DETAILED ACTION
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 01/06/2026 has been entered.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Amendment
The applicant has amended independent claims 1 and 11, as well as added new claim 21 to incorporate different features into the claims than previously presented. The applicant did not provide citations to the specification indicating where support for the amendments is but submits that the amendments and new claims do not introduce new matter.
The specification has been evaluated for support of the newly-added limitations. Adequate support for the generation of the thermal resistance interpolation tables is found in Figure 7 of the specification, as well as on page 15, lines 3-4. It is apparent that, at the time of filing, the applicant had possession of the claimed invention. Examiner agrees that no new matter has been introduced by way of amendment.
Response to Arguments
Rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103
Applicant has amended the claims in response to the previous rejection to particularly incorporate the limitations “in a first phase… performing a plurality of computational-fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations to generate thermal-resistance interpolation tables for determining a thermal resistance R_amb” and “in a second phase… the thermal resistance R_amb being calculated using the thermal-resistance interpolation tables.” Applicant argues that the prior art of record does not disclose the newly-added limitation.
Applicant’s arguments, see Pages 9-10, filed 01/06/2026, with respect to the rejections under 35 U.S.C. § 103have been fully considered and are persuasive. The rejections of the independent claims 1 and 11 have been withdrawn. However, the change in scope of the claims to incorporate the feature of thermal resistance interpolation tables necessitated further search and consideration. Upon search, the reference Pan as noted in this action disclosed, in conjunction with the other references previously cited, the newly-added feature. Pan discloses a two-phase approach that includes performing simulations in the first phase to establish look-up tables of thermal profiles by which to reference back to in the second phase for subsequent calculations. The thermal profiles can be related to the thermal conductance matrix through a given equation and therefore the tables can be used to determine thermal conductance values. Pan is not relied upon to discloses particularly the thermal resistance but instead The Engineering Toolbox is relied upon to demonstrate a simple relationship between the thermal conductance and the thermal resistance value, as reciprocals of one another. This mathematical manipulation, in conjunction with the teachings of Pan, result in the disclosure of the newly-claimed feature. Under the new grounds of rejection, Jiang is not relied upon to disclose the generation of thermal resistance interpolation tables and is solely relied on to disclose using CFD simulations as part of a planning approach for thermal analysis in data center architecture applications. This simulation methodology is presented as an alternative simulation approach than that given in Pan.
Accordingly, for the reasons stated in this response, in conjunction with the new grounds of rejection presented in this action, the independent claims 1 and 11 remain rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
The format of the specification is improper. The specification must have each paragraph of the specification numbered individually and consecutively using Arabic numerals, so as to unambiguously identify each paragraph. The number should consist of at least four numerals enclosed in square brackets, including leading zeros (e.g., [0001]). The numbers and enclosing brackets should appear to the right of the left margin as the first item in each paragraph, before the first word of the paragraph, and should be highlighted in bold. A gap, equivalent to approximately four spaces, should follow the number. Nontext elements (e.g., tables, mathematical or chemical formulae, chemical structures, and sequence data) are considered part of the numbered paragraph around or above the elements, and should not be independently numbered. If a nontext element extends to the left margin, it should not be numbered as a separate and independent paragraph. A list is also treated as part of the paragraph around or above the list, and should not be independently numbered. Paragraph or section headers (titles), whether abutting the left margin or centered on the page, are not considered paragraphs and should not be numbered.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 11 are objected to because of the following informalities:
The following limitation’s grammatical structure is improper:
determine a dielectric fluid return temperature
T
h
i
n
of the dielectric fluid based on the initial temperature, the thermal resistance Ramb, and a heat exchange equation wherein the thermal resistance Ramb being calculated using the thermal-resistance interpolation tables
The claims should instead be written as determine a dielectric fluid return temperature
T
h
i
n
of the dielectric fluid based on the initial temperature, the thermal resistance Ramb, and a heat exchange equation wherein the thermal resistance Ramb is calculated using the thermal-resistance interpolation tables.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 16 and 21 are objected to because of the following informalities:
It appears that changes to the claims per the most recent amendment have introduced a mathematical formatting error for the equation
Δ
T
=
T
h
i
n
-
T
a
m
b
, which was previously formatted properly in claims 6 and 16 of the claims. (See erroneous claims 16:
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56
395
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and 21:
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61
397
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)
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 2, 3, 7, 11, 12, 13, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et Al. (US Patent Publication No. US 20120041569 A1), hereinafter referred to as Zhang, in view Pan et al (Pan, C., Lee, Y., Huang, P., Yang, C., Lin, C., Lee, C., Chou, Y., Kwai, D., “I-LUTSim: An Iterative Look-up Table Based Thermal Simulator for 3-D ICs”, 2013, 2013 18th Asia and South Pacific Design Automation Conference (ASP-DAC), pp. 151-156), hereinafter referred to as Pan, in view of Jiang et al (Jiang, C., Soh, Y., and Li, H., “Two-stage indoor physical field reconstruction from space sensor observations”, 2017, Energy and Buildings, Vol. 151, pp 548-563), hereinafter referred to as Jiang, further in view of The Engineering Toolbox (The Engineering Toolbox, “Overall Heat Transfer Coefficient”, Accessed February 2020, theengineeringtoolbox.com), hereinafter referred to as The Engineering Toolbox and further in view of Campbell et Al. (US Patent No. US 8351206 B2), hereinafter referred to as Campbell.
Regarding claim 1, Zhang teaches the limitations (except the limitations surrounded by brackets ([[..]])) A system for designing a liquid cooled architecture for an IT room, the system comprising: A data center design and management system is depicted as element 206 in figure 2. A process that can be incorporated into the data center design and management system is disclosed and discusses utilizing data center architecture information as part of the design process ((Zhang, ¶139) "A process 700 in accordance with one embodiment that may be incorporated into a data center design system for predicting transient cooling performance of the data center will now be described with reference to FIG. 7, which shows a flow chart of the process 700. In a first act 710 of the process, the user initiates the process by, for example, selecting an option incorporated on a display screen of the data center design system. Next, at act 720, the system reads the data center architecture information and operating data from storage in the system, and in addition, the user may be asked to input additional data."). The data center designed is understood to comprise a room whereby IT equipment such as racks are stored (See data center room, item 316 of Figure 3); ((Zhang, ¶4) "A centralized network data center typically consists of various information technology equipment, collocated in a structure that provides network connectivity, electrical power and cooling capacity. Often the equipment is housed in rows of specialized enclosures termed "racks" which integrate these connectivity, power and cooling elements. In some data center configurations, these rows are organized into hot and cold aisles to decrease the cost associated with cooling the information technology equipment."). A chilled-water cooled data center is disclosed as being included in the design (See Figures 3 and 4; Zhang, ¶49 discuss the specifics of the chilled water-cooling system for a data center).
at least one processor configured to: The computer system where the data center design and management system is implemented includes one or more processors (See Figures 1 and 2, item 110); ((Zhang, ¶47) "The computer systems shown in FIG. 2, which include data center design and management system 206, network 208 and data center equipment database 210, each may include one or more computer systems. Further, the system in FIG. 2 may also connect to one or more devices in a data center, including components of the cooling system or power distribution system to control and monitor these systems. As discussed above with regard to FIG. 1, computer systems may have one or more processors or controllers, memory and interface devices.").
[[in a first phase, establish a baseline model of thermal characteristics of an architecture by performing a plurality of computational-fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations to generate thermal-resistance interpolation tables for determining a thermal resistance
R
a
m
b
; and]]
[[in a second phase, the second phase occurring after the first phase and without repeating the plurality of CFD simulations:]]
receive a design parameter, responsive to a user input, corresponding to at least one equipment rack in the IT room, Figure 5 depicts a GUI by which to receive user input, where design parameters for IT equipment may be entered, such as the equipment total load. IT equipment is also referred to as an equipment rack in a data center room. ((Zhang, ¶4) "One manifestation of this growth is the centralized network data center. A centralized network data center typically consists of various information technology equipment, collocated in a structure that provides network connectivity, electrical power and cooling capacity. Often the equipment is housed in rows of specialized enclosures termed "racks" which integrate these connectivity, power and cooling elements. In some data center configurations, these rows are organized into hot and cold aisles to decrease the cost associated with cooling the information technology equipment.")
set an initial temperature of [[dielectric]] fluid corresponding to the at least one equipment rack, Figure 5 depicts a GUI by which a user can set an initial chilled water temperature for a data center ((Zhang, ¶130) "FIG. 5 shows a data entry screen 500 that may be used with one embodiment to allow a user to enter and manipulate data to obtain and optimize the transient cooling performance of a data center. The input screen 500 includes a number of data entry boxes in which the user enters data that describes the system."). The data center is described as containing racks ((Zhang, ¶4) "A centralized network data center typically consists of various information technology equipment, collocated in a structure that provides network connectivity, electrical power and cooling capacity. Often the equipment is housed in rows of specialized enclosures termed "racks" which integrate these connectivity, power and cooling elements.")
determine a [[dielectric]] fluid return temperature
T
h
i
n
of the [[dielectric]] fluid based on the initial temperature, the thermal [[resistance R_amb,]] and a heat exchange equation, [[wherein the thermal resistance R_amb being calculated using the thermal-resistance interpolation tables, and]] Temperatures can be computed based on a set of energy balance equations and heat transfer linear equations presented ((Zhang, ¶7) "In the method, performing real-time transient cooling performance calculations for the data center may include developing a set of energy balance and heat transfer linear equations for the data center based on the input data, and generating a symbolic expression for each of a plurality of temperature variables in the set of energy balance linear equations."). The temperature values which can be computed from these equations includes 9 temperature values ((Zhang, ¶119) "Combinations and substitutions can reduce the above 12 equations to a set of nine linear equations. More specifically, substituting equation (2) into (1), (5) into (4), and (11) into (10), results in a set of nine linear equations, with nine unknowns:
T
p
a
,
T
r
a
,
T
E
,
T
s
a
,
T
B
,
T
r
w
,
T
s
w
,
T
h
w
,
a
n
d
T
c
w
"). Return water temperature is included in this list of solvable unknowns. ((Zhang ¶95) "
T
r
w
is the temperature of water flow leaving the coolers"). Entering water flow temperature is included in the list of solvable unknowns ((Zhang, ¶96) "Tsw is the temperature of water flow entering the coolers"). The U-value (thermal conductance) of the coils of the system are considered in equation 7, wherein Equation 7 is considered as part of the 12 equations dictating the nine temperature unknowns above ((Zhang, ¶98) " U is the overall U value of the coils in the coolers"); See also Eqn 7.
responsive to receiving the design parameter and determining the [[dielectric]] fluid return temperature, dynamically calculate and display at least one of a surface temperature of at least one [[immersion]]-cooled equipment rack cooled by the architecture or [[an amount of required room cooling power per a unit of area of the IT room]]. Real-time data center calculations are performed as a result of receiving a design parameter and the results of the calculations are displayed (see Figures 7 and 8); ((Zhang ¶139) "A process 700 in accordance with one embodiment that may be incorporated into a data center design system for predicting transient cooling performance of the data center will now be described with reference to FIG. 7, which shows a flow chart of the process 700. In a first act 710 of the process, the user initiates the process by, for example, selecting an option incorporated on a display screen of the data center design system. Next, at act 720, the system reads the data center architecture information and operating data from storage in the system, and in addition, the user may be asked to input additional data. At act 730, the system performs realtime data center transient calculations using one of the processes described above, and at act 740, the results are displayed using, for example, the results screen 600 discussed above."); ((Zhang ¶142) "A process 800 in accordance with one embodiment that may be incorporated into a data center management system for predicting transient cooling performance of the data center will now be described with reference to FIG. 8, which shows a flow chart of the process 800. In a first act 810 of the process, the user initiates the process by, for example, selecting an option incorporated on a display screen of the data center management system. Next, at act 820, the system reads the data center architecture information and operating data from storage in the system, and may also obtain data from sensors and other instruments located in the data center, and, in addition, the user may be asked to input additional data. At act 830, the system performs real-time data center transient calculations using one of the processes described above, and at act 840, the results are displayed using, for example, the results screen 600 discussed above"). The surface temperature of the equipment
T
E
can be calculated per the defined linear equations as part of the real-time data center calculations. ((Zhang, ¶62) "
T
E
is the equipment surface temperature."); ((Zhang, ¶119 "Combinations and substitutions can reduce the above 12 equations to a set of nine linear equations. More specifically, substituting equation (2) into (1), (5) into (4), and (11) into (10), results in a set of nine linear equations, with nine unknowns:
T
p
a
,
T
r
a
,
T
E
,
T
s
a
,
T
B
,
T
r
w
,
T
s
w
,
T
h
w
,
a
n
d
T
c
w
").
Zhang does not explicitly disclose; however Pan discloses (except the limitations surrounded by brackets ([[..]])) in a first phase, establish a baseline model of thermal characteristics of an architecture by performing a plurality of [[computational-fluid dynamic (CFD)]] simulations to generate thermal-[[resistance]] interpolation tables for determining a thermal [[resistance
R
a
m
b
]]; and A two-stage approach is used wherein the first stage includes a table construction procedure for thermal responses ((Pan, Page 151, Col 1, ¶Abstract) "First, the pre-process stage constructs thermal impulse response tables. ");((Pan, Page 153, Col 1, ¶4) "The flowchart of I-LUTSim is shown in Fig. 4. The first stage is the table construction procedure, and the second stage is the main procedure of I-LUTSim."). Thermal simulations for IC designs are performed to obtain the thermal impulse response tables ((Pan, Page 151, Col 2, ¶2) "In the pre processing stage, thermal characteristics (impulse responses) of a homogeneous layer thermal conductivity structure are pre characterized by the detailed thermal simulation. Based on the power-thermal relation, a double-mesh scheme is developed to capture the thermal characteristics, and the results are tabled in the library files."). An estimated thermal profile, as a baseline model, for each design with known parameters of a 3D IC is established based on the response characteristic tables ((Pan, Page 153, Col 1, ¶5 - Col 2, ¶1) "As design information is given, using the thermal impulse response tables and the power profile of design, I-LUTSim provides an iterative look-up table based full-chip thermal simulation procedure to effectively estimate the temperature profile of the design"); ((Pan, Page 155, Col 1, ¶4) "To construct the thermal impulse response table, the following technology and chip information are required: 1) the silicon substrate thickness, the silicon bulk thickness, and the TSV/TTSV material; 2) the number of tiers and the effective heat transfer coefficients of primary and secondary heat flow paths; 3) the thickness and effective thermal conductivities of interconnect layers; 4) the chip outline including the chip width and height.2 In practice, the above information is available before the floor planning stage. With this information and the assumption of TSVs/TTSVs not being inserted, the thermal impulse response tables are pre-calculated."). Individual tables are interpolated to form an additional table ((Pan, Page 154, Col 2, ¶1) "To calculate Th, we also need TI l for the gird l not being a representative grid, i.e. lack of the pre-built table. Thus, a proposed table shifting and interpolation process is proceeded to obtain the approximate value of each entry of TI l . As shown in Fig. 7.(b), grids m, n, q, and r are four representative grids that are the closest grids to grid l.TABm,TABn,TABq and TABr are the tables of TI m, TI n, TI q and TI r, respectively. By shifting and interpolating these four tables, TI l can be approximated and represented as TABl. Here, TABl can be interpolated as [17] TABl≈c1TABm+c2TABn+c3TABq+c4TABr, (12)"); See also Figure 7. The interpolation process enables an approximation of the temperature profile via lookup tables ((Pan, Page 154, Col 2, ¶2) "With the table shifting and interpolation process, Th can be approximated by table lookup"). The temperature profile is described as being related to a thermal conductance matrix (See Equation 5), whereby thermal conductance would be understood by one having skill in the art as the reciprocal of thermal resistance and therefore thermal resistances can be derived from the interpolation tables ((Pan, Page 153, Col 1, ¶2) "GT=p. (5) Here, G is the thermal conductance matrix. T and p are temperature and power profile vectors of control volumes, respectively.")
in a second phase, the second phase occurring after the first phase and without repeating the plurality of [[CFD]] simulations: The second stage of the two stage approach relies on lookup tables derived from the first stage to generate estimates, where no return to the pre-stage occurs in the second stage loop ((Pan, Page 152, Col 1, ¶3-4 – Col 2, ¶1) "The flowchart of I-LUTSim is shown in Fig. 4. The first stage is the table construction procedure, and the second stage is the main procedure of I-LUTSim. To construct the thermal impulse response table, the following technology and chip information are required: 1) the silicon substrate thickness, the silicon bulk thickness, and the TSV/TTSV material; 2) the number of tiers and the effective heat transfer coefficients of primary and secondary heat flow paths; 3) the thickness and effective thermal conductivities of interconnect layers; 4) the chip outline including the chip width and height.2 In practice, the above information is available before the floor planning stage. With this information and the assumption of TSVs/TTSVs not being inserted, the thermal impulse response tables are pre-calculated. As design information is given, using the thermal impulse response tables and the power profile of design, I-LUTSim provides an iterative look-up table based full-chip thermal simulation procedure to effectively estimate the temperature profile of the design. ");(See Figure 4)
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wherein the thermal [[resistance R_amb]] being calculated using the thermal-[[resistance]] interpolation tables, and A temperature profile is obtained using the lookup tables ((Pan, Page 151, Col 1, ¶Abstract) "Then, the simulation stage iteratively calculates the temperature profile via the table lookup."). The thermal conductance matrix can be derived from the temperature profile obtained via estimation from the lookup tables ((Pan, Page 153, Col 1, ¶1) "The steady-state temperature profile of a 3-D IC can be obtained by solving the following modified nodal analysis (MNA) system [15]. GT=p. (5) Here, G is the thermal conductance matrix. T and p are temperature and power profile vectors of control volumes, respectively.")
Pan is analogous to the claimed invention because it is reasonably pertinent to the problem faced by the inventor which is improving computational speed and efficiency in thermal modeling applications. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have incorporated the two-stage approach as disclosed by Pan into the methodology disclosed by Zhang because some teaching, suggestion, or motivation would have led one having ordinary skill to modify the references in order to arrive at the claimed invention. Zhang discloses an interface for performing data center design based on parameters and heat exchange equations. Pan discloses a thermal estimation methodology that leverages look-up tables generated from pre-processed thermal simulations of 3D ICs. Although Pan does not disclose thermal analyses with respect to data center rooms, the methodology of Pan would be apparently applicable to such an application because thermal management is an integral design aspect for both applications that requires optimization and is known in the art to be computationally intensive due to the necessity of re-performing simulations for different design configurations. Pan explicitly notes that the approach is relevant for fast analysis of early physical design flows, compared to conventional approaches. Accordingly by applying the two-stage approach into the methodology of Zhang to achieve such benefits, one having skill in the art could reasonably and obviously end up at the disclosed invention.
The proposed combination of Zhang in view of Pan does not explicitly disclose the utilization of computational fluid dynamics simulations but rather (in view of Pan) discloses the utilization of a finite difference method as the numerical technique for simulating the physical system of the 3D ICs being modeled to generate the lookup tables in the first phase. However, Jiang alternatively discloses performing offline computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations/ CFD simulations for estimating indoor physical fields as a preliminary step to subsequent estimation. ((Jiang, Page 549, ¶2) "Using the method of snapshots [41], we can easily find the PCA modes from the known physical field database obtained from off-line CFD simulations under various input parameters."); ((Jiang, Page 550, Col 5, ¶3) "We represent the indoor physical field data (e.g., temperature) obtained from a CFD simulation by s(x, p) where x ∈ X = {x1, x2, . . ., xN}, and p ∈ P ⊂ Rp is a vector which consists of all the varying input parameters used in the CFD simulations.")
Jiang is analogous art in that it is related to the same field of endeavor of approaches for reducing computational complexity with regard for estimating indoor thermal characteristics. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have incorporated the teachings of Jiang into that disclosed by the proposed combination of Zhang and Pan because simple substitution of one known element for another would yield predictable results. Zhang discloses a methodology for evaluating cooling performance of a data center by performing real-time performance calculations that enables the design and maintenance of efficient and effective data center configurations. Pan discloses performing a finite difference method for simulating the thermal behaviors of a 3D IC. Jiang discloses a two-stage methodology for estimating an indoor physical field using computational fluid dynamics simulations. Data centers, such as that disclosed by Zhang, would be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art to experience indoor data fields indicative of the cooling patterns, such as that disclosed by Jiang. One having skill in the art would recognize that finite element based thermal simulations are intended for heat conduction within solid parts and CFD simulations are intended for modeling heat transfer through fluids and solid interaction. By modifying the proposed combination such that the simulations of Pan were instead computationally-fluid-dynamics-based, as in Jiang, to account for the alternative application of the liquid cooled IT room design as disclosed in Zhang, one would arrive at the claimed invention. The predictable results of this combination would be that the system is appropriately modeled for the application.
The proposed combination does not particularly disclose the derivation of thermal resistance but rather discloses (in light of Zhang) consideration of the overall U value of the coils in the coolers in the equations characterizing the heat exchange of the system (See Zhang ¶98) and (in light of Pan) the generation of thermal profiles that hold a relationship to the thermal conductance matrix of the system (See Pan, Page 153, Col 1, ¶1). However, The Engineering Toolbox discloses that the thermal resistance is a matter of a simple fundamental calculation, wherein the thermal resistance is understood to be the reciprocal of the U-value/ thermal conductance of a system. The heat transfer resistance is defined as the reciprocal of the overall heat transfer coefficient in Equation 4:
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76
366
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and wherein U is defined in equation 1 as the overall heat transfer coefficient.
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45
449
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.
The Engineering Toolbox is analogous art because it is reasonably pertinent to the problem faced by the inventor- which is thermal management of an infrastructure which relies on thermal analysis equations. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have combined the prior art references with the present reference to arrive at the claimed invention because combining prior art elements according to known methods would yield predictable results. As stated previously. Zhang accounts for the U-value of the coils of the system in order to calculating temperature values of the system to include the fluid return temperature and Pan discloses the generation of lookup tables for thermal profiles wherein the thermal profiles can be evaluated by a given formula to derive the conductance matrix of the system. By instead accounting for the thermal resistance value rather than the given thermal conductance value, one would arrive at the claimed invention. The relationship between heat transfer coefficient (conductance) and thermal resistance is a known physical direct relationship, demonstrated explicitly by The Engineering Toolbox, and it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to rearrange the equations so as to arrive at the claimed invention wherein the predictable results would have been rooted in physical fundaments.
The proposed combination does not explicitly teach; however, Campbell teaches dielectric fluid… and immersion-cooled equipment racks…Usage of direct immersion-cooling of electronic components is disclosed. The immersion-cooling system leverages dielectric fluid as the liquid to employ liquid-cooling. ((Campbell, ¶42) "As a further cooling approach to the above-described liquid-cooled electronics rack, direct immersion-cooling of electronic components of a plurality of horizontally-disposed electronic subsystems within an electronics rack may be employed. Such an immersion-cooling approach also advantageously avoids forced air-cooling and enables total liquid-cooling of the electronics rack within a data center. Where employable, the use of dielectric fluid immersion-cooling may offer several unique benefits over air-cooling or a hybrid air and water cooling approach.")
Campbell further teaches … an amount of required room cooling power per unit area of the IT room. A minimum cooling power required to provide the facility coolant and the desired temperature to remove heat is disclosed. ((Campbell, ¶58) "Such a relatively high coolant temperature means that minimum cooling power is required to provide facility coolant at the desired temperature to remove heat from the electronics rack.")
Campbell is analogous arts in that it is related to the same field of endeavor of optimizing cooling of data centers comprising IT equipment within racks. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have implemented the immersion cooling system as taught by Campbell over the water-chilled cooling system as taught by the proposed combination in light of Zhang because some teaching, suggestion or motivation in the prior art would have led one having skill in the art to make the combination in order to arrive at the claimed invention. Campbell discloses immersion cooling offers benefits over air-cooling or hybrid air- and water-cooling approaches. ((Campbell, ¶42) "As a further cooling approach to the above-described liquid-cooled electronics rack, direct immersion-cooling of electronic components of a plurality of horizontally-disposed electronic subsystems within an electronics rack may be employed. Such an immersion-cooling approach also advantageously avoids forced air-cooling and enables total liquid-cooling of the electronics rack within a data center. Where employable, the use of dielectric fluid immersion-cooling may offer several unique benefits over air-cooling or a hybrid air and water cooling approach."). Furthermore, immersion cooling for data centers is more desirable over a water-cooled approach for logistics purposes for delivery as well as increasing energy efficiency and achieving higher performance cooling benefits. ((Campbell, ¶43) "For example, the use of a dielectric fluid that condenses at a temperature above typical outdoor ambient air temperature enables data center cooling architectures which do not require energy-intensive refrigeration chillers. Yet other practical advantages, such as the ability to ship a coolant-filled electronic subsystem, may offer benefit over a water-cooled approach, which typically would require shipping dry and the use of a fill and drain protocol to insure against freeze damage during transport. Also, the use of liquid immersion-cooling may, in certain cases, allow for greater compaction of electronic components at the electronic subsystem level and/or the electronic rack level, since conductive cooling structures may be eliminated. Unlike corrosion-sensitive water-cooled systems, chemically inert dielectric coolant can be employed within an immersion-cooling approach such as described herein, which would not mandate copper as the primary thermally conductive wetted metal. Lower cost and lower mass aluminum structures could replace copper structures wherever thermally viable, and the mixed, wetted metal assemblies would not be vulnerable to galvanic corrosion, such as in a water-based cooling approach. For at least these potential benefits, dielectric fluid immersion-cooling of one or more electronic subsystems of an electronics rack may offer significant energy efficiency and higher performance cooling benefits, compared with currently available air or hybrid air and water cooled systems."). Additionally, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have implemented calculating the minimum required cooling power as taught by Campbell into the design system as taught by Zhang because when utilizing an immersion cooling system such as that described by Campbell, it is integral to consider coolant needs during architecture planning to ensure that adequate coolant is supplied to remove heat from the electronics racks ((Campbell, ¶58) "Note also that, in operation, facility coolant supplied to vertically-oriented, vapor-condensing heat exchanger 460 needs to be at a temperature below the saturation temperature of the dielectric fluid. By way of example, if the facility coolant is water, a temperature of about 30 degree C., or higher, may be employed based on the saturation temperature of the dielectric fluid within the liquid-cooled electronics rack. Such a relatively high coolant temperature means that minimum cooling power is required to provide facility coolant at the desired temperature to remove heat from the electronics rack.").
Regarding claim 2, the proposed combination teaches The system of claim 1, as stated previously and in further view of Zhang teaches wherein dynamically calculating comprises dynamically calculating a percentage of total heat load removed by liquid cooling in the architecture and/or air cooling in the architecture. An energy balance equation is provided for calculating the relationship between total load removed by the coolers and the total load produced by the data center ((Zhang, ¶102) "Further, since the total load removed by the coolers should be equal to the total load in the data center, Equation (8) is satisfied to maintain energy balance in the data center room."); (See also equation 8, Col 12 line 54). A percentage value can be derived from this equation. Total load is understood in the art as heat per unit time. The coolers within the architecture supply both chilled water and air via loops to remove the heat load ((Zhang, ¶49 "In describing embodiments of the invention, it is helpful to start with a description of a data center transient model used with some embodiments. In the model, a typical chilled water cooled data center may be considered as consisting of three loops: one air-side loop and two water side loops."); (Figure 5)
Regarding claim 3, the proposed combination teaches The system of claim 1, as stated previously and Zhang further teaches (except the limitations surrounded by brackets ([[..]])) wherein dynamically calculating comprises dynamically calculating a percentage of total heat load produced by the at least one [[immersion-cooled rack, at least one direct-to-chip-cooled rack,]] at least one air-cooled rack, or piping in the architecture An energy balance equation is provided for calculating the relationship between total load removed by the coolers and the total load produced by the data center ((Zhang¶102) "Further, since the total load removed by the coolers should be equal to the total load in the data center, Equation (8) is satisfied to maintain energy balance in the data center room."); (See also equation 8). A percentage value can be derived from this equation. Total load is understood in the art as heat per unit time and total load in the data center is understood to be the heat load produced by the IT equipment. ((Zhang ¶55) "
Q
I
T
d
o
t
is the total load in the data center."); (See also equations 1 and 8). The racks of IT equipment are disclosed to include an air side loop where cooled air is supplied by the cooler to cool the racks ((Zhang, ¶49) "In describing embodiments of the invention, it is helpful to start with a description of a data center transient model used with some embodiments. In the model, a typical chilled water cooled data center may be considered as consisting of three loops: one air-side loop and two water side loops. In the air-side loop, cooled air supplied by coolers enters the room (or plenum, then to the room) and mixes with hot air from server exhaust and is heated by the heat load."). The chilled water system utilizes piping in the architecture ((Zhang, ¶50) "The chilled water system has two loops. The first is a loop between the chiller plants and the coolers in the room. The chilled water is supplied from chillers by pumps that circulate water through a network of pipes").
The proposed combination in further view of Campbell teaches immersion-cooled rack, as stated previously. Usage of direct immersion-cooling of electronic components is disclosed. The immersion-cooling system leverages dielectric fluid as the liquid to employ liquid-cooling. ((Campbell, ¶42) "As a further cooling approach to the above-described liquid-cooled electronics rack, direct immersion-cooling of electronic components of a plurality of horizontally-disposed electronic subsystems within an electronics rack may be employed. Such an immersion-cooling approach also advantageously avoids forced air-cooling and enables total liquid-cooling of the electronics rack within a data center. Where employable, the use of dielectric fluid immersion-cooling may offer several unique benefits over air-cooling or a hybrid air and water cooling approach.")
Regarding claim 7, the proposed combination teaches The system of claim 1, wherein the dielectric fluid return temperature is determined by as stated previously. The proposed combination discloses in further view of Pan discloses (except the limitations surrounded by brackets ([[..]])) [[retrieving a plurality of constants from one or more stored]] tables of simulation data generated from the plurality of [[computational fluid dynamics]] simulations Tables are precalculated for the thermal profile based on simulation, as stated previously ((Pan, Page 153 Col 1, ¶3-4 – Col 2, ¶1) " With this information and the assumption of TSVs/TTSVs not being inserted, the thermal impulse response tables are pre-calculated. As design information is given, using the thermal impulse response tables and the power profile of design, I-LUTSim provides an iterative look-up table based full-chip thermal simulation procedure to effectively estimate the temperature profile of the design. "); ((Pan, Page 154, Col 2, ¶3) " First, a unit power source is inserted into a representative grid (PT1 of Fig. 6), and the detailed thermal simulation is performed to generate its thermal impulse response (PT2 of Fig. 6). ")
The proposed combination discloses in further view of Jiang retrieving a plurality of constants from one or more [[…]] computational fluid dynamics. Dominant PCA coefficients are estimated in the first stage using information stored in a database obtained from offline CFD simulations ((Jiang, Page 549, Col 2, ¶2-3) " Using the method of snapshots [41], we can easily find the PCA modes from the known physical field database obtained from off-line CFD simulations under various input parameters. In the first stage, we train a regression model to estimate the PCA coefficients from the input parameters."); ((Jiang, Page 551, Col 2, ¶4) " This method has been discussed in [29–31]. Based on the database S, the regression models between each PCA coefficient ck, k ∈ I0¯ = {1, 2,. . ., nˇ} and the input parameters p can be constructed").
Regarding claim 11, Zhang teaches the limitations (except the limitations surrounded by brackets ([[..]])) A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the steps comprising: A data center design and management system is depicted as element 206 in figure 2. A process that can be incorporated into the data center design and management system is disclosed and discusses utilizing data center architecture information as part of the design process ((Zhang, ¶139) "A process 700 in accordance with one embodiment that may be incorporated into a data center design system for predicting transient cooling performance of the data center will now be described with reference to FIG. 7, which shows a flow chart of the process 700. In a first act 710 of the process, the user initiates the process by, for example, selecting an option incorporated on a display screen of the data center design system. Next, at act 720, the system reads the data center architecture information and operating data from storage in the system, and in addition, the user may be asked to input additional data."). The data center designed is understood to comprise a room whereby IT equipment such as racks are stored (See data center room, item 316 of Figure 3); ((Zhang, ¶4) "A centralized network data center typically consists of various information technology equipment, collocated in a structure that provides network connectivity, electrical power and cooling capacity. Often the equipment is housed in rows of specialized enclosures termed "racks" which integrate these connectivity, power and cooling elements. In some data center configurations, these rows are organized into hot and cold aisles to decrease the cost associated with cooling the information technology equipment."). A chilled-water cooled data center is disclosed as being included in the design (See Figures 3 and 4; Zhang, ¶49 discuss the specifics of the chilled water-cooling system for a data center). The computer system where the data center design and management system is implemented includes one or more processors (See Figures 1 and 2, item 110); ((Zhang, ¶47) "The computer systems shown in FIG. 2, which include data center design and management system 206, network 208 and data center equipment database 210, each may include one or more computer systems. Further, the system in FIG. 2 may also connect to one or more devices in a data center, including components of the cooling system or power distribution system to control and monitor these systems. As discussed above with regard to FIG. 1, computer systems may have one or more processors or controllers, memory and interface devices.").
[[in a first phase, establish a baseline model of thermal characteristics of an architecture by performing a plurality of computational-fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations to generate thermal-resistance interpolation tables for determining a thermal resistance
R
a
m
b
; and]]
[[in a second phase, the second phase occurring after the first phase and without repeating the plurality of CFD simulations:]]
receiving a design parameter, responsive to a user input, corresponding to at least one equipment rack in the IT room, Figure 5 depicts a GUI by which to receive user input, where design parameters for IT equipment may be entered, such as the equipment total load. IT equipment is also referred to as an equipment rack in a data center room. ((Zhang, ¶4) "One manifestation of this growth is the centralized network data center. A centralized network data center typically consists of various information technology equipment, collocated in a structure that provides network connectivity, electrical power and cooling capacity. Often the equipment is housed in rows of specialized enclosures termed "racks" which integrate these connectivity, power and cooling elements. In some data center configurations, these rows are organized into hot and cold aisles to decrease the cost associated with cooling the information technology equipment.")
set an initial temperature of [[dielectric]] fluid corresponding to the at least one equipment rack, Figure 5 depicts a GUI by which a user can set an initial chilled water temperature for a data center ((Zhang, ¶130) "FIG. 5 shows a data entry screen 500 that may be used with one embodiment to allow a user to enter and manipulate data to obtain and optimize the transient cooling performance of a data center. The input screen 500 includes a number of data entry boxes in which the user enters data that describes the system."). The data center is described as containing racks ((Zhang, ¶4) "A centralized network data center typically consists of various information technology equipment, collocated in a structure that provides network connectivity, electrical power and cooling capacity. Often the equipment is housed in rows of specialized enclosures termed "racks" which integrate these connectivity, power and cooling elements.")
determine a [[dielectric]] fluid return temperature
T
h
i
n
of the [[dielectric]] fluid based on the initial temperature, the thermal [[resistance R_amb,]] and a heat exchange equation, [[wherein the thermal resistance R_amb being calculated using the thermal-resistance interpolation tables, and]] Temperatures can be computed based on a set of energy balance equations and heat transfer linear equations presented ((Zhang, ¶7) "In the method, performing real-time transient cooling performance calculations for the data center may include developing a set of energy balance and heat transfer linear equations for the data center based on the input data, and generating a symbolic expression for each of a plurality of temperature variables in the set of energy balance linear equations."). The temperature values which can be computed from these equations includes 9 temperature values ((Zhang, ¶119) "Combinations and substitutions can reduce the above 12 equations to a set of nine linear equations. More specifically, substituting equation (2) into (1), (5) into (4), and (11) into (10), results in a set of nine linear equations, with nine unknowns:
T
p
a
,
T
r
a
,
T
E
,
T
s
a
,
T
B
,
T
r
w
,
T
s
w
,
T
h
w
,
a
n
d
T
c
w
"). Return water temperature is included in this list of solvable unknowns. ((Zhang ¶95) "
T
r
w
is the temperature of water flow leaving the coolers"). Entering water flow temperature is included in the list of solvable unknowns ((Zhang, ¶96) "Tsw is the temperature of water flow entering the coolers"). The U-value (thermal conductance) of the coils of the system are considered in equation 7, wherein Equation 7 is considered as part of the 12 equations dictating the nine temperature unknowns above ((Zhang, ¶98) " U is the overall U value of the coils in the coolers"); See also Eqn 7.
responsive to receiving the design parameter and determining the [[dielectric]] fluid return temperature, dynamically calculating and displaying at least one of a surface temperature of at least one [[immersion]]-cooled equipment rack cooled by the architecture or [[an amount of required room cooling power per a unit of area of the IT room]]. Real-time data center calculations are performed as a result of receiving a design parameter and the results of the calculations are displayed (see Figures 7 and 8); ((Zhang ¶139) "A process 700 in accordance with one embodiment that may be incorporated into a data center design system for predicting transient cooling performance of the data center will now be described with reference to FIG. 7, which shows a flow chart of the process 700. In a first act 710 of the process, the user initiates the process by, for example, selecting an option incorporated on a display screen of the data center design system. Next, at act 720, the system reads the data center architecture information and operating data from storage in the system, and in addition, the user may be asked to input additional data. At act 730, the system performs realtime data center transient calculations using one of the processes described above, and at act 740, the results are displayed using, for example, the results screen 600 discussed above."); ((Zhang ¶142) "A process 800 in accordance with one embodiment that may be incorporated into a data center management system for predicting transient cooling performance of the data center will now be described with reference to FIG. 8, which shows a flow chart of the process 800. In a first act 810 of the process, the user initiates the process by, for example, selecting an option incorporated on a display screen of the data center management system. Next, at act 820, the system reads the data center architecture information and operating data from storage in the system, and may also obtain data from sensors and other instruments located in the data center, and, in addition, the user may be asked to input additional data. At act 830, the system performs real-time data center transient calculations using one of the processes described above, and at act 840, the results are displayed using, for example, the results screen 600 discussed above"). The surface temperature of the equipment
T
E
can be calculated per the defined linear equations as part of the real-time data center calculations. ((Zhang, ¶62) "
T
E
is the equipment surface temperature."); ((Zhang, ¶119 "Combinations and substitutions can reduce the above 12 equations to a set of nine linear equations. More specifically, substituting equation (2) into (1), (5) into (4), and (11) into (10), results in a set of nine linear equations, with nine unknowns:
T
p
a
,
T
r
a
,
T
E
,
T
s
a
,
T
B
,
T
r
w
,
T
s
w
,
T
h
w
,
a
n
d
T
c
w
").
Zhang does not explicitly disclose; however Pan discloses (except the limitations surrounded by brackets ([[..]])) in a first phase, establish a baseline model of thermal characteristics of an architecture by performing a plurality of [[computational-fluid dynamic (CFD)]] simulations to generate thermal-[[resistance]] interpolation tables for determining a thermal [[resistance
R
a
m
b
]]; and A two-stage approach is used wherein the first stage includes a table construction procedure for thermal responses ((Pan, Page 151, Col 1, ¶Abstract) "First, the pre-process stage constructs thermal impulse response tables. ");((Pan, Page 153, Col 1, ¶4) "The flowchart of I-LUTSim is shown in Fig. 4. The first stage is the table construction procedure, and the second stage is the main procedure of I-LUTSim."). Thermal simulations for IC designs are performed to obtain the thermal impulse response tables ((Pan, Page 151, Col 2, ¶2) "In the pre processing stage, thermal characteristics (impulse responses) of a homogeneous layer thermal conductivity structure are pre characterized by the detailed thermal simulation. Based on the power-thermal relation, a double-mesh scheme is developed to capture the thermal characteristics, and the results are tabled in the library files."). An estimated thermal profile, as a baseline model, for each design with known parameters of a 3D IC is established based on the response characteristic tables ((Pan, Page 153, Col 1, ¶5 - Col 2, ¶1) "As design information is given, using the thermal impulse response tables and the power profile of design, I-LUTSim provides an iterative look-up table based full-chip thermal simulation procedure to effectively estimate the temperature profile of the design"); ((Pan, Page 155, Col 1, ¶4) "To construct the thermal impulse response table, the following technology and chip information are required: 1) the silicon substrate thickness, the silicon bulk thickness, and the TSV/TTSV material; 2) the number of tiers and the effective heat transfer coefficients of primary and secondary heat flow paths; 3) the thickness and effective thermal conductivities of interconnect layers; 4) the chip outline including the chip width and height.2 In practice, the above information is available before the floor planning stage. With this information and the assumption of TSVs/TTSVs not being inserted, the thermal impulse response tables are pre-calculated."). Individual tables are interpolated to form an additional table ((Pan, Page 154, Col 2, ¶1) "To calculate Th, we also need TI l for the gird l not being a representative grid, i.e. lack of the pre-built table. Thus, a proposed table shifting and interpolation process is proceeded to obtain the approximate value of each entry of TI l . As shown in Fig. 7.(b), grids m, n, q, and r are four representative grids that are the closest grids to grid l.TABm,TABn,TABq and TABr are the tables of TI m, TI n, TI q and TI r, respectively. By shifting and interpolating these four tables, TI l can be approximated and represented as TABl. Here, TABl can be interpolated as [17] TABl≈c1TABm+c2TABn+c3TABq+c4TABr, (12)"); See also Figure 7. The interpolation process enables an approximation of the temperature profile via lookup tables ((Pan, Page 154, Col 2, ¶2) "With the table shifting and interpolation process, Th can be approximated by table lookup"). The temperature profile is described as being related to a thermal conductance matrix (See Equation 5), whereby thermal conductance would be understood by one having skill in the art as the reciprocal of thermal resistance and therefore thermal resistances can be derived from the interpolation tables ((Pan, Page 153, Col 1, ¶2) "GT=p. (5) Here, G is the thermal conductance matrix. T and p are temperature and power profile vectors of control volumes, respectively.")
in a second phase, the second phase occurring after the first phase and without repeating the plurality of [[CFD]] simulations: The second stage of the two stage approach relies on lookup tables derived from the first stage to generate estimates, where no return to the pre-stage occurs in the second stage loop ((Pan, Page 152, Col 1, ¶3-4 – Col 2, ¶1) "The flowchart of I-LUTSim is shown in Fig. 4. The first stage is the table construction procedure, and the second stage is the main procedure of I-LUTSim. To construct the thermal impulse response table, the following technology and chip information are required: 1) the silicon substrate thickness, the silicon bulk thickness, and the TSV/TTSV material; 2) the number of tiers and the effective heat transfer coefficients of primary and secondary heat flow paths; 3) the thickness and effective thermal conductivities of interconnect layers; 4) the chip outline including the chip width and height.2 In practice, the above information is available before the floor planning stage. With this information and the assumption of TSVs/TTSVs not being inserted, the thermal impulse response tables are pre-calculated. As design information is given, using the thermal impulse response tables and the power profile of design, I-LUTSim provides an iterative look-up table based full-chip thermal simulation procedure to effectively estimate the temperature profile of the design. ");(See Figure 4)
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369
557
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wherein the thermal [[resistance R_amb]] being calculated using the thermal-[[resistance]] interpolation tables, and A temperature profile is obtained using the lookup tables ((Pan, Page 151, Col 1, ¶Abstract) "Then, the simulation stage iteratively calculates the temperature profile via the table lookup."). The thermal conductance matrix can be derived from the temperature profile obtained via estimation from the lookup tables ((Pan, Page 153, Col 1, ¶1) "The steady-state temperature profile of a 3-D IC can be obtained by solving the following modified nodal analysis (MNA) system [15]. GT=p. (5) Here, G is the thermal conductance matrix. T and p are temperature and power profile vectors of control volumes, respectively.")
Pan is analogous to the claimed invention because it is reasonably pertinent to the problem faced by the inventor which is improving computational speed and efficiency in thermal modeling applications. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have incorporated the two-stage approach as disclosed by Pan into the methodology disclosed by Zhang because some teaching, suggestion, or motivation would have led one having ordinary skill to modify the references in order to arrive at the claimed invention. Zhang discloses an interface for performing data center design based on parameters and heat exchange equations. Pan discloses a thermal estimation methodology that leverages look-up tables generated from pre-processed thermal simulations of 3D ICs. Although Pan does not disclose thermal analyses with respect to data center rooms, the methodology of Pan would be apparently applicable to such an application because thermal management is an integral design aspect for both applications that requires optimization and is known in the art to be computationally intensive due to the necessity of re-performing simulations for different design configurations. Pan explicitly notes that the approach is relevant for fast analysis of early physical design flows, compared to conventional approaches. Accordingly by applying the two-stage approach into the methodology of Zhang to achieve such benefits, one having skill in the art could reasonably and obviously end up at the disclosed invention.
The proposed combination of Zhang in view of Pan does not explicitly disclose the utilization of computational fluid dynamics simulations but rather (in view of Pan) discloses the utilization of a finite difference method as the numerical technique for simulating the physical system of the 3D ICs being modeled to generate the lookup tables in the first phase. However, Jiang alternatively discloses performing offline computational fluid dynamic (CFD) simulations/ CFD simulations for estimating indoor physical fields as a preliminary step to subsequent estimation. ((Jiang, Page 549, ¶2) "Using the method of snapshots [41], we can easily find the PCA modes from the known physical field database obtained from off-line CFD simulations under various input parameters."); ((Jiang, Page 550, Col 5, ¶3) "We represent the indoor physical field data (e.g., temperature) obtained from a CFD simulation by s(x, p) where x ∈ X = {x1, x2, . . ., xN}, and p ∈ P ⊂ Rp is a vector which consists of all the varying input parameters used in the CFD simulations.")
Jiang is analogous art in that it is related to the same field of endeavor of approaches for reducing computational complexity with regard for estimating indoor thermal characteristics. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have incorporated the teachings of Jiang into that disclosed by the proposed combination of Zhang and Pan because simple substitution of one known element for another would yield predictable results. Zhang discloses a methodology for evaluating cooling performance of a data center by performing real-time performance calculations that enables the design and maintenance of efficient and effective data center configurations. Pan discloses performing a finite difference method for simulating the thermal behaviors of a 3D IC. Jiang discloses a two-stage methodology for estimating an indoor physical field using computational fluid dynamics simulations. Data centers, such as that disclosed by Zhang, would be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art to experience indoor data fields indicative of the cooling patterns, such as that disclosed by Jiang. One having skill in the art would recognize that finite element based thermal simulations are intended for heat conduction within solid parts and CFD simulations are intended for modeling heat transfer through fluids and solid interaction. By modifying the proposed combination such that the simulations of Pan were instead computationally-fluid-dynamics-based, as in Jiang, to account for the alternative application of the liquid cooled IT room design as disclosed in Zhang, one would arrive at the claimed invention. The predictable results of this combination would be that the system is appropriately modeled for the application.
The proposed combination does not particularly disclose the derivation of thermal resistance but rather discloses (in light of Zhang) consideration of the overall U value of the coils in the coolers in the equations characterizing the heat exchange of the system (See Zhang ¶98) and (in light of Pan) the generation of thermal profiles that hold a relationship to the thermal conductance matrix of the system (See Pan, Page 153, Col 1, ¶1). However, The Engineering Toolbox discloses that the thermal resistance is a matter of a simple fundamental calculation, wherein the thermal resistance is understood to be the reciprocal of the U-value/ thermal conductance of a system. The heat transfer resistance is defined as the reciprocal of the overall heat transfer coefficient in Equation 4:
PNG
media_image4.png
76
366
media_image4.png
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and wherein U is defined in equation 1 as the overall heat transfer coefficient.
PNG
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45
449
media_image5.png
Greyscale
.
The Engineering Toolbox is analogous art because it is reasonably pertinent to the problem faced by the inventor- which is thermal management of an infrastructure which relies on thermal analysis equations. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have combined the prior art references with the present reference to arrive at the claimed invention because combining prior art elements according to known methods would yield predictable results. As stated previously. Zhang accounts for the U-value of the coils of the system in order to calculating temperature values of the system to include the fluid return temperature and Pan discloses the generation of lookup tables for thermal profiles wherein the thermal profiles can be evaluated by a given formula to derive the conductance matrix of the system. By instead accounting for the thermal resistance value rather than the given thermal conductance value, one would arrive at the claimed invention. The relationship between heat transfer coefficient (conductance) and thermal resistance is a known physical direct relationship, demonstrated explicitly by The Engineering Toolbox, and it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art to rearrange the equations so as to arrive at the claimed invention wherein the predictable results would have been rooted in physical fundaments.
The proposed combination does not explicitly teach; however, Campbell teaches dielectric fluid… and immersion-cooled equipment racks…Usage of direct immersion-cooling of electronic components is disclosed. The immersion-cooling system leverages dielectric fluid as the liquid to employ liquid-cooling. ((Campbell, ¶42) "As a further cooling approach to the above-described liquid-cooled electronics rack, direct immersion-cooling of electronic components of a plurality of horizontally-disposed electronic subsystems within an electronics rack may be employed. Such an immersion-cooling approach also advantageously avoids forced air-cooling and enables total liquid-cooling of the electronics rack within a data center. Where employable, the use of dielectric fluid immersion-cooling may offer several unique benefits over air-cooling or a hybrid air and water cooling approach.")
Campbell further teaches … an amount of required room cooling power per unit area of the IT room. A minimum cooling power required to provide the facility coolant and the desired temperature to remove heat is disclosed. ((Campbell, ¶58) "Such a relatively high coolant temperature means that minimum cooling power is required to provide facility coolant at the desired temperature to remove heat from the electronics rack.")
Campbell is analogous arts in that it is related to the same field of endeavor of optimizing cooling of data centers comprising IT equipment within racks. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have implemented the immersion cooling system as taught by Campbell over the water-chilled cooling system as taught by the proposed combination in light of Zhang because some teaching, suggestion or motivation in the prior art would have led one having skill in the art to make the combination in order to arrive at the claimed invention. Campbell discloses immersion cooling offers benefits over air-cooling or hybrid air- and water-cooling approaches. ((Campbell, ¶42) "As a further cooling approach to the above-described liquid-cooled electronics rack, direct immersion-cooling of electronic components of a plurality of horizontally-disposed electronic subsystems within an electronics rack may be employed. Such an immersion-cooling approach also advantageously avoids forced air-cooling and enables total liquid-cooling of the electronics rack within a data center. Where employable, the use of dielectric fluid immersion-cooling may offer several unique benefits over air-cooling or a hybrid air and water cooling approach."). Furthermore, immersion cooling for data centers is more desirable over a water-cooled approach for logistics purposes for delivery as well as increasing energy efficiency and achieving higher performance cooling benefits. ((Campbell, ¶43) "For example, the use of a dielectric fluid that condenses at a temperature above typical outdoor ambient air temperature enables data center cooling architectures which do not require energy-intensive refrigeration chillers. Yet other practical advantages, such as the ability to ship a coolant-filled electronic subsystem, may offer benefit over a water-cooled approach, which typically would require shipping dry and the use of a fill and drain protocol to insure against freeze damage during transport. Also, the use of liquid immersion-cooling may, in certain cases, allow for greater compaction of electronic components at the electronic subsystem level and/or the electronic rack level, since conductive cooling structures may be eliminated. Unlike corrosion-sensitive water-cooled systems, chemically inert dielectric coolant can be employed within an immersion-cooling approach such as described herein, which would not mandate copper as the primary thermally conductive wetted metal. Lower cost and lower mass aluminum structures could replace copper structures wherever thermally viable, and the mixed, wetted metal assemblies would not be vulnerable to galvanic corrosion, such as in a water-based cooling approach. For at least these potential benefits, dielectric fluid immersion-cooling of one or more electronic subsystems of an electronics rack may offer significant energy efficiency and higher performance cooling benefits, compared with currently available air or hybrid air and water cooled systems."). Additionally, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have implemented calculating the minimum required cooling power as taught by Campbell into the design system as taught by Zhang because when utilizing an immersion cooling system such as that described by Campbell, it is integral to consider coolant needs during architecture planning to ensure that adequate coolant is supplied to remove heat from the electronics racks ((Campbell, ¶58) "Note also that, in operation, facility coolant supplied to vertically-oriented, vapor-condensing heat exchanger 460 needs to be at a temperature below the saturation temperature of the dielectric fluid. By way of example, if the facility coolant is water, a temperature of about 30 degree C., or higher, may be employed based on the saturation temperature of the dielectric fluid within the liquid-cooled electronics rack. Such a relatively high coolant temperature means that minimum cooling power is required to provide facility coolant at the desired temperature to remove heat from the electronics rack.").
Regarding claim 12, the limitations wherein dynamically calculating comprises dynamically calculating a percentage of total heat load removed by liquid cooling in the architecture and/or air cooling in the architecture are substantially similar to that of claim 2 but with respect to claim 11 and so claim 12 is therefore rejected under the same rationale of the proposed combination as provided for claim 2 with respect to independent claim 11.
Regarding claim 13, the limitations wherein dynamically calculating comprises dynamically calculating a percentage of total heat load produced by the at least one immersion-cooled rack, at least one direct-to-chip-cooled rack, at least one air-cooled rack, or piping in the architecture are substantially similar to that of claim 3 but with respect to claim 11 and so claim 13 is therefore rejected under the same rationale of the proposed combination as provided for claim 3 with respect to independent claim 11.
Regarding claim 17, the limitations wherein the dielectric fluid return temperature is determined by retrieving a plurality of constants from one or more stored tables of simulation data generated from the plurality of computational fluid dynamics simulations are substantially similar to that of claim 7 but with respect to claim 11 and so claim 17 is therefore rejected under the same rationale as provided for claims with respect to independent claim 11.
Claims 4 and 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the proposed combination as applied to claims 1 and 11 respectively above, further in view of Lee et Al. (Lee, J., Mudawar, I., “Fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics of low temperature two-phase micro-channel heat sinks – Part 1: Experimental methods and flow visualization results, August 2008, International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, Volume 51, Issues 17–18, Pages 4315-4326), hereinafter referred to as Lee.
Regarding claim 4, the proposed combination as applied to claim 1 teaches The system of claim 1, as described above. The proposed combination also teaches the dielectric fluid return temperature
T
h
i
n
…and… external skin of the at least one immersion-cooled equipment rack as described previously in the rejection of claim 1. In further view of Zhang over the proposed combination, a surface temperature of the equipment is noted within the energy balance equation and the fluid return temperature is noted within the energy balance equation ((Zhang, Col 11 Line 21) " TE is the equipment surface temperature"); ((Zhang Col 12 Line 43) "Trw is the temperature of water flow leaving the coolers"). Zhang in view of Campbell disclose the use of dielectric fluid within an immersion-cooled system, as stated in the rejection of claim 1. It is understood that external skin of the immersion cooled equipment rack would thus be known to exist if employing the immersion cooling system taught by Campbell into the system of Zhang and therefore calculations could be computed regarding it.
The proposed combination does not teach; however, the proposed combination discloses in view of Lee wherein the dielectric fluid … temperature
T
h
i
n
is determined by calculating
R
a
m
b
and
R
a
m
b
is an overall thermal resistance
between the ambient environment and external skin … A relationship between a liquid-cooling system (and therefore the fluid contained and the temperature of said fluid contained therein) and the overall thermal resistance between a device and ambient is presented ((Lee, Page 4315 ¶2) "A high-flux liquid-cooled electronic module can be characterized by an overall thermal resistance between device and ambient (typically room air). This resistance is the sum of all conductive resistances of materials comprising the electronic package as well as the convective resistances of coolant internal to the package as well as the ultimate ambient cooling fluid. "). The relationship of overall thermal resistance with respect to ambient temperature and device temperature is presented and low temperature cooling systems are subsequentially presented. ((Lee, Page 4315 ¶3) "The difficulty implementing even the most aggressive and powerful cooling schemes is that, for fixed overall resistance and ambient temperature, device temperature increases fairly linearly with increasing heat dissipation rate. This relationship is especially problematic for defense electronics, where dissipating say 1000 W/cm2 would bring the device well above its maximum temperature limit. To circumvent this problem, direct or indirect low temperature cooling systems could facilitate appreciable reduction in the temperature of coolant inside the electronic package, and, hence, in the temperature of the device itself. "). A dielectric fluid is used in the low temperature cooling system. ((Lee, Section 2, 2.1 ¶2) "The working fluid in the primary cooling loop is HFE7100. This 3 M Novec fluid has very low freezing point below 100 C and a relatively moderate boiling point of 60 C at atmospheric pressure. Like other phase change electronic cooling fluids (e.g., FC-72 and FC-87), HFE 7100 has excellent dielectric properties, is very inert, and its surface tension is much smaller than that of water."). In understanding a relationship exists between the dielectric fluid temperature and the overall thermal resistance, a calculation can be performed using standard thermodynamics relationships and equations to include calculating overall thermal resistance of the proposed architecture.
Lee is analogous art because it is directed towards cooling systems. Particularly Lee focuses on fluid and thermodynamics calculations for cooling systems that leverage dielectric fluids. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have implemented using the overall thermal resistance calculation as taught be Lee as part of determining the dielectric return fluid temperature as taught by the proposed combination because understanding the heat flow properties within the system is critical in determining other parameters in this system. The relationships presented by Lee are standard in the art for understanding the fluid dynamics characteristics of a system. The relationships can be applied to other cooling systems such as the one presented by the proposed combination.
Regarding claim 14, the limitations wherein the dielectric fluid return temperature
T
h
i
n
is determined by calculating Ramb and Ramb is an overall thermal resistance between the ambient environment and external skin of the at least one immersion-cooled equipment rack are substantially similar to that of claim 4 but with respect to claim 11 and so claim 14 is therefore rejected under the same rationale as provided for claim 4 but with respect to independent claim 11.
Claims 5 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over the proposed combination as applied to claims 1 and 11 respectively above, further in view of Ullah et Al. (Ullah, R., Ahmad, N., Malik, S., Akbar, S., and Anjum, A., “Simulator for modeling, analysis, and visualizations of thermal status in data centers”, September 2018, Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems, Volume 19, Pages 324-340), hereinafter referred to as Ullah and further in view of Zheng et Al. (US Patent Publication No. US 20190169842 A1), hereinafter referred to as Zheng.
Regarding claim 5, the proposed combination teaches The system of claim 1, as stated previously for the rejection of claim 1. The proposed combination does not teach; however, Ullah teaches (except the limitations surrounded by brackets ([[..]])) [[wherein
R
a
m
b
=
N
s
a
R
a
m
b
s
a
+
N
m
R
a
m
b
m
+
N
e
R
a
m
b
e
N
s
a
+
N
m
+
N
e
where]]
N
s
a
is a number of stand alone racks,
N
m
is a number of middle racks,
N
e
is a number of end racks, [[
R
a
m
b
s
a
is a thermal resistance of the stand alone racks,
R
a
m
b
m
is a thermal resistance of the middle racks, and
R
a
m
b
e
is a thermal resistance of the end racks]]. Racks may exist in a data center and may be singular (stand-alone) or presented in rows (where middle and end racks exist). The number of racks is known per input by the user. ((Ullah, Section 5.1 ¶2) "Depending on the size of the business, a DC may contain a single rack of servers or even numerous racks and cabinets. Size of a standard rack is 78 in. in tall, 23–25 in. wide and 26–30 in. in deep. We keep racks in rows at a pitch of around two meters according to DC layout standards. The user will have to enter the number of racks and number of servers per rack.").
Ullah is analogous art because it is related to the design and modeling of datacenters and include discussion of cooling and thermal management within the datacenters. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have incorporated the configuration and number of racks as taught by Ullah into the data center design and management system as taught by the proposed combination because modeling datacenters require identification of different components and their arrangements in order to reliably perform computations and predictions ((Ullah, Section 5.1 ¶1) "This is the first and most crucial step as all other module depends on it. Modeling DC needs identification of different components and their arrangements. Since we are concerned to the physical layer of DC, therefore we modeled components comprises physical layer. These components include servers, racks, and CRAC Units. Racks are arranged in rows and a single Rack consists of multiple servers.").
The proposed combination in further view of Ullah does not teach; however in view of Zheng teaches wherein
R
a
m
b
=
N
s
a
R
a
m
b
s
a
+
N
m
R
a
m
b
m
+
N
e
R
a
m
b
e
N
s
a
+
N
m
+
N
e
where …
R
a
m
b
s
a
is a thermal resistance of the stand alone racks,
R
a
m
b
m
is a thermal resistance of the middle racks, and
R
a
m
b
e
is a thermal resistance of the end racks. Zheng discloses different materials having independent R-values (thermal resistances) and states that when combining the two components, one should utilize a volume-weighted average to compute an effective R value that is representative of the entire system ((Zheng, ¶59) "The Aerogel and foam material may work synergistically to deliver an R-value that is higher than what would be anticipated for the combination of the two elements. For example, since the two components are combined, the thermal performance of the composite insulation material should be a volume weighted average R-value of the separate components. A 1 inch composite insulation product having a ratio of foam material to Aerogel of 6.5 would comprise approximately 14 volume percent Aerogel and 86 volume percent foam. An Aerogel material (e.g., Compression Pack) having an R-value of 9.5 R/in and a foam material having an R-value of 6.5 R/in would be expected to have a volume weighted average R-value average of 7 R/in (i.e., 9.5 R/in*0.14+6.5 R/in*0.86 is approximately 7 R/in). In contrast to this expected result, however, a 1 inch composite insulation product having a ratio of foam material to Aerogel of 6.5 was manufactured and exhibited an R-value of approximately 8.5 R/in. The 8.5 R/in exhibited an R-value increase of 1.5 R/in over the expected result, which may be due to a synergistic effect that is achieved when the material are combined."). Though the racks may comprise the same constructive materials, the specificity of their configurations affects the thermal resistance of each rack independently. When considered systemically combined, the racks’ independent thermal resistances are not representative of the overall thermal resistance and thus each’s contribution must be considered appropriately as to accurately reflect the cumulative thermal resistance.
Zheng is analogous because it is related to calculations regarding thermal properties within a system. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have implemented the weighted average of thermal resistances for individual components as disclosed by Zheng into the proposed combination because some teaching, suggestion, or motivation would have led one having skill in the art to do so in order to arrive at the claimed invention. The proposed combination discloses in light of Zhang a data center comprising multiple racks. Zheng notes that to derive an effective overall thermal resistance for the system, considering each element independently does not accurately reflect the thermodynamic properties of the system as compared to when the components are combined and considered as a whole ((Zheng, ¶59) "The Aerogel and foam material may work synergistically to deliver an R-value that is higher than what would be anticipated for the combination of the two elements. For example, since the two components are combined, the thermal performance of the composite insulation material should be a volume weighted average R-value of the separate components."). Therefore, it would have accordingly been obvious to consider the influence of each individual rack of the data center in order to derive an overall thermal resistance value for the system.
Regarding claim 15, the limitations wherein
R
a
m
b
=
N
s
a
R
a
m
b
s
a
+
N
m
R
a
m
b
m
+
N
e
R
a
m
b
e
N
s
a
+
N
m
+
N
e
where
N
s
a
is a number of stand alone racks,
N
m
is a number of middle racks,
N
e
is a number of end racks,
R
a
m
b
s
a
is a thermal resistance of the stand alone racks,
R
a
m
b
m
is a thermal resistance of the middle racks, and
R
a
m
b
e
is a thermal resistance of the end racks are substantially similar to that of claim 5 but with respect to claim 11 and so claim 15 is therefore rejected under the same rationale as provided for claim 5 but with respect to independent claim 11.
Claims 8 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang and Campbell as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Ullah et Al. (Ullah, R., Ahmad, N., Malik, S., Akbar, S., and Anjum, A., “Simulator for modeling, analysis, and visualizations of thermal status in data centers”, September 2018, Sustainable Computing: Informatics and Systems, Volume 19, Pages 324-340), hereinafter referred to as Ullah.
Regarding claim 8, the proposed combination discloses The system of claim 7 as stated previously. The proposed combination in further view of Ullah teaches wherein the one or more stored tables include one table for stand-alone racks, one table for middle racks, or one table for end racks. A visual table of data is depicted for both a plurality of racks as well as a particular rack in Figure 12. Single servers and groups of servers are discussed, indicating that there are stand-alone racks, middle racks, and end racks within potential configurations ((Ullah, Section 5.5, ¶3) "Depending on the size of the business, a DC may contain a single rack of servers or even numerous racks and cabinets. … We keep racks in rows at a pitch of around two meters according to DC layout standards. The user will have to enter the number of racks and number of servers per rack."). Groups of racks can be distinguished from one another, as indicated by differing colors corresponding to racks having different features in the visual table. Additionally, the software has the capability to present subsets of information from the overall set of racks, as indicated by the ability to see particular rack details. This can similarly be applied to distinguish racks of the different known configurations (for example single, middle, and end racks).
Ullah is because it is related to the design and modeling of datacenters and includes discussion of cooling and thermal management within the datacenters. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have incorporated distinguishing the values pertaining to specific configurations of racks as taught by Ullah into the data center design and management system as taught by the proposed combination because some teaching, suggestion, or motivation would have led one having ordinary skill in the art to combine the prior art references in order to arrive at the claimed invention. The proposed combination discloses, in light of Jiang, that CFD simulations are performed and data from the CFD simulations is stored in a database. The CFD simulation details are not particularly disclosed. Ullah discloses thermal simulations of data centers. Because the primary reference Zhang is targeted at data centers, one having skill in the art and applying the two phase approach as disclosed by Jiang to the datacenter calculations disclosed by Zhang would be particularly motivated to perform simulations pertaining to data centers. Ullah provides an approach for the simulation of datacenters that could be employed as the generic CFD simulations described by Jiang. Ullah particularly notes the distinct positioning of the server racks affects the calculations of the cross coefficients matrix values ((Ullah, Section 5.5 ¶3) "The simulator allows users can choose a rack with high temperature (shown by red). It displays all the servers along with their updated current temperature. A single server can be selected and moved to the desired rack as shown in Fig. 12. Servers with high temperature can be moved to low-temperature region to maintain thermal balance. After relocation of a single server or a group of servers, intra rack cross coefficients matrix and inter racks cross coefficient matrix are recalculated automatically. This module helps users to foresee the temperature distribution of different configuration and arrangement of servers and racks as well as CRAC units."). Therefore, it would have accordingly been obvious to combine the prior art references.
Regarding claim 18, the limitations wherein the one or more stored tables include one table for stand-alone racks, one table for middle racks, or one table for end racks are substantially similar to that of claim 8 but with respect to claims 11 and 17 and so claim 18 is therefore rejected under the same rationale as provided for claim 8 but with respect for independent claim 11 and claim 17 from which this claim depends.
Claim(s) 9, 10, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang and Campbell as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of VanGilder et Al. (VanGilder, J., Healey, C., Condor, M., Tian, W. and Menusier, Q., “A Compact Cooling-System Model for Transient Data Center Simulations, July 26, 2018, 2018 17th IEEE Intersociety Conference on Thermal and Thermomechanical Phenomena in Electronic Systems (ITherm), pp. 707-715) hereinafter referred to as VanGilder.
Regarding claim 9, the proposed combination teaches The system of claim 1 as stated previously and in further view of Zhang (except the limitations surrounded by brackets ([[..]])) wherein the at least one processor is further configured to solve an energy balance equation and the heat exchange equation for two unknowns including the [[dielectric]] fluid return temperature [[
T
h
i
n
where
h
denotes a hot stream,]] the energy balance equation [[including R_amb]] as a term A processor utilizes software code to solve the energy balance and heat exchange equations for 9 unknowns (Zhang ¶34) "The instructions may be persistently stored as encoded signals, and the instructions may cause a processor to perform any of the functions described herein."); ((Zhang, ¶123) "The second approach to calculate the transient temperature values is to utilize software code designed to solve the particular equations. In the code, for each time step, a solver (for example, a linear solver using Gaussian elimination method) is called to solve the nine equations simultaneously to obtain all the nine temperature values for that particular time step. The code is configured to repeat the solving process for all the time intervals until the end, which is either specified or determined based on parameters designed into the software code."). A fluid return temperature is included as one of the unknowns being solved for ((Zhang, ¶119) "Combinations and substitutions can reduce the above 12 equations to a set of nine linear equations. More specifically, substituting equation (2) into (1), (5) into (4), and (11) into (10), results in a set of nine linear equations, with nine unknowns:
T
p
a
,
T
r
a
,
T
E
,
T
s
a
,
T
B
,
T
r
w
,
T
s
w
,
T
h
w
,
a
n
d
T
c
w
"); ((Zhang ¶95) "
T
r
w
is the temperature of water flow leaving the coolers"). An energy balance equation is used as part of the calculations which contains a U value as a thermal transmittance ((Zhang, ¶93) " An energy balance equation can also be derived for the heat exchangers in the coolers")
The proposed combination in further view of Campbell teaches dielectric fluid, as stated previously for the independent claim 1 by which claim 9 depends. Usage of direct immersion-cooling of electronic components is disclosed, whereby the immersion-cooling system leverages dielectric fluid as the liquid to employ liquid-cooling. ((Campbell, ¶42) "As a further cooling approach to the above-described liquid-cooled electronics rack, direct immersion-cooling of electronic components of a plurality of horizontally-disposed electronic subsystems within an electronics rack may be employed. Such an immersion-cooling approach also advantageously avoids forced air-cooling and enables total liquid-cooling of the electronics rack within a data center. Where employable, the use of dielectric fluid immersion-cooling may offer several unique benefits over air-cooling or a hybrid air and water cooling approach.").
The proposed combination in further view of The Engineering Toolbox discloses including R_amb Thermal resistance is described as being the reciprocal of the U value (which is defined in the energy balance equation noted in view of Zhang above) (See The Engineering Toolbox, equation 4). By rearranging the equation to account for thermal resistance instead of the thermal transmittance defined by Zhang, the claimed matter can be easily realized.
The proposed combination does not teach, however the proposed combination in view of VanGilder teaches
T
h
i
n
where
h
denotes a hot stream. A heat exchanger effectiveness equation is presented, whereby
T
h
i
n
is considered and the subscript h denotes a hot fluid stream. ((VanGilder, The Heat Exchanger Effectiveness-NTU Model and Equation 1) "The traditional heat exchanger (HEX) effectiveness is defined as the ratio of the actual to the maximum possible heat exchange between the cold and hot fluid streams which pass through a heat exchanger:
PNG
media_image6.png
86
704
media_image6.png
Greyscale
").
VanGilder is analogous arts because it pertains to the same field of endeavor of data center cooling optimizations. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to have considered the temperature of the hot stream as taught in the heat exchanger effectiveness equation by VanGilder into the heat exchange equation as taught by Zhang within the proposed combination because the consideration of this value is standard in fluid dynamics calculations for computing the ratio of heat between fluid streams passing through a heat exchanger ((VanGilder, The Heat Exchanger Effectiveness-NTU Model and Equation 1) "The traditional heat exchanger (HEX) effectiveness is defined as the ratio of the actual to the maximum possible heat exchange between the cold and hot fluid streams which pass through a heat exchanger:").
Regarding claim 10, the proposed combination teaches The system of claim 9, as stated previously. The proposed combination further teaches in view of Zhang wherein in solving the energy balance equation and the heat exchange equation, a temperature of external skin of the at least one immersion-cooled equipment rack is equivalent to the dielectric fluid return temperature
T
h
i
n
. Campbell discloses an immersion-cooled equipment rack and a dielectric fluid as stated previously. Zhang discloses solving an energy balance equation and a heat exchange equation as disclosed previously. In further view of Zhang over the proposed combination, a surface temperature of the equipment is noted within the energy balance equation and the fluid return temperature is noted within the energy balance equation ((Zhang, Col 11 Line 21) " TE is the equipment surface temperature"); ((Zhang Col 12 Line 43) "Trw is the temperature of water flow leaving the coolers"). The solution of the linear equations maintain energy balance of the system and it would be reasonable to ascertain that the dielectric fluid and the external surface of the immersion-cooled equipment rack are equivalent when the system is in a steady state of energy balance because the total load removed by the coolers should be equal to the total load of the data center ((Zhang, Col 12 Lines 49-51) "Further, since the total load removed by the coolers should be equal to the total load in the data center, Equation (8) is satisfied to maintain energy balance in the data center room.")
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill to which said subject matter pertains at the time the invention was filed to equate the surface temperature of the rack to the dielectric fluid temperature in the energy balance equations of the proposed combination because this satisfies energy balance within the system and indicate a steady state of operation ((Zhang, Col 12 Lines 49-51) "Further, since the total load removed by the coolers should be equal to the total load in the data center, Equation (8) is satisfied to maintain energy balance in the data center room."); ((Zhang, Col 13 lines 64-67) "Qchiller is the total cooling load provided by chillers or other refrigeration units. Under normal steady-state operating conditions, this should be equal to the total load in the data center room.").
Regarding claim 19, the limitations wherein the steps further comprise solving an energy balance equation and the heat exchange equation for two unknowns including the dielectric fluid return temperature
T
h
i
n
where
h
denotes a hot stream, the energy balance equation including R_amb as a term are substantially similar to that of claim 9 but with respect to claim 11 and so claim 19 is therefore rejected under the same rationale as provided for claims 9 and 11.
Regarding claim 20, the limitations wherein in solving the energy balance equation and the heat exchange equation, a temperature of external skin of the at least one immersion-cooled equipment rack is equivalent to the dielectric fluid return temperature
T
h
i
n
are substantially similar to that of claim 10 but with respect to claims 11 and 19 and so claim 20 is therefore rejected under the same rationale as provided for claims 10, 11, and 19.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 16 is objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Claim 16 recites The system of claim 1, wherein
R
a
m
b
=
α
e
-
β
Δ
T
γ
where
Δ
T
=
T
h
i
n
-
T
a
m
b
,
T
a
m
b
is an ambient room temperature, and,
α
,
β
,
a
n
d
γ
are previously-computed constants calculated over a range of thermal emissivity
ε
and ambient temperature
T
a
m
b
values.
The proposed combination for claim 11 by which claim 16 depends teaches The system of claim 1, as stated previously. The proposed combination of claim 11 teaches
R
a
m
b
with regard to ambient room temperature, as stated previously. While the reference Jiang discloses computing PCA coefficients that are calculated over a range of thermal emissivity and ambient temperature values (
α
,
β
,
a
n
d
γ
are previously-computed constants calculated over a range of thermal emissivity
ε
and ambient temperature
T
a
m
b
values), Jiang does not impart the particular equation for solving thermal resistance as in the instant application. Examiner was unable to find art that discloses particularly the equation
R
a
m
b
=
α
e
-
β
Δ
T
γ
prior to the effective filing date of the claimed matter. Therefore, there is no clear motivation within the prior art, per the effective filing date of the claimed matter, to achieve the limitation including the equation of the instant application.
Independent Claim 21 contains allowable matter for the reasons given above for indicating allowable matter of claim 16 because claim 21 incorporates the same features. However, claim 21 is objected to in this action (see above) for the informality of improper formatting of the equation that appears to be a typographical error. If the claim was rewritten to overcome the objection, the claim would be allowable.
Conclusion
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/E.G.L./Examiner, Art Unit 2187
/JOHN E JOHANSEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2187