DE202012104638U1 - Arrangement for conditioning a data center - Google Patents

Abstract

Arrangement (100, 200, 300) for air conditioning of a data center, which in at least one room to be conditioned (2) thermal energy emitting communication technology and / or telecommunications technology (3), with a heat exchanger (15), which is formed, the heat energy from the dissipate at least one room (2) to an environment
characterized in that
- The heat exchanger (15) comprises a first input (11) which is fluidically connected to an exhaust air region (9) of the space (2);
- The heat exchanger (15) comprises a first output (12) which is fluidically connected to a supply air region (21, 34) of the space (2);
- The heat exchanger (15) comprises a second input (14) which is fluidically connected to an ambient air connection (35);
- The heat exchanger (15) comprises a second output (13) which is fluidically connected to an exhaust air connection (17); and
- A first flow path (36) of the heat exchanger (15) between the first input (11) and the first output (12) completely from a second ...

Description

The present invention relates to an arrangement for conditioning a data center, wherein the data center in at least one room to be conditioned thermal energy emitting communication technology and / or telecommunications technology, with a heat exchanger, which is designed to dissipate the heat energy from the at least one room to an environment.

As a data center is generally referred to a building in which there is at least one room with a footprint (IT area) for data processing technology and / or telecommunications technology, such. As servers, computers, data storage and network technology. For the safe operation of the technology a stable and adequate air temperature and humidity is important. The reasonable limits for the air temperature are usually between 5 ° C and 45 ° C and relative humidity between 8% and 90%. We recommend an air temperature between 18 ° C and 27 ° C and a relative humidity between 25% and 60%.

Due to the heat production of data processing technology and / or telecommunications technology, it is necessary to cool the IT area in order to keep the air temperature and humidity stable. The heating of these rooms is not necessary all year round. A data center is usually in operation 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and so the data processing technology and / or telecommunications technology must be continuously cooled. To cool the IT area, which is generally equipped with a false floor, cold air is blown through the raised floor. By means of apparatus in the raised floor, the cold air reaches the IT area. Above the IT area, the heated air is sucked off and, after it has been cooled, again led as cold air into the raised floor. Consequently, the air also circulates in the area of the IT area and is referred to as circulating air. The cold air can also be blown directly onto the IT area. The cooling of the air takes place in air conditioners / heat pumps, which generally comprise a compression refrigeration machine in which a refrigerant is compressed. The heated air is the heat to the refrigerant or transitional to a liquid heat transport medium, often water from.

The data processing technology and / or telecommunications technology is usually housed in racks and / or system cabinets. These racks can be traversed in the vertical or horizontal direction of the cold air. With vertical flow, the cold air on the floor is pushed into the rack or sucked by a fan in the ground and transported vertically upwards. In this way, the air cools the technology and heats up with increasing altitude. The disadvantage here is that the air is colder at the bottom than in the upper part of the rack. For this reason, only a limited amount of technology can be integrated in the rack. The flow through the racks in the horizontal direction is done by the fans of data processing technology and / or telecommunications technology, which are housed in the rack. The cold air is sucked in at the front and warmed up at the back. So that the cold and the heated air mix only as little as possible, the two types of air are separated by cold and warm aisles with or without enclosure. The cooling of an air-temperature and humidity-controlled IT area in a data center by circulating air takes place only with limited efficiency using the known apparatuses and methods. In most cases, the supply air must be cooled to a supply air temperature below that required for data processing technology and / or telecommunications technology. Furthermore, relatively complex chillers are used, which also have high energy losses. As a consequence, more energy is needed and the electrical operating costs of a data center increase significantly. In addition, the refrigerant is usually a greenhouse gas, which in case of leakage within the chiller quickly escape into the atmosphere and there can lead to environmental damage. If water is used to remove the heat from the IT area, it is located on the IT area or nearby. If there is a leak, the water is a significant threat to the data processing technology and / or telecommunications technology, which is located on the IT area. Another way to cool the IT floor is to direct cold outside air directly onto the IT floor. However, the humidity can not be regulated or only with great expense. There is also the danger of absorbing aggressive substances, which can cause corrosion, as well as smoke, which can cause the fire alarm system or early fire detection.

The use of rotary heat exchangers in data centers is in EP 1903 849 described. It takes a lot of space to transfer the heat from the circulating air to the outside air. Furthermore, there may be an unwanted mixing of outside air and recirculated air. The use of rotary heat exchangers is relatively maintenance-intensive due to the existing moving parts. Due to the large powers to be transmitted, rotary heat exchangers are very large, which leads to a considerably larger space requirement compared to conventional cooling.

US Pat. No. 6,684,653 discloses a heat exchanger with a direct evaporator for cooling and heating of cabinets and cabins that do not require ventilation, in a housing. From the description follows that the invention is intended only for small power. The compactness of this invention results in a great deal of maintenance and is not suitable for use in a data center due to the limited power and the need for a direct external air connection. A humidity control is not available.

In the document US Pat. No. 6,672,955 An air handling system is described which separates the cold air from the heated air in the data center. The heated air is transported through a duct system to an air-water heat exchanger where it is cooled. A humidity control is not available.

The registration letter WO 03/073012 describes a cooling apparatus for cooling electronics. A mode cools the electronics with circulating air. The heat is dissipated by a direct evaporator.

The invention has for its object to provide an arrangement of the generic type, can be done with the air conditioning of a data center in a simple and effective manner.

According to the invention, an arrangement is provided for conditioning a data center, wherein the data center has heat energy-emitting communication technology and / or telecommunications technology in at least one room to be conditioned, with a heat exchanger which is designed to dissipate the heat energy from the at least one room to an environment, wherein the heat exchanger comprises a first input, which is fluidically connected to an exhaust air region of the room, a first output, which is fluidically connected to a Zuluftbereich of the room, a second input, which is fluidically connected to an ambient air connection, and a second output, comprising is fluidly connected to an exhaust port, wherein a first flow path of the heat exchanger between the first input and the first output completely from a second flow path of the heat exchanger between the second input and the second output is disconnected.

The room to be air conditioned preferably has at least one rack in which, for example, servers, routers or storage are accommodated.

It is also preferable to run the supply air under a double floor in order to protect people from an excessively strong cold air flow during maintenance of the devices.

The invention provides as an advantage that a preferred air-to-air heat exchanger does not mix the two flow channels material. Thus, a consistent material composition of the air in the inner flow path can be more easily ensured. As a further advantage, the invention shows that as a result of the cooling by the heat exchanger much electrical energy is saved, which would not be saved when using mainly heat pumps.

It is also advantageous that a strict separation between fine and coarse technology, in particular in comparison to circulating air precision air conditioning units, can be achieved.

Another advantage is the possibility according to the invention of being able to realize large cooling capacities, preferably greater than 1 kW, likewise preferably greater than 15 kW and also preferably greater than 25 kW, by means of the heat exchanger.

Also advantageous is the ability to realize the hot and cold aisle principle with supply air through a room or a raised floor.

Advantageously, a comparatively low maintenance and repair costs.

Also, a flexible power adjustment is also advantageous during operation.

It is preferred that at least one turbomachine is arranged in the first flow path and / or in the second flow path.

The turbomachine preferably comprises a fan or an impeller.

The advantage here is that the largest possible volume flow for cooling can be generated and that the running costs of cooling are essentially due to the air circulation and not by heat pumps.

Preferably, the heat exchanger is a cross-flow, countercurrent or DC heat exchanger.

The advantage of this is that no moving parts in the heat exchanger are needed and there is a comparatively small IT space requirement. Another advantage is the elimination of direct free cooling. It is also advantageous that no further cooling media, such as coolant in pressure lines, and their channels are needed.

Furthermore, it is preferred that at least one filter is arranged in the first flow path and / or in the second flow path.

An advantage is the possibility of air purification and thus prevention of blockages of the air ducts in the heat exchanger.

As an additional variant, a cooling device is arranged in the first flow path.

A resulting advantage is that the air can be recooled, preferably by a heat pump, if the heat exchanger sucks outside air which is not cool enough to bring the necessary cooling air to the desired temperature setpoint.

In a preferred embodiment, a moistening device is arranged in the first flow path.

The advantage is that the humidification of the air causes a cooling of the air.

Preferably, a dehumidifying device is arranged in the first flow path.

An advantage achieved thereby is the ability to assign important parameters such as temperature and relative humidity to the cooling air. In the event that dehumidified air is dehumidified, it can achieve a further cooling of the air by a targeted removal of the heat of condensation by means of a heat pump. This can also improve the efficiency of a preferably additionally integrated in the circulating air supply air duct heat pump.

Preferably, the cooling device and the dehumidifying device is one and the same heat pump (or a plurality), the center of gravity cooling-dehumidification is preferably realized by an inverter technique, which can meter the volumetric flow passing through the cooling fins according to the principle: the higher the volume flow, the lower the dehumidifying effect.

Alternatively, it is preferred that a moistening device is arranged in the second flow path.

The advantage of a moistening device in the second flow path is the possibility of increasing the efficiency of the cooling with the heat exchanger, since colder air thus flows along in the second flow path, as if the air had not been moistened. This assumes that the air before dehumidification was sufficiently able to absorb more water, so the air was largely unsaturated. The colder air in the second flow path thus leads to a correspondingly colder air in the first flow path and thus to a better cooling of the waste heat generating devices.

Preferably, the second flow path with the Zuluftbereich the room via a regulated closable bypass fluidly connectable.

As a result of the resulting advantage, the oxygen-containing, low-emission fresh air metered doses of the cooling air to mix, to allow for people a Serviceaufenthalt in the cooling and exhaust air area.

In a particularly preferred variant, the first flow path has a controllable closable bypass, which is designed to fluidically connect the first flow path with an environment.

Preferably, the bypass is a metered closable opening, which closes the opening completely or partially, in sections, depending on the strength of the dosage.

The advantage here is the ability to discharge a positive pressure due to supplied fresh air.

The invention will be explained in more detail in embodiments with reference to the drawings and the description below. Show it:

1 a highly simplified schematic representation of an IT area with a cooling arrangement according to a first preferred embodiment;

2 a greatly simplified schematic representation of an IT area with inventive temperature and humidity control according to a second preferred embodiment and

3 a greatly simplified schematic representation of the IT area with inventive temperature and humidity control with illustrated illustrated functional elements according to the second preferred embodiment.

1 shows in a plan view a schematic representation of an IT area 1 a data center with a greatly simplified, indicated by function symbols arrangement 100 for air conditioning, which can also be referred to as climate cell.

The IT area 1 has at least one room in which so-called racks 2 are arranged in which the data processing technology and / or telecommunications technology 3 is housed. This technique 3 produces warm recirculated air exhaust air 19 , also referred to in the literature as waste heat, and is provided with recirculated air supply air 18 , also referred to in literature as cold circulating air, cooled. The in the supply air area 34 circulating air supply air 18 gets directly to the IT area 1 blown. Optionally, the circulating air supply air 18 the IT area 1 also through a raised floor 21 be supplied.

The by waste heat of the technology 3 heated warm circulating air exhaust air 19 , also referred to in the literature as warm circulating air, which is located in an exhaust air area 9 is located by at least one fan 28 sucked in and through a heat exchanger 15 , which is designed as an air-to-air heat exchanger transported. In the heat exchanger 15 becomes the circulating air exhaust air 19 cooled and then the IT area 1 in the form of circulating air supply air 18 fed again. Optionally, the circulating air supply air 18 by a cooling device 29 cooled by a dehumidifier 29 dehumidified and by a humidifier 32 be moistened. A first air filter 31 cleans the circulating air exhaust air 19 before re-entry into the IT area 1 ,

The waste heat from the IT area 1 is by means of a heat exchanger 15 from an outside air 35 taken and by means of the exhaust air 17 dissipated. The heat exchanger 15 in a second flow path 37 flowing outside air 35 is previously through a second air filter 30 cleaned. At least one fan 27 transports the outside air 35 through the heat exchanger 15 ,

Optionally, the outside air 35 with a second moistening element 33 moistened and thus cooled.

A dashed outline represents the dividing line 38 which, viewed schematically by the heat exchanger 15 runs and indicates that the first flow path 36 material from the second flow path 37 runs separately and no mixing of the two flow paths in the heat exchanger 15 takes place.

The heat exchanger 15 has an input with respect to the fresh air duct 14 and an exit 13 on, with the output 13 with a connection for exhaust air 17 fluidically connected.

2 shows in a plan a schematic representation of the IT area 1 with a greatly simplified, indicated by function symbols arrangement 200 for the air conditioning of a data center with inventive temperature and humidity control according to a second preferred embodiment. Compared to 1 are in 2 further details shown.

So the technology sucks 3 by own fans, in which the flow direction with that of the fan 28 corresponds, the circulating air supply air 18 on a front side 6 and gives at a back 7 the heated circulating air exhaust air 19 in the exhaust air area 9 from.

The filtered and humidified outside air 16 passes through the entrance 14 in the heat exchanger 15 ,

For ventilation of the IT area 1 can the outside air 35 optionally directly on the IT area 1 be blown. This supply air 23 is controlled by means of a controlled by a control device lockable bypass 24 dosed.

So on the IT floor 1 no overpressure is created, becomes part of the circulating air supply air 18 as overflow air 25 by means of a controlled by a control device lockable bypass 26 dosed discharged.

With regard to the circulating air channel, the heat exchanger points 15 also an entrance 11 and an exit 12 on, with the output 12 with the cooling device 29 fluidically connected. The entrance 11 is here with the air filter 31 fluidically connected, so that already the heat exchanger 15 protected against contamination.

Other aerodynamically adjustable openings 20 . 22 serve the flow optimization within the room to be air conditioned.

3 also shows in a plan a schematic representation of the IT area 1 with a greatly simplified, indicated by function symbols arrangement 300 for the air conditioning of a data center with inventive temperature and humidity control according to the second preferred embodiment.

Compared to 2 are in 3 the following details are included:
The exhaust air area 9 , which may also be referred to as a channel or space, is indicated by an obliquely hatched contour. The contour also stands for a conversion of the room or channel to an exchange of air to the raised floor 21 with supply air and to the supply air area 34 to avoid. Here is the supply air area 34 , which may also be referred to as a channel or room, also indicated bordered, but with a vertically hatched contour.

The heat exchanger 15 is outlined by a rhomboid outline.

QUOTES INCLUDE IN THE DESCRIPTION

This list of the documents listed by the applicant has been generated automatically and is included solely for the better information of the reader. The list is not part of the German patent or utility model application. The DPMA assumes no liability for any errors or omissions.

Cited patent literature

• EP 1903849 [0005]
• US 6684653 [0006]
• US 6672955 [0007]
• WO 03/073012 [0008]

Claims (10)

Arrangement ( 100 . 200 . 300 ) for the air conditioning of a data center, which in at least one room to be air-conditioned ( 2 ) Heat energy-emitting communication technology and / or telecommunications technology ( 3 ), with a heat exchanger ( 15 ), which is formed, the heat energy from the at least one space ( 2 ) to an environment, characterized in that - the heat exchanger ( 15 ) a first input ( 11 ), which is provided with an exhaust air area ( 9 ) of the room ( 2 ) is fluidically connected; - the heat exchanger ( 15 ) a first output ( 12 ), which is connected to a supply air area ( 21 . 34 ) of the room ( 2 ) is fluidically connected; - the heat exchanger ( 15 ) a second input ( 14 ) connected to an ambient air connection ( 35 ) is fluidically connected; - the heat exchanger ( 15 ) a second output ( 13 ), which is connected to an exhaust air connection ( 17 ) is fluidically connected; and - a first flow path ( 36 ) of the heat exchanger ( 15 ) between the first input ( 11 ) and the first output ( 12 ) completely from a second flow path ( 37 ) of the heat exchanger ( 15 ) between the second input ( 14 ) and the second output ( 13 ) is disconnected. Arrangement for air conditioning of a data center according to claim 1, wherein in the first flow path ( 36 ) and / or in the second flow path ( 37 ) at least one turbomachine ( 27 . 28 ) is arranged. Arrangement for conditioning a data center according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the heat exchanger ( 15 ) is a cross-flow, countercurrent or DC heat exchanger. Arrangement for conditioning a data center according to one of the preceding claims, wherein in the first flow path ( 36 ) and / or in the second flow path ( 37 ) at least one filter ( 30 . 31 ) is arranged. Arrangement for conditioning a data center according to one of the preceding claims, wherein in the first flow path ( 36 ) a cooling device ( 29 ) is arranged. Arrangement for conditioning a data center according to one of the preceding claims, wherein in the first flow path ( 36 ) a humidifying device ( 32 ) is arranged. Arrangement for conditioning a data center according to one of the preceding claims, wherein in the first flow path ( 36 ) a dehumidifier ( 29 ) is arranged. Arrangement for conditioning a data center according to one of the preceding claims, wherein in the second flow path ( 37 ) a humidifying device ( 33 ) is arranged. Arrangement for air conditioning of a data center according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the second flow path ( 37 ) with the supply air area ( 21 . 34 ) of the room ( 2 ) via a regulated lockable bypass ( 24 ) is fluidically connectable. Arrangement for air conditioning of a data center according to one of the preceding claims, wherein the first flow path ( 36 ) a regulated lockable bypass ( 26 ), which is formed, the first flow path ( 36 ) with an environment ( 25 ) fluidically connect.

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