Patent Grant
7894613
Computer network server system and related components are typically housed in racks configured to house and to assimilate the functions of a plurality of component devices. System racks provide efficient organization for the plurality of components for ease of access, serviceability, expandability, power distribution, cooling, etc.
These system racks generally are housed in a computer server room, which hosts many computers and servers that all require fans to keep the systems cooled. Cooling fans could come with the systems and are part of the systems. Alternatively, cooling fans could also be installed outside the systems. When cooling fans are installed outside systems, typically, they are installed in the same system racks with the systems they are designed to cool. Cooling fans emit noise (or acoustic waves) with varying wavelengths (or frequency) and intensities (or magnitudes), depending on the fan models and the running speeds. Multiple cooling fans in a computer server room running at one time may create excessive ambient noise. The ambient noise can be a high-pitched sound that sometimes prevents personnel working in the computer server room from concentrating on their work or even talking to each other. The ambient noise can grow to the point that personnel working in the room are unable to be productive.
To quiet the cooling fan noise, sound absorbing materials, such as acoustical foams, have been used in the design and construction of computer server rooms. Although acoustical foams reduce ambient noise, they do not completely remove ambient noise. In addition, acoustical foams can be quite expensive and are not practical to some computer server rooms, due to fire safety requirements or other reasons.
In consideration of the foregoing, what is needed is an efficient noise reduction apparatus and method to increase effectiveness of cooling fan noise control in computer server rooms with multiple computers, servers and cooling fans.
Broadly speaking, the embodiments fill the need of reducing fan noise in computer server rooms by providing methods and apparatus to generate acoustic waves at about 180 degrees out of phase from fan noise, to effectively cancel the fan noise. It should be appreciated that the present invention can be implemented in numerous ways, including as a system and a method. Several inventive embodiments of the present invention are described below.
In one embodiment, a computer server room with controlled cooling fan noise is provided. It includes one or more system racks, wherein the one or more system racks have a plurality of systems and a plurality of cooling fans to cool the plurality of systems, and the cooling fans emit fan noise while running. It also includes one or more transducers coupled to one or more walls of the one or more system racks, wherein at least one of the one or more transducers emit transducer acoustic waves to reduce or essentially to eliminate the fan noise.
In another embodiment, a system to control fan noise in a computer server room is provided. It includes one or more transducers coupled to one or more walls of a plurality of system racks and one or more active noise control units, wherein the one or more active noise control units send control signals to the one or more transducers to emit a transducer acoustic wave. It also includes a microphone installed near a location in the computer server room where cooling fan noise needs to be controlled, wherein the microphone collects fan noise signals emitted from running fans on the plurality of system racks in the computer server room and sends the collected fan noise signals to the one or more active noise control units to allow the frequency and intensity of the transducer acoustic wave to be substantially equal to a frequency and an intensity of the fan noise and at about 180 degrees out of phase with the fan noise to reduce or essentially to eliminate the fan noise.
In yet another embodiment, a method of reducing a cooling fan noise in a computer server room is provided. It includes using a microphone, placed near a location where cooling fan noise needs to be controlled, to collect cooling fan noise signals, wherein the cooling fan noise comes from running cooling fans on system racks which have systems that are operating. It also includes sending cooling fan noise signals to one or more active noise control units, and analyzing cooling fan noise signals to determine a phase, an intensity and a frequency of the cooling fan noise signals. It further includes sending control signals from the one or more active noise control units to one or more transducers to emit a transducer acoustic wave, and emitting the transducer acoustic wave from the one or more transducers to reduce the cooling fan noise.
The present invention will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and like reference numerals designate like structural elements.
The embodiments described below fill the need of reducing fan noise in computer server rooms by providing methods and apparatus to generate about 180 degrees out of phase acoustic waves to cancel fan noise. The apparatus and methods provide efficient noise reduction to increase the effectiveness of noise control. It will be obvious, however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may be practiced without some or all of these specific details. In other instances, well known process operations have not been described in detail in order not to unnecessarily obscure the present invention.
If cooling fans 158 come with systems 155, the cooling fans 158 are typically turned on when the systems 155 are running. If the cooling fans 158 are outside the systems 155, the number of cooling fans that are turned on is typically proportional to the number of running systems 155. Typically, the cooling fans near the running systems 155 are turned on first to effectively cool the running systems 155.
For example, cooling fans 158 emit a fan noise, represented by an acoustic wave (or waves) 131. The fan noise 131 from the cooling fans 158 in the computer server room 100 reduces the productivity of the personnel 190 near wall 101 in the computer server room 100. To reduce fan noise around personnel 190, in one embodiment, one or more transducers 152 can be placed on system racks 150. Typically, system racks 150 have enclosures. In one embodiment, system racks 150 have enclosures made of metal sheet(s) covering at least the sidewalls 151a, 151b of the system racks 150. The transducers 152 can be placed on or connected to the metal sheet sidewalls 151a, 151b to enable the emission of transducer acoustic wave (or waves) 133 at about 180 degrees out of phase with the acoustic wave 131. The transducer acoustic wave 133 emitted from the transducers 152 is configured to be at almost the same frequency and intensity (or magnitude) as the fan acoustic wave 131 of the fan noise in order to substantially cancel the fan acoustic wave (or fan noise) 131. Due to canceling effect of the transducer acoustic wave 133, fan acoustic wave 131 can be greatly reduced or essentially eliminated. In one embodiment, the transducers 152 are acoustic drivers. The metal sheet sidewalls 151a, 151b functions as diaphragms (or speakers) for the acoustic drivers.
In one embodiment, if the fan noise from multiple running fans have different frequencies (wavelengths), the fan acoustic wave 131 is composed of multiple acoustic waves of different frequencies and intensities and is represented by a complex periodic function. Under such a circumstance, one or more transducers 152 can be configured to emit transducer acoustic wave 133 with about 180 degrees out of phase with the fan acoustic wave 131 and with frequencies and intensities matching the acoustic wave 133 to effectively cancel or reduce the fan noise(s).
In one embodiment, transducers 152 are made using piezoelectric crystals. Under alternating electric fields, the crystals vibrate at the frequency of the AC fields to generate acoustic waves (or sound waves). The thickness of the piezoelectric crystals and the frequencies of the applied AC fields determine the frequencies and intensities of the acoustic waves the transducers generate. In another embodiment, transducers 152 are made using electromagnetic drivers.
In order to generate correct intensity and frequency of transducer acoustic wave 133 to cancel the fan acoustic wave 131 emitted by the cooling fans 158, in one embodiment, the frequency and intensity of the acoustic wave heard by the personnel 190 can be collected by a microphone 159, installed near personnel 190. In one embodiment, the fan acoustic wave 131 detected by the microphone 159 is transmitted through a signal cable 157 to one or more active noise control units 156, which can analyze the intensity (or intensities) and frequency (or frequencies) of the detected fan acoustic wave 131. In another embodiment, the microphone 159 transmits detected signals to active noise control units through a wireless device. In one embodiment, the active noise control units 156 then send controlling signal through a signal cable 153 to transducers 152 to emit a transducer acoustic wave 133 (or waves) that is substantially at about 180 degrees out of phase with the fan acoustic wave 131. In another embodiment, the active noise control units 156 send controlling signals through a wireless device to transducers 152. The transducer acoustic wave 133 is at about the same intensity and frequency as the fan acoustic wave 131 to effectively cancel the fan acoustic wave 131.
In one embodiment, the active noise control unit 156 is coupled to multiple transducers, such as transducers 152 and 152′. The active noise control unit 156 may only instruct some of the transducers, such as transducers 152, to emit transducer acoustic waves 133, while leaving other transducers, such as transducers 152′, un-triggered.
If multiple server racks, such as system racks 150a, 150b, and 150c, have running fans, such as 158a, 158b, and 158c, microphone 159a can be configured to transmit the detected acoustic wave signals to multiple active noise control units, such as 156a, 156b, and 156c. In one embodiment, the multiple noise control units, such as 156a, 156b, and 156c, are configured to be informed of the status of all active server racks. After analyzing the phase, the intensity and the frequency of the detected acoustic wave, the multiple active noise control units, such as 156a, 156b, and 156c, send control signals to transducers, such as 152a, 152b, and 152c to allow some or all transducers, 152a, 152b, 152c, to emit canceling acoustic wave(s), totaled to be equal to the intensity and frequency of the detected acoustic wave, but at about 180 degrees out of phase to cancel the detected acoustic wave.
In another embodiment, the microphone 159a can transmit the signal of the detected acoustic wave to a main active noise control unit 156m. The main active noise control unit 156m determines the phase, the intensity and the frequency of the detected acoustic wave and sends control signals to transducers, 152a, 152b, or 152c, on active server racks (or server racks that have running fans) to emit canceling acoustic waves, which when added together equal to the intensity and frequency of the detected acoustic wave, but at about 180 degrees out of phase to cancel the detected acoustic wave. In yet another embodiment, the main active noise control unit 156m sends control signals to one or more transducers, such as transducers 152b, 152c, that are near the personnel 190 to emit canceling acoustic wave(s), with intensity and frequency equal to the intensity and frequency of the detected acoustic wave, but at 180 degrees out of phase to cancel the detected acoustic wave.
In one embodiment, the cooling fan identification and status, such as running or not, and fan tachometer data (for phase information and running speed), are transmitted to an active noise control unit 156′. With experimental correlation between the fan running speed and fan noise acoustic wave, the active noise control unit 156′ can determine the phase, the frequency and intensity of the fan acoustic wave based on the fan identification and status information provided. The active noise control unit 156′ determines the phase, frequency and intensity of the overall acoustic wave 131′ emitted by the running fans based on the correlation table between fan speed and fan noise acoustic wave and mathematical addition of acoustic waves. The active noise control unit 156′ then sends control signals to one or more transducers 152′ on server 150′ to emit canceling transducer acoustic wave(s) 133′ that is at about 180 degrees out of phase with fan acoustic wave 131′ generated by the running fans and at about the same intensity and about the same frequency (or wavelength) to ensure the acoustic wave 131′ is largely or essentially eliminated. The total fan acoustic wave 131′ could be a complicated acoustic wave form that has multiple intensities and frequencies; therefore, the transducer acoustic waves 133′ generated need to substantially match the fan acoustic wave 131′ but at about 180 degrees out of phase.
In another embodiment, the microphone 159′ on the wall 101′ near personnel 190′ is activated to collect fan acoustic wave signals to confirm that acoustic wave 131′ is largely or essentially eliminated. If not, microphone 159′ provides feedback to be used to tune the active noise control unit 156′, which, after tuning, sends controlling signals to transducers 152′ again, to reduce the acoustic wave 131′ to largely or essentially non-existent. The feedback process can be an on-going process for the microphone 159′ to constantly check on the status of noise reduction.
The process then proceeds to operation 145. At operation 145, a microphone, placed near a location where fan noise needs to be minimized, is used to collect fan acoustic wave signals. At the following operation 146, the collected fan acoustic wave signals are compared to the fan noise limit to determine if the fan noise is within acceptable range. If the answer is “yes”, the process goes to the finish operation. If the answer is “no”, the process proceeds to operation 147. At operation 147, the microphone sends fan acoustic wave signals to active noise control unit(s). At the following operation 148, the active noise control unit(s) analyzes fan acoustic wave signals received from the microphone to adjust the phase, the intensity and the frequency of the transducer acoustic wave(s). At the same time, the correlation table can also be modified to reflect the residual fan noise collected by the microphone. Afterwards, the active noise control unit(s) sends control signals to transducer(s) at operation 149a. At operation 149b, transducer(s) emits transducer acoustic wave(s) according to instructions from the active noise control unit(s). After operation 149b, the process goes back to operations following 145 to check if there is residual fan noise that is beyond control limit. The checking process continues until the fan noise is within acceptable limit at operation 146.
In another embodiment, the active noise control unit 156 includes a fan ID and status detector 171, that can detect which fan has been turned on and at what speed the fan is running. The fan ID and status information could come from a system rack controller 170. Based on the fan ID and status information, the detector 171 can calculate the phase, frequency and intensity of the running fans and send the information to the transducer controller 173. The transducer controller 173 then issues control signals to one or more transducers, 152a, 152b, . . . , 152n, to emit acoustic wave(s) at about 180 degrees out of phase with the acoustic wave emitted by the fans and detected by the microphone 159. The acoustic waves emitted by participating transducers, 152a, 152b, . . . , 152n, add up to be equal to the intensity and frequency of the acoustic wave detected by the microphone 159 to eliminate much or most of the acoustic wave(s) emitted by the fans.
In another embodiment, the active noise control unit 156 includes a fan ID and status detector 171, a room sound detector 172, and a transducer controller 173. Similar to the embodiment described above, the fan unit and speed detector 171 receives inputs from a system rack controller 170 to determine which fans have been turned on and at what speeds the fans are running, and send the phase, frequency (or frequencies) and intensity (or intensities) information of the running fans to the transducer controller 173 to control transducers 152a, . . . , 152n to emit transducer acoustic wave(s) to cancel the fan acoustic wave(s). The room sound detector 172 receives sound signals collected by microphone 159 and the room sound detector 172 and the microphone 159 provides a feedback of the effectiveness of the transducers in canceling the acoustic wave(s) emitted by the running fans. If the transducer acoustic wave(s) emitted by transducers, under the direction of the transducer controller 173, is not effective in eliminating (or canceling) the acoustic wave(s) generated by the running fans, the microphone 159 would pick up sound signals with substantial intensity, which can be analyzed by the room sound detector 172 to provide the phase, intensity and frequency information to the transducer controller 173 to adjust the controlling signals to the transducers. The feedback of the microphone 159 can be continued until the fan noise is largely or essentially eliminated.
In addition, the transducer controller 173 can receive instruction from a host control computer 180. The host control computer can be coupled to multiple transducer controllers 173 in multiple system racks, such as 150a, . . . 150f in computer server room 100″ (see
As described above, the transducers 152 are installed on the walls 151a, 151b of the system racks 150. One of the benefits of installing the transducers 152 on the walls of the system racks 150 is that as more system racks 150 are put into the computer server room 100, more transducers are available to emit canceling acoustic waves. However, it is not necessary to install transducers on the walls of the system racks. Transducers can also be installed on the walls of the computer server room or on another object in the room.
The transducers, either mounted on the system racks or on the walls of computer server room, can respond to an increase or decrease in the number of system racks and running fans easily. The transducers are also more adaptable to changes in the computer server rooms, such as change in the location the personnel 190 works. To accommodate to this change, one might only need to move the location of the microphone.
Although a few embodiments of the present invention have been described in detail herein, it should be understood, by those of ordinary skill, that the present invention may be embodied in many other specific forms without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention. Therefore, the present examples and embodiments are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details provided therein, but may be modified and practiced within the scope of the appended claims.
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