Air conditioning system and air conditioning method

Details Air conditioning system and air conditioning method Air conditioning system and air conditioning method

2000-03-20

2001-09-04

Tanner, Harry B. (Department: 3744)

Automatic temperature and humidity regulation

Ventilator type

Electrically actuated

C236S051000, C454S258000, C062S179000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06283380

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to an air conditioning system and an air conditioning method, more specifically to an air conditioning system and an air conditioning method to be suitably applied to a computer room.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
In a computer room including various units acting as heat generating sources, such as a computer, display monitor, printer, magnetic recorder, and communication controller, it is necessary to perform air conditioning in order to keep the optimum operation environment and working environment. To air-condition a computer room, one or more air conditioners are generally used for supplying cooling air and manually controlling the airflow rate(s) and airflow direction(s) of the air conditioner(s) on the basis of temperatures detected by temperature sensors provided at selected positions in the room.
However, the above manual method is not suitable for an unattended computer room. Moreover, flows of the cooling air in a computer room are delicately changed depending on the number, dimensions, and arrangement state of units, such as computers and peripheral units (hereafter referred to as computer system units). Furthermore, the heat generated depends on not only a unit but also an operation state such as a high-speed operation or low-speed operation.
As a result, temperature distributions in a computer room can always be changed. Particularly, stagnancy of a high temperature occurs in a relatively narrow region and the stagnancy almost unexpectedly moves. Moreover, when supplying cooling air toward a certain high-temperature region, other areas may become high-temperature. Therefore, in fact, it is not easy to quickly uniform the temperature distribution in a computer room and keep the state. Therefore, there is a need for an automatic control technique for quickly responding to the fluctuation of temperature distribution in a computer room, properly controlling a temperature, and keeping an optimum temperature state.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an air conditioning system capable of effectively controlling air-conditioning of a room requiring cooling. It is another object of the present invention to provide an air conditioning system and method for effectively achieving air conditioning of a room including computer system units.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention estimates the temperature distribution state in a room using a simulation and controls the airflow rate and airflow direction of a plurality of fans on the basis of the result of the simulation. A plurality of temperature sensors are provided at a plurality of predetermined positions in a room such as a computer room. A simulation is performed on the basis of temperatures detected by the temperature sensors and the current airflow rates and airflow directions of the fans to obtain temperatures at a plurality of positions in the room. It is determined whether the temperatures obtained through the simulation are kept in a predetermined temperature range. As the result of the determination, at least one of the airflow rate and airflow direction of at least one selected fan covering a position being at a temperature out of the predetermined temperature range is controlled. It is preferable that a fan is an underfloor fan that can be fitted into the floor of the computer room.


REFERENCES:
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patent: 5331825 (1994-07-01), Kim
patent: 5815078 (1998-09-01), Mun et al.
patent: 5875639 (1999-03-01), Kim et al.
patent: 2-187552 (1990-07-01), None
patent: 5-288366 (1993-11-01), None
patent: 7-86268 (1995-09-01), None
Hayashi et al., “Self Hot-Spot Sensing and Self Air Flow Direction Controlled Air Moving Device,” IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, vol. 40, No. 12, pp. 213-214 (Dec. 1997).

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