Patent Application
20150351286
The present invention relates to a cooling system for recovering heat generated by an electronic apparatus. More particularly, the invention relates to an exhaust heat recovery structure that cools heat generated inside the electronic device, recovers the heat, and raises the temperature of the recovered heat, and a cooling system employing the structure.
There is a growing need to recover and effectively use thermal energy. In addition, in recent years, the amount of information processing has been increasing. Data centers are increasing in which devices such as server devices used for the Internet, communication devices, fixed telephones, and IP (Internet Protocol) telephones are installed. In a server room of the data center, a large number of electronic apparatuses such as computers are installed. The amount of power consumed by the electronic apparatuses has been increasing, and the thermal energy exhausted from the apparatuses is huge.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a hot-water supply system that recovers exhaust heat of a data center, and warms city water via a heat pump. This method recovers thermal energy by circulating a refrigerant within a system configured by a heat exchanger, a compressor, and an expansion valve, which is the same configuration as an ordinary air conditioner. When it is intended to apply the method to a data center, there will be a need to collect heat from servers via blower fans or the like. In addition to the necessity of power for blower fans, a low temperature due to heat absorption from circulation air in the server room causes low efficiency. In addition, the recovered thermal energy is supplied to city water, so that the thermal energy diffuses easily, and supply temperature is also low. Furthermore, in the data center in which a lot of electronic apparatuses are aggregated, there is a problem of increasing cooling power. Not only recovering exhaust heat as unused energy, but also efficient cooling is important for the effective use of energy.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a structure that cools an electronic component such as a CPU (Central Processing Unit) by use of a refrigeration cycle configured by a compressor, an expansion means, and the like. This method enables efficient cooling by directly depriving heat of an electronic apparatus, but collected thermal energy is to radiate heat into outside air at a low temperature, and thus it is not a structure to use the thermal energy effectively.
[PTL 1] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2012-042105
[PTL 2] Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2010-002084
When it is intended to effectively use thermal energy generated by electronic apparatuses aggregated in a data center, in Patent Literature 1, exhaust heat included in air circulating in a server room needs to be collected and brought to a heat pump by blower fans. In addition, in Patent Literature 2, in order to directly recover thermal energy from a heat source, there is a method to mount a refrigeration cycle on a device, but the recovered thermal energy is radiated to the outside, and is not used effectively.
The present invention has been accomplished for the purpose of solving the above problems, and its objective is to provide a cooling system capable of collecting thermal energy generated by an electronic apparatus to cool the electronic apparatus and to provide the recovered thermal energy at a high temperature.
A cooling system of the present invention includes: a heat receiving portion that receives heat generated by an electronic apparatus and change a phase of a first heating medium from a liquid phase to a gas; a heat radiating portion that the phase of the first heating medium from the gas to the liquid and supplies the first heating medium to the heat receiving portion; and a compressor that raises the temperature of the first heating medium supplied from the heat receiving portion and supplies the first heating medium to the heat radiating portion.
According to the cooling system of the present invention, by efficiently collecting a large amount of thermal energy generated by electronic apparatuses the electronic apparatuses are cooled, and it is possible to provide the recovered thermal energy at a high temperature.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be hereinafter described in detail with reference to the drawings. However, the exemplary embodiments described below include limitations which are technically preferable to execute the present invention, but is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to below.
A first exemplary embodiment according to the present invention will be described. A cooling system according to the exemplary embodiment is illustrated in
By receiving at the heat receiving portion 6 the thermal energy 9 generated by the electronic apparatus, it becomes possible to efficiently recover the thermal energy 9 from the electronic apparatus while cooling the electronic apparatus that is a heat source. The first heating medium 4 that receives heat at the heat receiving portion changes a phase from a liquid to a gas due to the received heat. The first heating medium 4 that has changed to the gas becomes high-temperature steam by interposing the compressor 2.
The heat radiating portion 3 is thermally connected with the heat storage means 6, and it is possible to store the thermal energy 9 that the first heating medium 4 has at a high temperature. By radiating heat, the condensed first heating medium becomes a liquid, and refluxes to the heat receiving portion 5. The heat receiving portion, the compressor, and the heat radiating portion of the cooling system are connected with each other by the piping 7, and the first heating medium 4 is kept in the inside in an airtight state.
When fluorocarbon or hydrofluoroether is used as the heating medium 4, it is preferable that the internal pressure at normal temperature is the saturated vapor pressure of those media. Consequently, at the heat receiving portion 5 that receives heat from the electronic apparatus 1, the first heating medium 4 is heated, and evaporates and vaporizes. On the other hand, at the heat radiating portion, the first heating medium 4 radiates heat to the heat storage means, and thereby condenses and liquefies.
The compressor 2 compresses the first heating medium 4 in a vaporous state generated at the heat receiving portion 5, to thereby raise its temperature. The energy given by the compressor 2 is stored in the first heating medium 4 as internal energy, and becomes a part of effectively usable thermal energy.
For example, when the thermal energy is recovered at 45° C. by use of hydrofluoroether, by compressing the density of the steam that comes out of the heat receiving portion to about ⅙, it is possible to raise the temperature to 100° C. In this case, the amount of energy required to be put in by the compressor is about 1/7 of the recovered energy. The thermal energy of high-temperature steam is stored in heat storage material as effective energy at a high temperature by heat radiation at the heat radiating portion.
As for the heat storage means 6, it is preferable to use heat storage material thermally connected with the heat radiating portion. The heat storage material preferably has a large heat storage quantity per unit mass. As illustrated in
When the above-described cooling system of the exemplary embodiment is used in a data center, the cooling system has an effect on reducing or eliminating an air-conditioning load.
A second exemplary embodiment according to the present invention will be described. A cooling system according to the exemplary embodiment is illustrated in
A third exemplary embodiment according to the present invention will be described. A cooling system according to the exemplary embodiment is illustrated in
A fourth exemplary embodiment according to the present invention will be described. A cooling system according to the exemplary embodiment is illustrated in
The vaporized first heating medium 4 is collected and turned into high-temperature steam via a compressor 2. Thermal energy in the form of the high-temperature steam is transported to a heat storage material 6 of the heat storage means via the heat radiating portion 3. As illustrated in
When the heat receiving portions 5 in the exemplary embodiment are provided along one surface of the server rack, a plurality of heat receiving portions 5 are arranged vertically in the gravity direction. In order to evenly reflux the liquid to the respective heat receiving portions, it is effective to use a control valve or employ a structure by the use of gravity.
When the first heating medium is naturally circulated by the use of gravity, it is also preferable to provide a refrigerant buffer in each heat receiving portion. The first heating medium in a liquid form that refluxes to the heat receiving portion is temporarily stored in the tank-shaped buffer just before the heat receiving portion, and the first heating medium is supplied so that the amount of the first heating medium corresponds to the altitude of liquid level inside the heat receiving portion.
A fifth exemplary embodiment according to the present invention will be described. A heat receiving portion of a cooling system according to the exemplary embodiment and an electronic apparatus are illustrated in
A sixth exemplary embodiment according to the present invention will be described. The heat receiving portion 5 of a cooling system according to the exemplary embodiment and the electronic apparatus 1 such as a sever device are illustrated in
A seventh exemplary embodiment according to the present invention will be described. A data center 21 provided with a cooling system according to the exemplary embodiment is illustrated in
The present invention claims the preferential right based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2012-264433, filed on Dec. 3, 2012 which is incorporated herein in its entirety.
The present invention relates to an exhaust heat recovery structure that cools heat generated inside an electronic apparatus, recovers the heat, and raises the temperature of the recovered heat, and a cooling system employing the structure.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2012-264433 | Dec 2012 | JP | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/JP2013/007070 | 12/3/2013 | WO | 00 |
