Patent ID: 7751918
Filing Date: 2010-07-06
Classification: G06F,H05K

Abstract:
1. A method of configuring a cooling subassembly for an electronics system, the method comprising: obtaining a coolant-carrying tube layout for interconnecting multiple liquid-cooled cold plates in series-fluid communication for cooling multiple heat-generating electronic components of an electronics system, the interconnected multiple liquid-cooled cold plates being a cooling subassembly, the multiple heat-generating electronic components to be cooled to be plugged in fixed spaced relation into corresponding sockets on a preconfigured supporting motherboard, and the coolant-carrying tube layout comprising at least one rigid coolant-carrying tube; determining, by at least one processor, if stress in one or more coolant-carrying tubes of the coolant-carrying tube layout exceeds a predetermined acceptable level and determining if loss of actuation load on a heat-generating electronic component being cooled by the cooling subassembly exceeds an acceptable loss threshold, and if either is true, identifying at least one tube of the coolant-carrying tube layout having high stress, the at least one tube comprising at least one of a tube portion in torsion and a tube portion in bending when a force is applied to at least one liquid-cooled cold plate of the cooling subassembly, and reconfiguring the at least one tube having high stress to produce a reconfigured coolant-carrying tube layout and repeating the determining for the reconfigured coolant-carrying tube layout; performing, by the at least one processor, analysis on the cooling subassembly and the multiple heat-generating electronic components of the electronics system once the coolant-carrying tube layout experiences tube stress below the defined acceptable level and a loss of actuation load on the multiple heat-generating electronic components below the acceptable loss threshold, the analysis including employing an available actuation load on at least part of the cooling subassembly and evaluating electrical connection loading between at least one heat-generating electronic component being cooled thereby and the supporting motherboard into which the at least one heat-generating electronic component electrically plugs in fixed spaced relation; and saving, by the at least one processor, the coolant-carrying tube layout as a final design for interconnecting in series-fluid communication the multiple liquid-cooled cold plates of the cooling subassembly if the electrical connection loading is above an acceptable minimum level.