolant threshold and all liquid-to-liquid heat exchangers have been disengaged to prevent condensation. ### Claim 11 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, further comprising shifting workloads between servers to consolidate running servers into a minimum number of racks.