TW202449558A - Method for preventing air flow back into server - Google Patents

Abstract

A method for preventing air flow back into a server, comprising the following steps: transmitting first current control data to the power supply unit; comparing the first current control data with the second current control data by the power supply unit; if the first current control data is greater than the second current control data, then increasing the first current control data by an increment to become a second lower stage control data; if the first current control data is smaller than the second current control data, then making the second lower stage control data equal to the second current control data; if the communication between the server and the power supply unit is interrupted for more than a predetermined time, then making the second fan run at full speed.

Description

Method for preventing airflow from backflowing to a power supply unit of a server

The present invention relates to the technical field of heat dissipation of a server and a power supply unit thereof by airflow, and more particularly to a method for preventing airflow from flowing back to the power supply unit of the server.

The electronic devices inside the server will generate heat when in operation. If the heat is not properly dissipated, the performance of the electronic devices will be affected by the temperature increase. Therefore, the server will be equipped with a fan to generate airflow in the chassis and use heat convection to dissipate the heat of the electronic devices. In addition, since the power supply unit is a high-power module, the power supply unit of the existing server is also equipped with a separate fan to directly dissipate the heat of the power supply unit.

In existing servers, in addition to the system fan being arranged at the front of the chassis to discharge air into the chassis to cool electronic modules or devices such as the motherboard, solid state drive or function expansion card, some other servers have the system fan arranged at the rear of the chassis and an air guide cover arranged at the front of the chassis to draw air into the chassis and pass through the motherboard, solid state drive or function expansion card in front of the system fan.

However, in the existing structure where the fan is arranged at the rear of the chassis, a low-pressure area is formed in front of the system fan. Since the power supply unit is arranged near the system fan and located on the same plane, the air inlet of the power supply unit is located in the low-pressure area formed by the system fan, and the air outlet of the power supply unit is located at the rear of the chassis and in an area with higher air pressure. When the system fan is running at a high load, for the power supply unit, the airflow easily flows from the air outlet to the air inlet, causing the problem of airflow backflow. This will make the airflow temperature at the air inlet of the power supply unit higher than the airflow temperature at the air outlet, which is not conducive to the heat dissipation of the power supply unit, causing the temperature of the electronic devices inside the power supply unit to be too high, thereby damaging the electronic devices. In addition, the airflow backflow will cause the fan of the power supply unit to reverse, thereby damaging the fan.

In view of this, an object of the present invention is to provide a method for preventing airflow from flowing back to a power supply unit of a server, by increasing the control data (load) of a system fan by an increment as the control data (load) of a fan of the power supply unit until the control data of the fan of the power supply unit is greater than the control data of the system fan, thereby solving the problem of airflow flowing back to the power supply unit when the system fan is running under a large load.

To solve the above problem, the present invention provides a method for preventing airflow from flowing back to a power supply unit of a server. One embodiment of the method is used for a server including a first fan and a second fan. The first fan generates airflow through the server, and the second fan generates airflow through a power supply unit. The speed of the first fan is currently controlled by a first current control data, and the speed of the second fan is controlled by a second current control data. The method of preventing airflow from flowing back to the power supply unit of the server of the present embodiment includes: transmitting the first current control data to the power supply unit; the power supply unit compares the first current control data and the second current control data; if the first current control data is greater than the second current control data, increasing the first current control data by an increment to become a second lower-stage control data; if the first current control data is less than the second current control data, making the second lower-stage control data equal to the second current control data; if the communication between the server and the power supply unit is interrupted for more than a predetermined time, making the second fan run at full speed.

The method of preventing airflow from flowing back to the power supply unit of the server of the present invention is based on the control data of the first fan for cooling the server to change the control data of the second fan for cooling the power supply unit, and finally makes the load of the second fan greater than the load of the first fan, thereby solving the problem of airflow flowing back to the power supply unit and causing the heat dissipation efficiency to decrease when the first fan is running at a larger load.

Please refer to the first, second and third figures. The method of preventing airflow from flowing back to the power supply unit of the server of the present invention is used for a server 1. The server 1 includes a chassis 5 and a plurality of first fans 10. The first fan 10 is arranged at the rear of the chassis 5. The front of the chassis 5 is provided with a first air inlet and a plurality of air guide covers (not shown). The rear of the chassis 5 is provided with a first air outlet. A motherboard MLB and a solid state drive SSD are arranged in front of the first fan 10 in the chassis 5. The first fan 10 rotates to generate a first airflow. The first airflow enters the chassis 5 from the first air inlet, flows through the solid state drive SSD and the motherboard MLB, and is discharged from the first air outlet, thereby dissipating heat from the electronic components of the solid state drive SSD and the motherboard MLB in a thermal convection manner.

A plurality of power supply units PSU are arranged on the right side of the first fan 10, and each power supply unit PSU is provided with a second fan 20. Each power supply unit PSU has a second air inlet and a second air outlet, and the second air outlet is adjacent to the first air outlet of the chassis 5. The second air inlet and the second air outlet of the power supply unit PSU are provided with temperature sensors for measuring the air inlet temperature and the air outlet temperature of the power supply unit PSU. The temperature sensor of this embodiment is a thermocouple.

Since the power supply unit PSU is arranged near the first fan 10 and located in the same plane, the second air inlet of the power supply unit PSU is located in the low-pressure area formed by the first fan 10. The second air outlet of the supply unit PSU is adjacent to the first air outlet of the chassis 5, so when the first fan 10 is operated at a large load, air flow backflow may be generated in the power supply unit PSU. When air flow backflow is generated, the air flow will flow from the second air outlet to the second air inlet in the opposite direction, so the air inlet temperature will be higher than the air outlet temperature. Under normal operating conditions, the first fan 10 controls the speed with a first current control data, and the second fan 20 controls the speed with a second current control data.

As shown in the third figure, in the method of preventing airflow from flowing back to the power supply unit of the server in the present embodiment, in step S1, the air inlet temperature and the air outlet temperature of the power supply unit PSU are first measured.

Then proceed to step S2. In step S2, verify the airflow backflow, compare the air inlet temperature and the air outlet temperature to determine whether the power supply unit PSU generates airflow backflow. If the air inlet temperature is higher than the air outlet temperature, it is determined that the power supply unit PSU generates airflow backflow, and then proceed to step S3. If the air inlet temperature is lower than the air outlet temperature, it is determined that the power supply unit PSU does not generate airflow backflow, and then proceed to step S6.

In step S3, the first current control data is transmitted to the power supply unit PSU. Then, the process proceeds to step S4. If the first current control data cannot be transmitted to the power supply unit PSU for a predetermined period of time, that is, the server 1 and the power supply unit PSU have a communication interruption for more than 10 seconds, such as a failure of the system controller of the server 1 or a communication interruption during an upgrade process, the process proceeds to step S7.

In step S4, the first current control data of the first fan 10 is compared with the second current control data of the second fan 20. If the first current control data is greater than the second current control data, the process proceeds to step S5. If the first current control data is less than the second current control data, the process proceeds to step S6.

In step S5, the first current control data is increased by an increment to become a second next stage control data, and the load of the second fan 20 is controlled by the second next stage control data. The increment can be the first current control data multiplied by an appropriate percentage, for example, 5% of the first current control data is used as the increment. Then, the process returns to step S1 and repeats steps S1 to S5.

In step S6, the increase amount is set to 0%, that is, the second lower stage control data is equal to the second current control data, and the load of the second fan 20 is controlled by the second lower stage control data.

In step S7, the second fan is operated at full speed (100% load) to directly prevent the power supply unit PSU from generating airflow backflow.

The first current control data, the second current control data and the second next stage control data are all pulse width modulation signals (PWM).

The method of preventing airflow from flowing back to the power supply unit of the server of the present invention is to change the control data of the second fan for cooling the power supply unit based on the control data of the first fan for cooling the server, and finally make the load of the second fan greater than the load of the first fan, thereby solving the problem that when the first fan is running at a larger load, the airflow flows back to the power supply unit and causes the cooling efficiency to decrease. The power supply unit adopts the speed control strategy of the present invention to adapt to different fan-rear server architectures, and eliminates the problem of airflow flowing back to the power supply unit caused by the system fan and the power supply unit fan being in the same plane. In addition, while protecting the power supply unit to the maximum extent, it also reduces over-protection of the power supply unit and reduces dependence on the air guide cover of the power supply unit.

The above detailed description of the preferred specific embodiments is intended to more clearly describe the features and spirit of the present invention, but is not intended to limit the scope of the present invention by the preferred specific embodiments disclosed above. On the contrary, the purpose is to cover various changes and arrangements with equivalents within the scope of the patent application for the present invention.

1: Server 5: Chassis 10: First fan 20: Second fan MLB: Motherboard PSU: Power supply unit SSD: Solid state drive S1~S7: Steps

The first figure is a schematic diagram of a top view of the structure of the server when the method for preventing airflow from backflowing to the power supply unit of the server is applied. The second figure is a schematic diagram of a rear view of the structure of the server when the method for preventing airflow from backflowing to the power supply unit of the server is applied. The third figure is a flow chart of one embodiment of the method for preventing airflow from backflowing to the power supply unit of the server of the present invention.

S1~S7: Steps

Claims (7)

A method for preventing airflow from flowing back to a power supply unit of a server, the server comprising a first fan and a second fan, the first fan generating airflow through the server, the second fan generating airflow through a power supply unit, the first fan currently controlling the rotational speed with a first current control data, the second fan controlling the rotational speed with a second current control data, the method for preventing airflow from flowing back to the power supply unit of the server comprising: transmitting the first current control data to the power supply unit; the power supply unit comparing the first current control data and the second current control data; if the first current control data is greater than the second current control data, increasing the first current control data by an increment to become a second lower stage control data; if the first current control data is less than the second current control data, making the second lower stage control data equal to the second current control data; and If the communication between the server and the power supply unit is interrupted for more than a predetermined period of time, the second fan is operated at full speed. A method for preventing airflow from flowing back to a power supply unit of a server as described in claim 1, wherein the first fan is disposed at the rear of a casing of the server, and a plurality of electronic components of the server are located at the upstream side of the airflow generated by the first fan. The method for preventing airflow backflow to the power supply unit of the server as described in claim 1 further includes: Measuring the air inlet temperature and the air outlet temperature of the power supply unit; Comparing the air inlet temperature and the air outlet temperature to determine whether the power supply unit generates airflow backflow. A method for preventing airflow from flowing back to a power supply unit of a server as described in claim 3, wherein if the outlet temperature is greater than the inlet temperature, the increase is 0%. A method for preventing airflow from flowing back to a power supply unit of a server as described in claim 1, wherein if communication between the server and the power supply unit is interrupted for more than 10 seconds, the second fan is operated at full speed. A method for preventing airflow from flowing back to a power supply unit of a server as described in claim 1, wherein the first current control data, the second current control data and the second next stage control data are all pulse width modulation signals (PWM). A method for preventing airflow from flowing back to a power supply unit of a server as described in claim 1, wherein when the system controller of the server fails or is in the process of being upgraded, the second fan is operated at full speed.

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