US-12621960-B2 - Heat dissipation system and method for electronic devices

US12621960B2US 12621960 B2US12621960 B2US 12621960B2US-12621960-B2

Abstract

The present application provides a heat dissipation system and method for electronic devices. The system includes a heat dissipation unit attached to electronic component of an electronic device, a temperature and humidity sensor, a cooling unit and a controller. The controller is configured to obtain the dew point temperature of the space in which the cooling unit is disposed and to determine a coolant flow rate based on the dew point and the coolant temperature. In the event where the difference between the coolant temperature and the dew point is greater than a threshold, the heat dissipation unit receives the coolant under a first flow rate. In the event where the difference between the coolant temperature and the dew point is equal to or less than the threshold, the heat dissipation unit receives the coolant under a second flow rate lower than the first flow rate.

Inventors

Fwu-bin Hsu
Jeffrey Holland
Vinod Kamath
Wen-Lung Wang
CHENG-YAO CHENG
CHIH-LYNN YEH

Assignees

LENOVO ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20240109
Priority Date: 20230224

Claims (20)

1 . A heat dissipation method comprising: supplying a coolant to a heat dissipation unit under a first flow rate, the heat dissipation unit being attached to an electronic component of an electronic device; determining a dew point temperature of a space in which the heat dissipation unit is disposed; determining a temperature difference between a coolant temperature and the dew point temperature; supplying the coolant to the heat dissipation unit under the first flow rate in response to the temperature difference being greater than a threshold; and lowering the first flow rate to a second flow rate and supplying the coolant to the heat dissipation unit under the second flow rate in response to the temperature difference being equal to or less than the threshold; wherein the threshold is determined based on heat dissipation requirements of the electronic device and the electronic component, and at least one of a configuration requirement, a specification, or a heat dissipation characteristic of the heat dissipation unit.
2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein supplying the coolant under the second flow rate comprises supplying the coolant from a cooling unit to the heat dissipation unit.
3 . The method of claim 2 , wherein heat dissipation unit is one of at least two heat dissipation units; the method further comprising: determining a minimum temperature difference amongst temperature differences between the coolant temperature and dew point temperatures of the at least two heat dissipation units; supplying the coolant to the at least two heat dissipation units under the first flow rate in response to the minimum temperature difference being greater than the threshold; and supplying the coolant to the at least two heat dissipation units under the second flow rate in response to the minimum temperature difference being equal to or less than the threshold.
4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein supplying the coolant under the second flow rate comprises supplying the coolant from a cooling unit under the first flow rate, and reducing the first flow rate to the second flow rate.
5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein the heat dissipation unit is one of at least two heat dissipation units, the method further comprising: determining a dew point temperature of each of the at least two heat dissipation units; determining temperature differences between the coolant temperature and the dew point temperatures of the at least two heat dissipation units; supplying the coolant to each of the at least two heat dissipation units under the first flow rate in response to the temperature difference between the coolant temperature and the dew point temperature of the each of the at least two heat dissipation units being greater than the threshold; and supplying the coolant to each of the at least two heat dissipation units under a corresponding second flow rate of the each of the at least two heat dissipation units in response to the temperature difference between the coolant temperature and the dew point temperature of the each of the at least two heat dissipation units being equal to or less than the threshold.
6 . The method of claim 5 , wherein the corresponding second flow rate of the one of the at least two heat dissipation units is different from the corresponding second flow rate of another one of the at least two heat dissipation units.
7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising activating an alert upon determining an occurrence in response to the temperature difference being equal to or less than the threshold.
8 . A heat dissipation system comprising: a heat dissipation unit attached to an electronic component of an electronic device; a temperature and humidity sensor disposed in a space in which the heat dissipation unit and the electronic component are disposed; a cooling device in fluid communication with and configured to supply coolant to the heat dissipation unit; and a controller configured to perform the method according to claim 1 .
9 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to cause the cooling device to supply the coolant to the heat dissipation unit under the second flow rate in response to the difference between the coolant temperature and the dew point being equal to or less than the threshold.
10 . The system of claim 9 , comprising at least two heat dissipation units each being attached to a respective electronic component and at least two temperature and humidity sensors, each temperature and humidity sensor being disposed in a space surrounding a respective heat dissipation unit and a corresponding electronic component for measuring the temperature and the humidity of the space, wherein the controller is further configured to: obtain a dew point temperature of each space based on the respective temperature and humidity as measured by the respective temperature and humidity sensor, and determine a minimum temperature difference amongst temperature differences between the coolant temperature and the dew point temperatures of the at least two heat dissipation units; cause the at least two heat dissipation units to receive the coolant under the first flow rate in response to the minimum temperature difference being greater than the threshold; and cause the at least two heat dissipation units to receive the coolant under the second flow rate in response to the minimum temperature difference being equal to or less than the threshold.
11 . The system of claim 8 , further comprising a flow rate valve in fluid communication between an outlet of the cooling device and an inlet of the heat dissipation unit and controllably coupled to the controller, wherein the controller is further configured to cause the coolant to be supplied from the flow rate valve to the heat dissipation unit under the first flow rate in response to the temperature difference being greater than the threshold, and cause the coolant to be supplied from the flow rate valve to the heat dissipation unit under the second flow rate in response to the temperature difference being equal to or less than the threshold.
12 . The system of claim 11 , comprising at least two heat dissipation units each being attached to and in thermal exchange with a respective electronic component, at least two temperature and humidity sensors each being disposed in a space surrounding a respective heat dissipation unit and a corresponding electronic component for measuring the temperature and the humidity of the space, and at least two flow rate valves each being in fluid communication between the cooling device and a respective heat dissipation unit and each being controllably coupled to the controller, wherein the controller is further configured to: obtain a dew point temperature of each space based on the respective temperature and humidity as measured by the respective temperature and humidity sensor, and determine a temperature difference between the coolant temperature and each dew point temperature; cause the heat dissipation unit to receive the coolant from a respective flow rate valve under the first flow rate in response to the temperature difference being greater than the threshold; and cause the heat dissipation unit to receive the coolant from a respective flow rate valve under the second flow rate in response to the temperature difference being equal to or less than the threshold.
13 . The system of claim 12 , wherein the at least two flow rate valves are independently controllable each for supplying the coolant under the second flow rate.
14 . The system of claim 8 , wherein the controller is further configured to activate an alert in response to the temperature difference being equal to or less than the threshold.
15 . A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing computer instructions, when executed by one or more processors, the computer instructions perform the heat dissipation method according to claim 8 .
16 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the heat dissipation method further comprises supplying the coolant from a cooling unit to the heat dissipation unit.
17 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the heat dissipation method further comprises supplying the coolant to at least two heat dissipation units and determining a minimum temperature difference amongst temperature differences between the coolant temperature and dew point temperatures of the at least two heat dissipation units.
18 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17 , wherein the heat dissipation method further comprises: supplying the coolant to the at least two heat dissipation units under the first flow rate in response to the minimum temperature difference being greater than the threshold; and supplying the coolant to the at least two heat dissipation units under the second flow rate in response to the minimum temperature difference being equal to or less than the threshold.
19 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 15 , wherein the heat dissipation method further comprises supplying the coolant from a cooling unit under the first flow rate, and reducing the first flow rate to the second flow rate.
20 . The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 19 , wherein the heat dissipation method further comprises supplying the coolant to at least two heat dissipation units, determining dew point temperatures of the at least two heat dissipation units, and determining temperature differences between the coolant temperature and each of the dew point temperatures.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION The present disclosure claims priority to Chinese Patent Application No. 202310164974.2, filed on Feb. 24, 2023, the entire content of which is incorporated herein by reference. TECHNICAL FIELD The present application related to heat dissipation system and method for electronic devices and in particular, to a water-cooling heat dissipation system and method for electronic devices. BACKGROUND Heat dissipation to heating elements in electronic devices, for instance computing devices, computer servers, etc, are necessary for maintaining the normal operations of such devices. High heat-generating components, such as central processing units (CPU) in large scale and high performance computing devices, generates heats at a level much higher than those from small computing devices and micro computers and accordingly, such components have high level of heat dissipation requirements. One type of heat dissipation system of such type, operates with liquid, for example water, as heat transfer media, to provide heat dissipation with high capacity. In one aspect, water temperature in such system is expected to be as lower as possible, to meet heat dissipation requirements. In another aspect, however, condense water may be generated with relatively low water temperature, which may give rise to malfunctions or even damages to the computing system. Water temperature adjustment by manual control is often used to reduce the likelihood of condense water generation. Such method, however, requires real time monitoring on computing systems and devices, which is time consuming and labor intensive and further, precision control of condense water generation at the effective heat dissipation is hard to achieve. SUMMARY According to one embodiment, a heat dissipation system for electronic devices comprises a heat dissipation unit thermal exchangeably attached to a heat-generating component of an electronic device, a temperature and humidity sensor disposed in a space in which the heat dissipation unit and the heat-generating component are disposed, and a cooling device in fluid communication with and configured to supply coolant to the heat dissipation unit. The controller is configured to obtaining a dew point temperature based on a temperature and a humidity measured in the space, and to configure flow rate based on the temperature of the coolant and the dew point temperature, causing the heat dissipation unit to receive coolant under a first flow rate when a difference between the coolant temperature and the dew point is greater than a predetermined threshold, or causing the heat dissipation unit to receive coolant under a lowered second flow rate when the difference between the coolant temperature and the dew point is equal to or less than a predetermined threshold. According to another embodiment, the present application provides heat dissipation method for electronic devices, the method comprises supplying a coolant to a heat dissipation unit under a first flow rate; determining a dew point temperature of a space in which the heat dissipation unit is disposed; determining a temperature difference between a coolant temperature and the dew point temperature; supplying the coolant to the heat dissipation unit under the first flow rate when the temperature difference is greater than a predetermined threshold, or lowering the first flow rate to a second flow rate and supplying the coolant to the heat dissipation unit under the second first flow rate when the temperature difference is equal to or less than the predetermined threshold. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS Technical solutions embodied herein will be illustrated in further detail in junction with the drawings, in which FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a heat dissipation system for a computing device according to one embodiment; FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a heat dissipation system for a computing device according to another embodiment; FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a heat dissipation system for a computing device according to yet another embodiment; FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a heat dissipation system for a computing device according to a further embodiment; FIG. 5 is a flow chart of a heat dissipation method for a computing device according to one embodiment. DETAILED DESCRIPTION As shown in FIG. 1, according to one embodiment, a heat dissipation system 100 for a computing device comprises a heat dissipation unit, for instance heat sink 160, supply pipe 1602 and return pipe 1608 connected in fluid communication with the heat sink 160, and a cooling device such as a cooling distribution unit (CDU) 180 in fluid communication with the supply pipe 1602 and return pipe 1608, a temperature-humidity sensor 130 and a controller 120. Heat sink 160 is mounted to an electrical component 150, for dissipating heat from the electrical component 150 via heat exchange with the electrical component 150. Electronic device 140 may be e.g. computer server, loc