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US-12621956-B2 - Acoustically-sensitive filter fouling tests

US12621956B2US 12621956 B2US12621956 B2US 12621956B2US-12621956-B2

Abstract

A method may include, during a filter fouling test of an air filter, determining if the air mover is operating below a first predetermined filter testing speed, in response to the air mover operating below the first predetermined filter testing speed, operating the air mover at the first predetermined filter testing speed and determining an indicator of filter degradation of the air filter responsive to the first predetermined filter testing speed, in response to the air mover operating above the first predetermined filter testing speed, operating the air mover at a second predetermined filter testing speed significantly greater than the first predetermined filter testing speed and determining the indicator of filter degradation of the air filter responsive to the second predetermined filter testing speed, and determining if the indicator of filter degradation is below a respective filter failure threshold.

Inventors

  • Eric Tunks
  • Donnie W. GERHART
  • Seth LAW

Assignees

  • DELL PRODUCTS L.P.

Dates

Publication Date
20260505
Application Date
20220713

Claims (9)

  1. 1 . An information handling system comprising: a component; a cooling fan or blower configured to drive air to cool the component; and a controller coupled to the cooling fan or blower and configured to: detect, based on historical airflow data obtained from an airflow sensor, an indication of an air filter installation; set a speed of the cooling fan or blower to a first predetermined speed and obtain an initial value of airflow; periodically perform air filter test operations to test the air filter, wherein the air filter test operations include: detecting a speed of the cooling fan or blower below the first predetermined speed, increasing the speed to the first predetermined speed and obtaining an indicator of filter degradation corresponding to the first predetermined speed; detecting the cooling fan or blower operating above the first predetermined speed, increasing the speed to a second predetermined speed, greater than the first predetermined speed, and obtaining an indicator of filter degradation corresponding to the second predetermined speed; determining the indicator of filter degradation is below a filter failure threshold and communication an alert; and wherein the indicator of filter degradation is a measured airflow in the information handling system.
  2. 2 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the first predetermined speed is 50% of a specified speed of the cooling fan or blower.
  3. 3 . The information handling system of claim 1 , wherein the second predetermined speed is 100% of a specified speed of the cooling fan or blower.
  4. 4 . A method comprising: responsive to detecting installation of a clean air filter: detecting, based on historical airflow data obtained from an airflow sensor, an indication of an air filter installation; setting a speed of the cooling fan or blower to a first predetermined speed and obtain an initial value of airflow; periodically performing air filter test operations to test the air filter, wherein the air filter test operations include: detecting a speed of the cooling fan or blower below the first predetermined speed, increasing the speed to the first predetermined speed and obtaining an indicator of filter degradation corresponding to the first predetermined speed; detecting the cooling fan or blower operating above the first predetermined speed, increasing the speed to a second predetermined speed, greater than the first predetermined speed, and obtaining an indicator of filter degradation corresponding to the second predetermined speed; determining the indicator of filter degradation is below a filter failure threshold and communication an alert; and wherein the indicator of filter degradation is a measured airflow in the information handling system.
  5. 5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the first predetermined speed is 50% of a specified speed of the cooling fan or blower.
  6. 6 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the second predetermined speed is 100% of a specified speed of the cooling fan or blower.
  7. 7 . An article of manufacture comprising: a non-transitory computer-readable medium; and computer-executable instructions carried on the computer-readable medium, the instructions readable by a processing device, the instructions, when read and executed, for causing the processing device to: detect, based on historical airflow data obtained from an airflow sensor, an indication of an air filter installation; set a speed of the cooling fan or blower to a first predetermined speed and obtain an initial value of airflow; periodically perform air filter test operations to test the air filter, wherein the air filter test operations include: detecting a speed of the cooling fan or blower below the first predetermined speed, increasing the speed to the first predetermined speed and obtaining an indicator of filter degradation corresponding to the first predetermined speed; detecting the cooling fan or blower operating above the first predetermined speed, increasing the speed to a second predetermined speed, greater than the first predetermined speed, and obtaining an indicator of filter degradation corresponding to the second predetermined speed; determining the indicator of filter degradation is below a filter failure threshold and communication an alert; and wherein the indicator of filter degradation is a measured airflow in the information handling system.
  8. 8 . The article of claim 7 , wherein the first predetermined speed is 50% of a specified speed of the cooling fan or blower.
  9. 9 . The article of claim 7 , wherein the second predetermined speed is 100% of a specified speed of the cooling fan or blower.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present disclosure relates in general to information handling systems, and more particularly to detecting fouling of an air filter in an information handling system. BACKGROUND As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems. As processors, graphics cards, random access memory (RAM) and other components in information handling systems have increased in clock speed and power consumption, the amount of heat produced by such components as a side-effect of normal operation has also increased. Often, the temperatures of these components need to be kept within a reasonable range to prevent overheating, instability, malfunction and damage leading to a shortened component lifespan. Accordingly, air movers (e.g., cooling fans and blowers) have often been used in information handling systems to cool information handling systems and their components. In some instances, information handling systems may be deployed into locations with poor air quality. As such, such information handling systems are often equipped with integrated filters (e.g., integrated within a bezel of the information handling system chassis) to prevent airborne particulates from entering such information handling systems. However, as a filter accumulates particulates, airflow impedance may increase, rendering it more difficult for air movers to draw in airflow. Accordingly, information handling systems with closed-loop thermal control may tend to drive air movers at greater speeds in order to account for this higher airflow impedance. Likewise, in open-loop thermal control systems, less airflow may be driven by air movers to cool components and thus such information handling systems may operate at higher temperatures. In either case, a degraded filter may mean that an information handling system may support lower ambient temperatures than would be the case for a non-degraded filter. Thus, it may be desirable to clean or replace such filters once they reach a certain level of particulate accumulation, in order to prevent such decreased air mover performance. While existing approaches exist for alerting an administrator or user (e.g., a reminder alert after a fixed period of time), such approaches have disadvantages. For example, a timer-based alert may not account for differences in hardware configurations of information handling systems or for differences between clean and dirty ambient environments. SUMMARY In accordance with the teachings of the present disclosure, the disadvantages and problems associated with detecting of filter fouling in an information handling system may be substantially reduced or eliminated. In accordance with embodiments of the present disclosure, an information handling system may include an information handling resource, an air mover configured to drive air to cool the information handling resource, and a thermal control system for controlling the air mover. The thermal control system may be further configured to, in response to an indication that a clean air filter has been installed in the information handling system set a speed of the air mover to a predetermined filter testing speed, determine a clean filter baseline airflow as an airflow driven within the information handling system responsive to the predetermined filter testing speed, calculate a threshold filter failure airflow based on the clean filter baseline airflow, and periodically execute filter fouling tests. During each filter fouling test, the thermal control system may be configured to set the speed of the air mover to the predetermined filter testing speed, determine a resulting airflow within the information handling system responsive to the predetermined filter testing