Patent ID: 11937406
Assignee: OVH
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC H  F | IPC H

Claim 6:
7. A cooling system for cooling electronic equipment, the cooling system providing cooling to an infrastructure having a plurality of heat-generating units, the cooling system comprising:
a plurality of internal cooling units, at least one internal cooling unit of the plurality of internal cooling units being thermally connected to each of the plurality of heat-generating units;
an external cooling unit configured to dissipate thermal energy of a heat-transfer fluid circulating in the plurality of internal cooling units;
a cooling circuit connecting the plurality of internal cooling units and the external cooling unit;
a pump configured to maintain a flow of the heat-transfer fluid circulating in the cooling circuit, allowing to transfer thermal energy from the plurality of heat generating units to the heat-transfer fluid and allowing to transfer thermal energy from the heat-transfer fluid to the external cooling unit;
a first reservoir thermally connected to a section of the cooling circuit, the first reservoir containing a first phase change material (PCM), the first PCM changing from a solid state to a liquid state when a temperature of the heat-transfer fluid flowing in the section of the cooling circuit causes a temperature of the first PCM to increase above a phase-change temperature value, thereby causing thermal energy to transfer from the cooling circuit to the first PCM, the first PCM changing from the liquid state to the solid state when the temperature of the heat-transfer fluid flowing in the section of the cooling circuit causes the temperature of the first PCM to decrease below the phase-change temperature value, thereby causing thermal energy to dissipate from the first PCM;
a supplemental cooling device thermally connected to the first reservoir containing the first PCM and configured to dissipate heat from the first reservoir containing the first PCM to the atmosphere;
a first direct valve positioned upstream or downstream of the first reservoir containing the first PCM in the cooling circuit, the first direct valve being opened to place the first reservoir containing the first PCM within the cooling circuit, the first direct valve being closed to isolate the first reservoir containing the first PCM from the cooling circuit;
a first bypass valve positioned in parallel to the first reservoir containing the first PCM in the cooling circuit; and
a controller configured to:
cause the first direct valve to open and cause the first bypass valve to close to allow a transfer of heat between the first PCM and the heat-transfer fluid when an ambient temperature at the infrastructure meets or exceeds a predetermined temperature threshold, and
cause the first direct valve to close and cause the first bypass valve to open to prevent a transfer of heat between the first PCM and the heat-transfer fluid and to ensure a continuity of the cooling circuit when the ambient temperature at the infrastructure is less than the predetermined temperature threshold.