Apparatuses For Controlling Airflow Beneath A Raised Floor
In one embodiment, a floor tile includes a body having a top side, a bottom side, and multiple lateral sides, and an integrated flow control element extending down from the bottom side, the flow control element being configured to control the flow of air below the floor tile.
Data centers, also referred to as computer rooms, often comprise a raised floor that forms an enclosed space with a sub-floor over which the raised floor is constructed. The enclosed space can be used to route various objects, such cables, power lines, and conduit, within the data center. When the raised floor is vented, the enclosed space can further be used as a plenum that delivers cooled air to the data center that can be used to cool heat-generating equipment provided in the center. In such a case, the vents in the raised floor may be positioned adjacent to inlets of the equipment with which air is drawn into the equipment.
Although the areas of the raised floor that comprise vents normally comprise only a fraction of the total area of the raised floor, it is common to cool the entire enclosed space below the raised floor. Therefore, much of the cooled air, and the energy used to produce it, are wasted. Furthermore, because there typically is nothing within the enclosed space to route the cooled air around the objects contained within the enclosed space, the flow of cooled air to the vents can be impeded, thereby reducing cooling efficiency.
The disclosed apparatuses can be better understood with reference to the following drawings. The components in the drawings are not necessarily to scale.
As described above, current cooling of data center equipment using a raised floor can be inefficient due to either or both of using energy to cool air that is not actually used to cool the equipment and failure to route the cooled air around objects that can impede airflow. As described in the following, however, greater efficiency can be achieved by controlling the airflow beneath the raised floor. In some embodiments, tiles used to form the raised floor comprise integral flow control elements that provide such control. Various embodiments of such tiles are disclosed below.
Referring now in more detail to the drawings in which like numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the views,
Extending from the bottom side 104 of the tile 100 is an integrated flow control element 108. In the embodiment of
In the embodiment illustrated in
The rotation enabled by the vertical shaft 116 is schematically depicted in
When the above-described tile 100 is used in a raised floor, the flow control elements 108 can be advantageously used to control airflow beneath the floor so as to increase the cooling and/or energy efficiency of the system used to cool heat-generating equipment. In particular, cooled air can be channeled using the flow control elements of multiple adjacent tiles 100 so that the cooled air is confined to an area in which it can be utilized and objects that can impeded airflow are avoided. An example of such channeling is described below in relation to
In order to best cool the equipment, it is desirable to deliver cool, for example air-conditioned, air to the cold aisles 126 and 127. Such air can be delivered using a raised floor. The data center 122 comprises such a raised floor 130 formed in part by multiple tiles 132, at least some of which being configured like the tile 100 described above. By way of example, the raised floor 130 is raised above a sub-floor (e.g., concrete floor) and bounds a plenum that is approximately 24 in. to 36 in. in height. Discharging air into that plenum are air conditioning units 134 and 135 that supply cooled air to the plenum. In conventional systems, the air conditioning units 134 and 135 would supply cool air to the entire plenum, i.e., the entire volume of air below the raised floor 130. In the data center 122 shown in
Extending from the bottom side 204 of the tile 200 is an integrated flow control element 210. In the embodiment of
The raised floor 402 includes multiple tiles 200 and multiple tiles 300. Rows of tiles 300 are aligned with each other along the rows 408, 410 so as to help channel the cooled air toward the flow control elements 210 of individual tiles 200, which are positioned at selected locations along the cold aisles 412, 414. Such selected locations can be locations adjacent the equipment that generates the greatest amount of heat in the data center 400. Therefore, the cool air from an air conditioning unit (not shown) can diverted out toward the cold aisles 414 and scooped up by the flow control elements 210 so as to be directed through the perforations 208 (see
Claims
1. A floor tile comprising:
- a body having a topside, a bottom side, and multiple lateral sides; and
- an integrated flow control element extending down from the bottom side, the flow control element being configured to control the flow of air below the floor tile.
2. The floor tile of claim 1, wherein the tile body comprises a plurality of perforations through which air can flow.
3. The floor tile of claim 1, wherein the flow control element comprises a bristle brush including a multiplicity of closely-packed bristles.
4. The floor tile of claim 3, wherein the bristles are composed of a flexible material.
5. The floor tile of claim 3, wherein the bristles comprise filaments of non-static generating polymeric material.
6. The floor tile of claim 3, wherein the bristles are mounted on a pivotable support member that can be pivoted relative to its longitudinal axis to change the orientation of the bristles relative to the tile body.
7. The floor tile of claim 6, wherein the pivotable support member is supported from the tile body by a rotatable shaft about which the pivotable support member can rotate, such that the flow control element can be pivoted or rotated about two separate axes.
8. The floor tile of claim 1, wherein the flow control element has a depth of approximately 24 inches to 36 inches and is adapted to extend down to a sub-floor over which a raised floor in which the floor tile is provided.
9. The floor tile of claim 1, wherein the flow control element has a length that extends from one lateral side of the tile to another lateral side of the tile such that the flow control element is as long as the tile is wide.
10. The floor tile of claim 1, wherein the flow control element comprises an air scoop that directs air up toward the bottom side of the tile body.
11. The floor tile of claim 10, wherein air scoop has a three-dimensional curvature extending from a distal tip to a base that connects to the bottom side of the tile body.
12. The floor tile of claim 11, wherein the distance between the tip and the base is approximately 24 inches to 36 inches.
13. The floor tile of claim 1, wherein the flow control element comprises an air diverter that laterally diverts air.
14. The floor tile of claim 13, wherein air diverter has a bell curve shape extending from a distal tip to a base that connects to the bottom side of the tile body.
15. The floor tile of claim 14, wherein the distance between the tip and the base is approximately 24 inches to 36 inches.
16. A data center comprising:
- a sub-floor; and
- a raised floor constructed above the sub-floor so as to define a plenum between the sub-floor and the raised floor, the raised floor comprising a plurality of floor tiles, at least one floor tile comprising an integrated flow control element that extends down from the at least one floor tile toward the sub-floor, the flow control element being configured to control airflow within the plenum.
17. The data center of claim 16, wherein the flow control element comprises a bristle brush including a multiplicity of closely-packed bristles.
18. The data center of claim 17, wherein the flow control element is pivotable or rotatable about two separate axes.
19. The data center of claim 16, wherein the flow control element comprises an air scoop that directs air up toward a bottom side of the at least one tile.
20. The data center of claim 16, wherein the flow control element comprises an air diverter that laterally diverts air.
21. The data center of claim 16, wherein the raised floor comprises multiple tiles comprising integrated flow control elements, the multiple tiles being aligned in a row with their flow control elements being aligned end-to-end to form a substantially continuous wall within the plenum.
Type: Application
Filed: Sep 18, 2008
Publication Date: Mar 18, 2010
Inventors: Anand A. Kulkarni (Richardson, TX), Pin-Che Ronald Tsai (Dunwoody, GA), Martha Peterson (McKinney, TX)
Application Number: 12/233,019
International Classification: E04F 15/024 (20060101);