Patent ID: 8763414

Claim:
A data center cooling system, comprising: a floor structure defining a below-floor warm-air plenum and an above-floor cool air plenum; a plurality of above-floor computer assemblies arranged to exhaust warmed air into the warm-air plenum; one or more fan-coil arrangements to circulate air from the warm-air plenum, cool the air, and provide the air to the cool air plenum; a vertical plenum fluidly connecting the computer assemblies to the warm-air plenum through an opening defined in the floor structure; and one or more assist fans configured to circulate warmed air downward through the vertical plenum towards the one or more fan-coil arrangements, wherein each of the plurality of above-floor computer assemblies is adjacent to a human-occupiable walkway that is part of the above-floor cool air plenum within a data center building and comprises a rack having a cabinet that at least partially houses a plurality of heat generating devices that are accessible from the human-occupiable walkway, a first portion of the plurality of above-floor computer assemblies is enclosed within a first modular frame that comprises the floor structure, and the one or more fan-coil arrangements is enclosed within a second modular frame that is separate from and attached to the first modular frame, and arranged so that warmed air is circulated by the one or more fan coil arrangements from a portion of the above-floor plenum at least partially enclosed within the first modular frames to the fan-coil arrangements and to the walkway, the first and second modular frames having substantially similar lengths and widths.