Patent ID: 9338924
Filing Date: 2016-05-10
CPC Classification: F28D,F28F,H05K

Claim Text:
1. An apparatus for facilitating cooling of an electronics rack, the apparatus comprising: an air-to-liquid heat exchanger configured to reside at an air inlet side of the electronics rack, the air inlet side and an air outlet side respectively enabling ingress and egress of air through the electronics rack, the air-to-liquid heat exchanger being positioned for air passing through the electronics rack to pass across the air-to-liquid heat exchanger and being in fluid communication with a coolant loop for passing coolant through the air-to-liquid heat exchanger, the coolant passing through the air-to-liquid heat exchanger having a temperature below a dew point temperature of the air passing across the air-to-liquid heat exchanger, wherein air passing across the air-to-liquid heat exchanger is dehumidified and cooled by the air-to-liquid heat exchanger; a condensate collector disposed below the air-to-liquid heat exchanger to collect liquid condensate from the air-to-liquid heat exchanger's dehumidifying of air passing through the electronics rack; a condensate evaporator disposed at the air outlet side of the electronics rack and in fluid communication with the condensate collector, the condensate evaporator evaporating the liquid condensate from the condensate collector at the air outlet side of the electronics rack to re-humidify air egressing from the electronics rack; and wherein the air-to-liquid heat exchanger comprises a plurality of sloped fins, the plurality of sloped fins having angled upper surfaces and angled lower surfaces, the angled upper and lower surfaces facilitating drainage of liquid condensate from the air-to-liquid heat exchanger to the condensate collector, and the plurality of sloped fins are angled from an air ingress side of the air-to-liquid heat exchanger to an air egress side of the air-to-liquid heat exchanger, and the angled upper and lower surfaces comprise upper and lower condensate collection channels, each condensate collection channel extending along an edge of a respective angled upper or lower surface at one of the air ingress side of the air-to-liquid heat exchanger or the air egress side of the air-to-liquid heat exchanger in a direction orthogonal to a direction of the air passing across the air-to-liquid heat exchanger; and wherein the plurality of sloped fins are further angled in the direction orthogonal to the direction of air flow across the air-to-liquid heat exchanger to drain liquid condensate from a central region of the air-to-liquid heat exchanger towards at least one of a first vertical edge or a second vertical edge of the air-to-liquid heat exchanger, the upper and lower condensate collection channels directing the drainage of the liquid condensate from the central region of the air-to-liquid heat exchanger towards at least one of the first vertical edge or the second vertical edge of the air-to-liquid heat exchanger.