Patent ID: 9173324
Filing Date: 2015-10-27
Classification: F28D,F28F,H05K

Abstract:
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 of the electronics rack 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 and a condensate evaporator, the condensate collector being 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, and being in fluid communication with the condensate evaporator, the condensate evaporator being disposed at the air outlet side of the electronics rack and facilitating evaporation of the liquid condensate to re-humidify air egressing from 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; and wherein the air-to-liquid heat exchanger comprises a plurality of coolant-carrying tubes, the plurality of coolant-carrying tubes being substantially horizontally-oriented and at least one coolant-carrying tube of the plurality of coolant-carrying tubes comprising at least one sloped surface of the plurality of sloped surfaces for facilitating drainage of 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.