Patent ID: 9414519
Filing Date: 2016-08-09
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 when residing at the electronics rack 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 for collecting liquid condensate from the air-to-liquid heat exchanger's dehumidifying of air passing through the electronics rack; wherein the air-to-liquid heat exchanger comprises a plurality of sloped surfaces, the plurality of sloped surfaces being angled to facilitate drainage of liquid condensate from the air-to-liquid heat exchanger to the condensate collector; wherein the air-to-liquid heat exchanger comprises at least two coolant-carrying tubes disposed adjacent to each other in a plane orthogonal to a direction of airflow across the air-to-liquid heat exchanger, each coolant-carrying tube of the at least two coolant-carrying tubes being vertically oriented and comprising multiple sloped fins extending outward from the coolant-carrying tube, wherein the multiple sloped fins of one coolant-carrying tube of the at least two coolant-carrying tubes are horizontally spaced and separate from the multiple sloped fins of another coolant-carrying tube of the at least two coolant-carrying tubes by a width W, and wherein the apparatus further comprises at least one condensate collection baffle aligned with the spacing between the sloped fins of the one coolant-carrying tube and the sloped fins of the another coolant-carrying tube in a direction of airflow across the air-to-liquid heat exchanger, the at least one condensate collection baffle being vertically disposed at an air egress side of the air-to-liquid heat exchanger for facilitating drainage of liquid condensate to the condensate collector; and 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 such that air egressing from the electronics rack is re-humidified.