Method and apparatus for individually cooling components of electronic systems
View Patent ↗A cooling system is configured to supply individually metered amounts of cooling fluid to heat generating components, e.g., processors, micro-controllers, high speed video cards, disk drives, semi-conductor devices, and the like, of an electronic system. The cooling system includes at least one variable speed fan, e.g., blower, configured to supply fluid through a centralized plenum and thereafter through a plurality of nozzles to the components of the electronic system. Each of the nozzles contains a valve to control the amount of fluid flow through the each of the nozzles. A controller is provided to control the operation of the variable speed fan and the operation of each of the valves is also controlled by a controller. By substantially controlling the amount of cooling fluid supplied to each of the components based upon the amount of heat generated by each component, the cooling system of the present invention may operate in a more efficient manner, thereby requiring substantially less energy than conventional cooling systems.
1. A method of cooling a plurality of heat generating components of an electronic system having an enclosure and a plenum located within said enclosure, said method comprising:
activating at least one variable speed blower and a plurality of valves, each of said valves terminating substantially close to a respective heat generating component, to thereby supply cooling fluid to said heat generating components;
sensing the temperatures of each of said heat generating components;
determining whether said sensed temperatures are within a predetermined temperature range;
varying said supply of said cooling fluid to said heat generating components in response to said sensed temperatures falling outside of said predetermined temperature range
sensing a pressure of a supply of said cooling fluid;
determining whether said sensed pressure is within a predetermined pressure range; and
varying said speed of said at least one blower in response to said sensed pressure falling outside of said predetermined pressure range.
2. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether the measured temperatures of said heat generating components are each below or equal to a predetermined minimum set point temperature.
3. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:
decreasing the supply of said cooling fluid to said heat generating components for those heat generating components having measured temperatures that fall below or equal said predetermined minimum set point temperature.
4. The method according to claim 3 , further comprising:
decreasing the speed of said at least one blower in response to said decreasing cooling fluid supply to said heat generating components exceeding said increasing cooling fluid supply to said heat generating components.
5. The method according to claim 2 , further comprising:
increasing the supply of said cooling fluid to said heat generating components for those heat generating components having measured temperatures that exceed said predetermined minimum set point temperature.
6. The method according to claim 5 , further comprising:
increasing the speed of said at least one blower in response to said decreasing cooling fluid supply to said heat generating components falling below said increasing cooling fluid supply to said heat generating components.
7. The method according to claim 1 , wherein said step of varying said blower speed comprises determining whether said measured pressure falls below or equals a predetermined minimum set point pressure range.
8. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:
increasing the speed of said at least one blower in response to said measured pressure falling below or equaling said predetermined minimum set point pressure.
9. The method according to claim 7 , further comprising:
decreasing the speed of said at least one blower in response to said measured pressure exceeding said predetermined minimum set point pressure.
10. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
supplying the plenum with cooling fluid with the at least one variable speed blower prior to supplying the cooling fluid to said heat generating components; and
substantially maintaining a portion of the cooling fluid at a substantially uniform pressure.
11. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of sensing the temperatures of each of said heat generating components comprises detecting the temperatures with one or more temperature sensors.
12. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of sensing the temperatures of each of said heat generating components comprises anticipating the temperatures of each of said heat generating components based upon an impending load on each of the heat generating components.
13. A computer readable storage medium on which is embedded one or more computer programs, said one or more computer programs implementing a method for cooling a plurality of heat generating components of an electronic system having an enclosure and a plenum located within said enclosure, said one or more computer programs comprising a set of instructions for:
activating at least one variable speed blower and a plurality of valves, each of said valves terminating substantially close to a respective heat generating component, to thereby supply cooling fluid to said heat generating components;
sensing the temperatures of each of said heat generating components;
determining whether said sensed temperatures are within a predetermined temperature range;
varying said supply of said cooling fluid to said heat generating components in response to said sensed temperatures falling outside of said predetermined temperature range
sensing a pressure of a supply of said cooling fluid;
determining whether said sensed pressure is within a predetermined pressure range; and
varying said speed of said at least one blower in response to said sensed pressure falling outside of said predetermined pressure range.
14. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 13 , said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:
determining whether the measured temperatures of said heat generating components are each below or equal to a predetermined minimum set point temperature.
15. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 14 , said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:
decreasing the supply of said cooling fluid to said heat generating components for those heat generating components having measured temperatures that fall below or equal said predetermined minimum set point temperature.
16. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 14 , said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:
increasing the supply of said cooling fluid to said heat generating components for those heat generating components having measured temperatures that exceed said predetermined minimum set point temperature.
17. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 13 , said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:
supplying the plenum with cooling fluid with the at least one variable speed blower prior to supplying the cooling fluid to said heat generating components; and
substantially maintaining a portion of the cooling fluid at a substantially uniform pressure.
18. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 13 , said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:
anticipating the temperatures of each of said heat generating components based upon an impending load on each of the heat generating components.
19. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 13 , said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:
determining whether said measured pressure falls below or equals a predetermined minimum set point pressure range.
20. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 19 , said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:
increasing the speed of said at least one blower in response to said measured pressure falling below or equaling said predetermined minimum set point pressure.
21. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 19 , said one or more computer programs further comprising a set of instructions for:
decreasing the speed of said at least one blower in response to said measured pressure exceeding said predetermined minimum set point pressure.