JP6267848B1 - Cooling equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

A cooling facility for cooling a plurality of electronic devices, which can be realized more easily than existing facilities. A cooling facility is a cooling device for cooling a plurality of electronic devices, and includes a cooling liquid, a cooling tank holding the cooling liquid, and a plurality of electronic devices in the cooling tank. And a rack 103 for accommodating 110. An example of the cooling liquid 101 is water. The rack 103 includes a server rack for accommodating servers and the like, a network rack for accommodating network devices and communication devices such as routers and hubs, and the like, and a plurality of accommodated electronic devices 110 are brought into contact with the coolant 101. It is configured as follows. The plurality of electronic devices 110 accommodated in the rack 103 are sealed with particles that are waterproof and can be directly brought into contact with the coolant 101 without impairing normal operation. [Selection] Figure 1

Description

  The present invention relates to a cooling facility, and more particularly to a cooling facility for cooling a plurality of electronic devices.

  In recent years, cloud computing has progressed in various fields, and the power consumption of data centers that support cloud services has been greatly increasing. In addition to the anticipated cloud computing, the spread of advanced technologies such as IoT and artificial intelligence is accelerating the increase in power consumption. In each country including Japan, the power consumption in data centers reaches 1 to several percent of the total power consumption, and energy saving is an urgent issue.

  A data center is a general term for facilities that specialize in operating IT equipment or electronic equipment such as various servers, storage, and network equipment, and data such as air conditioning equipment to cope with the heat generated by a large amount of equipment. The importance of facilities associated with the center is increasing.

  As an example of existing cooling equipment, there is an outside air cooling system in which a data center itself is constructed in a cool area and cold outside air is utilized.

  Although several systems exist as a cooling facility, there is a need for improvement in order to easily realize energy saving that will be required in the future.

  The present invention has been made in view of such problems, and an object thereof is a cooling facility for cooling a plurality of electronic devices, and a cooling facility that can be realized more simply than existing facilities. It is to provide.

  In order to achieve such an object, a first aspect of the present invention is a cooling device for cooling a plurality of electronic devices, comprising a cooling liquid, a cooling tank holding the cooling liquid, and the cooling A rack for accommodating the plurality of electronic devices in the tank, wherein the cooling liquid contains water, and the rack brings the plurality of electronic devices into contact with the cooling liquid.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the rack directly contacts the plurality of electronic devices with the coolant.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the first or second aspect, each of the plurality of electronic devices is subjected to waterproof shielding.

  According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the third aspect, the waterproof shielding includes nanoparticles having a diameter of less than 10 nm.

  According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the fourth aspect, the nanoparticles are embedded in a surface of the electronic device.

  According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, in the fifth aspect, the surface of the electronic device has a gap of about 20 to 250 nm.

  According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, in any one of the fourth to sixth aspects, the nanoparticles are silicon particles.

  In addition, according to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in any one of the first to seventh aspects, the water is not pure water.

  According to a ninth aspect of the present invention, in the eighth aspect, the water is seawater.

  The tenth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in any of the first to ninth aspects, an inlet and an outlet of the cooling liquid to the cooling tank are further provided.

  An eleventh aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in any one of the first to ninth aspects, the coolant circulates in the cooling tank.

  The twelfth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the eleventh aspect, a heat exchanger for reducing the temperature of the coolant is further provided.

  A thirteenth aspect of the present invention is a cooling system comprising the cooling device according to any one of the first to twelfth aspects and a plurality of electronic devices housed in the rack.

  According to a fourteenth aspect of the present invention, in the thirteenth aspect, the cooling device is immersed in a sea, a river, a lake, or a dam.

  According to one embodiment of the present invention, a cooling device that can be realized more simply than existing equipment can be realized by bringing a plurality of electronic devices housed in a rack into contact with water as a coolant.

It is a figure which shows sectional drawing of the cooling equipment concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the perspective view of the cooling equipment concerning the 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is the schematic of an example in which the nanoparticle is embedded in the surface of each electronic device or its component. It is the schematic of an example in which the nanoparticle is embedded in the surface of each electronic device or its component. It is a figure which shows the schematic of the cooling facility concerning the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

(First embodiment)
FIG. 1 shows a cross-sectional view of a cooling facility according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The cooling facility 100 is a cooling device for cooling a plurality of electronic devices 110, and contains a cooling liquid 101, a cooling tank 102 that holds the cooling liquid 101, and a plurality of electronic devices 110 in the cooling tank 102. Rack 103 for the purpose.

  An example of the cooling liquid 101 is water. When water is used, the necessity for cooling to a low temperature is alleviated and operation at room temperature becomes possible.

  The rack 103 includes a server rack for accommodating servers and the like, a network rack for accommodating network devices and communication devices such as routers and hubs, and the like, and a plurality of accommodated electronic devices 110 are brought into contact with the coolant 101. It is configured as follows. There may be an intervening element between the cooling liquid 101 and the plurality of electronic devices 110, but it is possible to directly contact them.

  The cooling facility 100 further includes an inlet 104, an outlet 105, and a flow path 106 for the cooling liquid 101 to the cooling tank 102. The flow path 106 has an inlet for introducing the cooling liquid 101 such as a nozzle into the cooling tank 102, and may have a plurality of inlets 106 </ b> A corresponding to each accommodation position of the rack 103. If the flow path 106 is disposed near the bottom surface of the cooling tank 102 and the cooling liquid 101 supplied from the inlet 104 is discharged from the plurality of inlets 106A, the cooling liquid 101 can be circulated throughout the cooling tank 102. The cooling effect by convection can be enhanced. In addition, by providing a plurality of inlets 106 corresponding to each accommodation position of the rack 103, the cooling performance of each electronic device can be made uniform.

  The plurality of electronic devices 110 accommodated in the rack 103 are sealed with particles so that they can be brought into direct contact with the coolant 101 without impairing normal operation. The particles are nanoparticles such as silicon, and nanoparticles having an average diameter of less than 10 nm, less than 7 nm, and more preferably less than 2 nm are preferable. More specifically, it is preferably 1.5 nm or more and less than 2.0 nm, for example. The particles are preferably embedded in the surface of each electronic device.

  By providing particle-based shielding that is waterproof, it is possible to make the coolant 101 water containing impurities having higher electrical conductivity than pure water (impure water), and operation at room temperature is inexpensive. It becomes possible. For example, tap water or seawater can be used.

  3 and 4 show schematic views in which nanoparticles are embedded on the surface of each electronic device or its components. Even an uneven surface such as a PCB board can be shielded by immersing it in a nanoliter solution of several liters such as 2 liters for several seconds, followed by baking for about 30 minutes and drying. There may be gaps of about 20 to 250 nm on the surface of each electronic device or its component, and these gaps can be filled with nanoparticles.

  In addition to a single layer of shielding containing nanoparticles, the waterproof shielding can be further shielded or coated with one or more layers to enhance performance.

  Thus, according to the present embodiment, it is possible to provide the cooling facility 100 that can be easily realized using water as the cooling liquid 101.

  Note that the cooling facility 100 may include a plurality of cooling facilities, and the inlet 104 and the outlet 105 of the front and rear cooling facilities 100 may be connected in series.

  The plurality of electronic devices 110 are accommodated in the rack 103 and constitute a cooling system together with the cooling facility 100.

  When seawater is used as the cooling liquid 101, the cooling facility 100 can be installed in the sea such as the seabed. Alternatively, the cooling facility 100 may be immersed in water in the sea, river, lake, dam, or the like.

  In the above description, a server, a PCB board, and the like are described as examples of the electronic device 110, but the present invention is similarly applied to a battery such as a lithium ion battery and other devices that generate heat. Is possible.

(Second Embodiment)
In the first embodiment, the open system in which the cooling liquid 101 passes through the inlet 104 and the outlet 105 has been described. However, a closed system in which the cooling liquid 501 is circulated in the cooling tank 502 is also conceivable.

  FIG. 5 shows a schematic diagram of a cooling facility according to the second embodiment. The cooling facility 500 includes a cooling liquid 501, a cooling tank 502 that holds the cooling liquid 501, and a rack 503 that accommodates a plurality of electronic devices 110 in the cooling tank 502.

  The difference from the cooling facility 100 according to the first embodiment is that the coolant 501 circulates in the cooling tank 502. For circulation, for example, a circulation pump can be used.

  Heat given to the coolant 501 circulating from the plurality of electronic devices 110 is dissipated by a heat exchanger 504 such as a radiator, and the temperature of the coolant 501 decreases. For example, the cooling facility 500 can be installed in the sea such as the seabed, and the heat from the coolant 501 can be radiated to the seawater in the heat exchanger 504.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 100 Cooling equipment 101 Cooling liquid 102 Cooling tank 103 Rack 104 Inlet 105 Outlet 106 Flow path 106A Outlet 301 Surface 302 Nanoparticle 401 Surface 402 Nanoparticle 500 Cooling equipment 501 Coolant 502 Cooling tank 503 Rack 504 Heat exchanger

Claims (10)

A cooling device for cooling a plurality of electronic devices,
Coolant,
A cooling tank for holding the coolant;
A rack for accommodating the plurality of electronic devices in the cooling tank,
The coolant includes water,
Each of the plurality of electronic devices is subjected to waterproof shielding including nanoparticles having a diameter of less than 10 nm,
The rack is configured to bring the plurality of electronic devices into contact with the coolant.   The cooling device according to claim 1, wherein the nanoparticles are embedded in a surface of the electronic device.   The cooling device according to claim 2, wherein the surface of the electronic device has a gap of about 20 to 250 nm.   The cooling device according to claim 2, wherein the nanoparticles are silicon particles.   The cooling device according to any one of claims 1 to 4, further comprising an inlet and an outlet of the cooling liquid to the cooling tank.   The cooling device according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the cooling liquid circulates in the cooling tank.   The cooling device according to claim 6, further comprising a heat exchanger for reducing the temperature of the coolant. A cooling device according to any one of claims 1 to 7,
A cooling system comprising: a plurality of electronic devices housed in the rack.   The cooling system according to claim 8, wherein the cooling device is immersed in a sea, a river, a lake or a dam.   10. The cooling system according to claim 8, wherein the cooling system is a data center.

Images