TWI696416B - Immersion cooling apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

An immersion cooling apparatus includes a heat-generating member, a chamber and a plurality of metal tubes. The chamber has a plurality of upper steam-discharging outlets. The chamber stores a cooling solution and contains the heat-generating member to make the heat-generating member immersed in the cooling solution. The plurality of metal tubes is communicated with the plurality of the upper steam-discharging outlets respectively. Each metal tube extends upward from the upper steam-discharging outlet to guide steam generated by the cooling solution when the cooling solution absorbs heat of the heat generating member to leave the chamber through the upper steam-discharging outlets and then enter the metal tubes. When the metal tubes cool the steam into liquid, the liquid flows to the cooling solution downward along each metal tube through the upper steam-discharging outlets.

Description

Immersion cooling equipment

The invention relates to an immersion cooling equipment, in particular to an immersion cooling equipment having a plurality of metal pipes extending upward from the exhaust port above the cooling liquid tank.

Generally speaking, immersion cooling equipment utilizes the heating elements (such as servers, disk arrays, etc.) to be immersed in the cooling liquid stored in the cooling liquid tank, and the steam generated after absorbing heat through the cooling liquid takes away the heating elements. For the heat energy, the fan device is used to cool the vapor back to the liquid and the liquid-gas two-phase conversion process returned by the pump device is used to generate heat. In practical applications, due to the limitations of the use environment (such as car heat dissipation), a fanless thermosiphon cooling design is required. In short, it uses the heat pipe to cool the hot vapor of the two-phase immersion cooling system into a liquid After that, the liquid is drained back into the cooling liquid tank. However, in the above design, since the heat pipe is not configured with active liquid return structure, resulting in a large flow resistance in the pipe, it will greatly reduce the heat dissipation effect and liquid return efficiency of the immersion cooling equipment.

An object of the present invention is to provide an immersion cooling device having a plurality of metal tubes extending upward from an exhaust port above a cooling liquid tank to solve the above-mentioned problems.

According to an embodiment, the immersion cooling device of the present invention includes a heating element, a cooling liquid tank, and a plurality of metal tubes. The cooling liquid tank has a plurality of upper exhaust ports for storing a cooling liquid and accommodating the heating element so that the heating element is immersed in the cooling liquid. The metal tubes are respectively connected to the upper exhaust ports, and each metal tube extends upward from the upper exhaust port, so that the steam generated when the cooling liquid absorbs the heat energy of the heating element passes through the upper ports The exhaust port leaves the coolant tank and enters the metal tubes. When the metal tubes cool the inflowing vapor back to the liquid, the cooled liquid flows down through the corresponding upper exhaust port back to the cooling liquid along each metal tube.

In summary, the design of the heat dissipation pipeline that extends upward from the exhaust port above the coolant tank through the metal tube, the liquid after the metal tube is cooled will be affected by gravity and overcome the flow resistance in the tube, thereby quickly Returning down the metal pipe to the cooling liquid in the cooling liquid tank, the invention can greatly improve the heat dissipation effect and liquid return efficiency of the immersion cooling equipment.

The advantages and spirit of the present invention can be further understood through the following embodiments and the accompanying drawings.

Please refer to FIG. 1, which is a schematic cross-sectional view of an immersion cooling device 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention. The immersion cooling device 10 is used for a heating element 11 (such as a blade server, Disk array, etc.) for heat dissipation. As shown in FIG. 1, the immersion cooling device 10 includes a heating element 11, a cooling liquid tank 12, and a plurality of metal tubes 14. The coolant tank 12 can be a coolant storage tank commonly used in immersion cooling equipment (the related tank design is common in the prior art, so it will not be repeated here) and has many upper exhaust ports 16. The cooling liquid tank 12 can be used for storing a cooling liquid 18 and accommodating the heating element 11 so that the heating element 11 can be immersed in the cooling liquid 18, wherein the cooling liquid 18 can be an inert medium commonly used for immersion cooling Electro-hydraulic (such as mineral oil, silicone oil, etc.).

It can be seen from FIG. 1 that a plurality of metal tubes 14 can be respectively connected to a plurality of upper exhaust ports 16, and each metal tube 14 can be formed to extend upward from the corresponding upper exhaust port 16, so that the coolant 18 The steam generated when absorbing the heat energy of the heating element 11 can leave the cooling liquid tank 12 through the plurality of upper exhaust ports 16 and enter the plurality of metal tubes 14. In this embodiment, each metal tube 14 may be better The ground extends vertically upwards from the upper exhaust port 16 (but not limited to this, in another embodiment, the present invention can also use a metal tube design that extends obliquely upward, and the related description can be referred to the first figure, and so on, (I will not repeat them here).

Furthermore, the immersion cooling device 10 may adopt a heat dissipation design in which a heat dissipation device is disposed on a metal tube. For example, as can be seen from FIG. 1, the immersion cooling device 10 may further include a heat dissipation device 20, which is implemented here For example, the heat dissipation device 20 may be preferably a heat dissipation fin structure (but not limited to this), and a plurality of metal tubes 14 are penetrated in the heat dissipation fin structure to increase the heat dissipation area, thereby, the heat dissipation fin The sheet structure can absorb the heat energy of the vapor flowing into the metal tube 14 to accelerate the cooling of the vapor back to the liquid. It should be noted that through the design of the heat pipe extending upward from the coolant tank 12 through the metal pipe 14, the immersion cooling device 10 can further extend the metal pipe 14 equipped with the heat sink 20 to a lower temperature ( Such as outdoor) or the airflow speed is fast (for example, in the case of vehicle heat dissipation, the metal tube 14 can be extended outside the car body to enhance the heat dissipation efficiency through the air flow generated when the vehicle moves), thereby greatly improving the immersion Heat dissipation efficiency of the cooling device 10.

Through the above design, when the heating element 11 operates to generate heat energy, the vapor generated by the cooling liquid 18 after absorbing the heat energy leaves the cooling liquid tank 12 through the plurality of upper exhaust ports 16 and flows into the plurality of metal tubes 14, where During the process, the vapor flowing into the metal tube 14 from the upper exhaust port 16 can be quickly cooled back to the liquid through the high thermal conductivity of the metal tube 14 and the heat dissipation of the heat sink 20 and the outside world. At the same time, the first As can be seen from the figure, since the flow direction of the metal tube 14 is parallel and consistent with the direction of gravity, the cooled liquid will quickly return to the cooling liquid 18 along the metal tube 14 under the influence of gravity and continue to The heat-generating element 11 dissipates heat, whereby the present invention can greatly improve the heat dissipation effect and liquid return efficiency of the immersion cooling device 10.

It is worth mentioning that the present invention can adopt a capillary structure drainage design. For example, please refer to FIG. 2, which is an enlargement of the portion of the metal pipe 14 of FIG. 1 communicating with the exhaust port 16 above the cooling liquid tank 12 A schematic cross-sectional view, as can be seen from FIG. 2, in this embodiment, the immersion cooling device 10 may further include a capillary structure 22, which can be disposed in the metal tube 14 (which is designed for capillary structure and capillary action The relevant description of the principle is common in the prior art, and will not be repeated here.) In this way, the metal tube 14 will radiate from the upper exhaust port 16 through its own high thermal conductivity and heat dissipation of the heat sink 20 and the outside world. After the vapor in the metal tube 14 is quickly cooled back to the liquid, the cooled liquid will be more quickly returned to the cooling liquid of the cooling liquid tank 12 along the metal tube 14 under the guidance of the capillary action provided by the capillary structure 22 18 to effectively reduce the flow resistance in the tube and further improve the liquid return efficiency of the metal tube 14 and the heat removal capacity of the immersion cooling device 10. The above are only the preferred embodiments of the present invention, and all changes and modifications made in accordance with the scope of the patent application of the present invention shall fall within the scope of the present invention.

10: Immersion cooling equipment 11: heating element 12: Coolant tank 14: Metal tube 16: Upper exhaust 18: Coolant 20: Heat sink 22: Capillary structure

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an immersion cooling device according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is an enlarged schematic cross-sectional view of a portion of the metal pipe of FIG. 1 communicating with the exhaust port above the coolant tank.

10: Immersion cooling equipment

11: heating element

12: Coolant tank

14: Metal tube

16: Upper exhaust

18: Coolant

20: Heat sink

Claims (5)

An immersion cooling equipment, which contains: A heating element; A cooling liquid tank having a plurality of upper exhaust ports for storing a cooling liquid and accommodating the heating element so that the heating element is immersed in the cooling liquid; and A plurality of metal tubes are respectively connected to the upper exhaust ports, and each metal tube extends upward from the upper exhaust port, so that the vapor generated by the cooling liquid when absorbing the heat energy of the heating element passes through the The upper exhaust ports leave the coolant tank and enter the metal tubes; When the metal tubes cool the inflowing vapor back to the liquid, the cooled liquid flows down through the corresponding upper exhaust port back to the cooling liquid along each metal tube. The immersion cooling device according to claim 1, wherein each of the metal tubes extends vertically upward from the upper exhaust port. The immersion cooling equipment as described in claim 1, which additionally includes: A heat dissipation device is disposed on the metal tubes and used to absorb the heat energy of the vapor flowing into the metal tubes to cool the vapor back to the liquid. The immersion cooling device according to claim 3, wherein the heat dissipation device is a heat dissipation fin structure, and the metal tubes are penetrated in the heat dissipation fin structure, so that the heat dissipation fin structure absorbs and flows into the metal tubes The thermal energy of the vapor is used to cool the vapor back to the liquid. The immersion cooling equipment as described in claim 1, which additionally includes: A capillary structure is disposed in the metal tubes and is used to guide the cooled liquid to flow down the cooling liquid through the corresponding upper exhaust port along each metal tube.

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