Patent ID: 8037644

Claim:
An arrangement for inhibiting an unwanted airflow from hot aisles to cold aisles in a computer-room installation during the cooling of said installation, said arrangement comprising: a plurality of partitions preventing said unwanted airflow between said hot and cold aisles in a first position of said partitions during said cooling; and an operative mechanism connected respectively to each of said partitions for tilting said at least one partition downwardly into a second position to allow, in the event of a conflagration in said computer-room installation, an unhindered discharge of water from an overhead sprinkler system; a plurality of trigger points disposed spaced along said rows of said computer racks, each said trigger point comprises a triggering mechanism facilitating the tilting down of the respective therewith associated partition; said computer-room installation comprises computer equipment-containing rows of racks having said hot and cold aisles extending therebetween, said computer-room installation having a ceiling at a spacing above upper ends of said racks for said unhindered discharge of water therethrough, and said first position of said partitions being a substantially vertical orientation on said upper ends of said racks; and said operative mechanism is connected respectively to each said partition, said operative mechanism, in the event of a conflagration, effectuating a tilting down of said partitions into said second position, said second position being a substantially horizontal orientation responsive to gravity upon a triggering of at least one said trigger point.