U.S. patent application number 12/981173 was filed with the patent office on 2012-04-26 for heating exchange chamber for liquid state cooling fluid.
This patent application is currently assigned to INVENTEC CORPORATION. Invention is credited to Chien-An Chen, Yi-Ling Chen.
Application Number | 20120097366 12/981173 |
Document ID | / |
Family ID | 45971972 |
Filed Date | 2012-04-26 |
United States Patent
Application |
20120097366 |
Kind Code |
A1 |
Chen; Chien-An ; et
al. |
April 26, 2012 |
HEATING EXCHANGE CHAMBER FOR LIQUID STATE COOLING FLUID
Abstract
A heat exchange chamber for liquid state cooling fluid is
provided, which comprises a flow resistance, the flow resistance is
sited inside a cavity at a position proximate to an inlet. In other
words, the flow resistance is sited between the inlet and a thermal
dissipation device. The flow resistance narrows down a flow channel
from the inlet to the cavity, and it raises the resistance of the
cooling fluid before the cooling fluid flows through a thermal
dissipation device. Because of the heat exchange chamber for liquid
state cooling fluid, the cooling fluid could be distributed
uniformly through the dissipating heat device.
Inventors: |
Chen; Chien-An; (Taipei
County, TW) ; Chen; Yi-Ling; (Taipei County,
TW) |
Assignee: |
INVENTEC CORPORATION
Taipei
TW
|
Family ID: |
45971972 |
Appl. No.: |
12/981173 |
Filed: |
December 29, 2010 |
Current U.S.
Class: |
165/96 |
Current CPC
Class: |
H01L 2924/0002 20130101;
H01L 23/473 20130101; H01L 2924/0002 20130101; H01L 2924/00
20130101; F28F 9/028 20130101; F28D 2021/0028 20130101; F28F 3/12
20130101 |
Class at
Publication: |
165/96 |
International
Class: |
F28F 27/00 20060101
F28F027/00 |
Foreign Application Data
Date |
Code |
Application Number |
Oct 26, 2010 |
TW |
099136467 |
Claims
1. A heat exchange chamber, comprising: a casing, configured with a
cavity, an inlet and an outlet in a manner that the inlet is
provided for allowing a cooling fluid to flow into the cavity and
the outlet is provided for allowing the cooling fluid to flow out
of the cavity as the cooling fluid is enabled to flow in a flowing
direction through of the cavity; a thermal dissipation device,
disposed inside the cavity; and a flow resistance, disposed inside
the cavity at a position proximate to the inlet to be used for
narrowing down a flow channel from the inlet to the cavity.
2. The heat exchange chamber of claim 1, wherein the diameter of
the outlet is larger than that of the inlet.
3. The heat exchange chamber of claim 1, wherein the flow
resistance further comprises: a plurality of protrusions.
4. The heat exchange chamber of claim 3, wherein the flow
resistance further comprises: a plurality of flow channels, each
being formed by the sandwiching of any two neighboring
protrusions.
5. The heat exchange chamber of claim 4, wherein each of the plural
flow channels is composed of a diverging channel and a converging
channel.
6. The heat exchange chamber of claim 1, wherein the thermal
dissipation device further comprises: a plate; and a plurality of
heat dissipating fins formed on the plate.
7. The heat exchange chamber of claim 1, wherein the casing further
comprises: a base, being provided for engaging with a heat source
while being arranged in thermal contact with the thermal
dissipation device.
Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This non-provisional application claims priority under 35
U.S.C. .sctn. 119(a) on Patent Application No(s). 099136467 filed
in Taiwan, R.O.C. on Oct. 26, 2010, the entire contents of which
are hereby incorporated by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to a heat dissipation module
using cooling fluid, and more particularly, to a heat exchange
chamber having a flow resistance disposed at a position proximate
to the inlet of its cavity for narrowing down a flow channel from
the inlet to the cavity so as to raise the resistance to the flow
of the cooling fluid before the cooling fluid flows through a
thermal dissipation device, and thus enable the cooling fluid to be
distributed uniformly through the thermal dissipation device.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] In many typical mainframe computers such as servers, poor
heat dissipation performance is usually the case that cause the
computer to malfunction so that how to design a heat sink or heat
dissipating device with optimized heat dissipation performance is
becoming the key issue in modern electronic computing industry. IN
addition, taking the power consumed by servers of any common data
center for instance, the power used by the heat dissipation system
for maintaining the operation of such servers is also twice as
much. And not to mention that the complexity of the heat
dissipation system for modern cloud data centers that are crowded
with servers in high density is generally almost double comparing
with those for common data centers. That is, in the enclosed space
of a server room of a cloud data center, the heat that all those
boxes generate can quickly increase the ambient temperature beyond
equipment specifications. The results can be ugly if there is no
proper heat dissipation system with good performance available and
consequently all distinct possibilities can be caused, such as the
operation of the servers may be unstable or even fail, energy can
be wasted, the performance of the personnel working in the server
room may be poor since an uncomfortable working environment can be
resulted, the cost for managing the server room may increase, and
so on.
[0004] Among those many conventional apparatus for heat
dissipation, the heat exchange chamber for liquid state cooling
fluid is the one that is commonly seen and used for allowing a
cooling fluid to flow therein while enabling a heat exchanging
process to be performed between the cooling fluid and a heat
source, and thus reducing the temperature of the heat source.
However, since the cooling fluid is flowing at a specific speed
while being fed into the heat exchange chamber, instead of being
distributed uniformly through the whole heat exchange chamber, most
of such cooling fluid flow will flow concentrating to the center of
the flow channels formed inside the heat exchange chamber. Thereby,
the heat dissipating efficiency can be severely affected since
there must be a portion of the thermal dissipation device inside
the heat exchange chamber that is sit idle as it is not in any
thermal contact with the cooling fluid.
[0005] Therefore, it is in need of a heat exchange chamber for
enabling a cooling fluid to be distributed uniformly therein.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] In view of the disadvantages of prior art, the primary
object of the present invention is to provide a heat exchange
chamber capable of utilizing a flow resistance to raise resistance
to the flowing of a cooling fluid and thus enabling the cooling
fluid to be distributed uniformly inside a cavity formed inside a
cavity of the heat exchange chamber.
[0007] To achieve the above object, the present invention provides
a heat exchange chamber, comprising: a casing, configured with a
cavity, an inlet and an outlet in a manner that the inlet is
provided for allowing a cooling fluid to flow into the cavity and
the outlet is provided for allowing the cooling fluid to flow out
of the cavity as the cooling fluid is enabled to flow in a flowing
direction through of the cavity; a thermal dissipation device,
disposed inside the cavity; and a flow resistance, disposed inside
the cavity at a position proximate to the inlet to be used for
narrowing down a flow channel from the inlet to the cavity and thus
raising the resistance to the flow of the cooling fluid before the
cooling fluid flows through the thermal dissipation device, so as
to enable the cooling fluid to be distributed uniformly through the
thermal dissipation device.
[0008] Further scope of applicability of the present application
will become more apparent from the detailed description given
hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed
description and specific examples, while indicating preferred
embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration
only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and
scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the
art from this detailed description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] The present invention will become more fully understood from
the detailed description given herein below and the accompanying
drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are
not limitative of the present invention and wherein:
[0010] FIG. 1 is a side view of a heat exchange chamber according
to the present invention.
[0011] FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram showing a flow resistance
according to a first embodiment of the invention.
[0012] FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram showing a flow resistance
according to a second embodiment of the invention.
[0013] FIG. 2C is a partial top view of FIG. 2B.
DESCRIPTION OF THE EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS
[0014] For your esteemed members of reviewing committee to further
understand and recognize the fulfilled functions and structural
characteristics of the invention, several exemplary embodiments
cooperating with detailed description are presented as the
follows.
[0015] Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2A, which is a schematic
diagram showing a heat exchange chamber for liquid state cooling
fluid according to the present invention, and a schematic diagram
showing a flow resistance according to a first embodiment of the
invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the heat exchange chamber comprises:
a casing 1, a thermal dissipation device 2, and a flow resistance
3. The casing 1 is configured with a cavity 10, an inlet 11 and an
outlet 12 in a manner that the inlet 11 is provided for allowing a
cooling fluid 0 to flow into the cavity 10 and the outlet 12 is
provided for allowing the cooling fluid 0 to flow out of the cavity
10 as the cooling fluid is enabled to flow in a flowing direction
through the cavity 10, as the arrow 00 shown in FIG. 1. In this
embodiment, the diameter of the outlet 12 is larger than that of
the inlet 11, by that the cavity 10 can be prevented from having
too much gas being accumulated therein, and thus the boiling point
of the cooling fluid 0 can be prevented form increasing with the
increasing of the pressure inside the cavity 10 caused by the gas
accumulation, so that the heat dissipating efficacy of the cooling
fluid is prevented from reducing. The thermal dissipation device 2
is disposed inside the cavity 10. Moreover, the flow resistance 3
is disposed inside the cavity 10 at a position proximate to the
inlet 11, i.e. it is disposed at a position between the thermal
dissipation device 2 and the inlet 11. As shown in FIG. 2A, the
flow resistance 3 is substantially a protrusion constructed for
narrowing down a flow channel from the inlet 11 to the cavity 10 so
as to raise the resistance to the flow of the cooling fluid 0
before the cooling fluid flows through a thermal dissipation device
2, and thus enable the cooling fluid 0 to be distributed uniformly
through the thermal dissipation device 2.
[0016] Please refer to FIG. 2B and FIG. 2C, which is a schematic
diagram showing a flow resistance according to a second embodiment
of the invention, and a partial top view of FIG. 2B. As shown in
FIG. 2B, the flow resistance 3, that is composed of a plurality of
protrusions 30, is designed for narrowing down a flow channel from
the inlet 11 to the cavity 10 so as to raise the resistance to the
flow of the cooling fluid 0 before the cooling fluid flows through
a thermal dissipation device 2, and thus enable the cooling fluid 0
to be distributed uniformly through the thermal dissipation device
2. As shown in FIG. 2C, the two sides of each protrusion is formed
with a first ramp 300 and a second ramp 301, and consequently, by
the defining of two corresponding first ramps 300 on any two
neighboring protrusions 30, a converging channel 302 is formed, and
the same time, by the defining of two corresponding second ramps
301 on any two neighboring protrusions 30, a diverging channel 303
is formed. With the formation of the plural protrusions as well as
the formation of ramped surfaces on two sides of each protrusion,
the resistance to the flow of the cooling fluid before it flow
through the thermal dissipation device 2 is raised, but it is noted
that the shape of each protrusion is not limited thereby.
[0017] The difference between the first embodiment and the second
embodiment of the invention is that: in the first embodiment, the
raising of the resistance to the flow of the cooling fluid 0 is
achieved by the use of the protrusions of the flow resistance 3 for
narrowing down the flow channel; but in the second embodiment,
after achieving the raising of the resistance by the use of the
converging channels 302, the providing of the diverging channels
303 will speed up the flowing of the cooling fluid 0 after being
evenly distributed by the damping of the converging channels
302.
[0018] Moreover, the casing 1 further comprises: a base 13, being
provided for engaging with a heat source 4, by that the heat
emitted from the heat source 4 can be transmitted to the heat
exchange chamber through the base 13. It is noted that the heat
source 3 can be a center processing unit or a chip module, but is
not limited thereby. In addition, the base 13 is also being
arranged in thermal contact with the thermal dissipation device 2
so as to transmit heat thereto. Hence, the flow resistance 3 of the
present invention can be mounted on the base 13 while being
disposed inside the cavity 10, or can be mounted on a top panel of
the casing that is hanging downward while being disposed inside the
cavity 10. Nevertheless, the shape, the orientation and the
position of the flow resistance 3 are not limited thereby.
[0019] By the disposition of the flow resistance 3 inside the
cavity 10 at a position proximate to the inlet 11 for narrowing
down the flow channel, the cross-section area of the flow channel
is smaller than that of the inlet 11, by that the flow of the
cooling fluid 0 is slowing down before reaching the thermal
dissipation device 2 while enabling the same to be uniformly
distributed through the thermal dissipation device 2. In addition,
the flow resisting effect of the flow resistance 3 can further be
enhanced by a better design relating to its structure and shape as
well. Thus, in the heat exchange chamber for liquid state cooling
fluid of the invention, the cooling fluid could be distributed
uniformly through the dissipating heat device with satisfactory
heat dissipating efficacy.
[0020] With respect to the above description then, it is to be
realized that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts
of the invention, to include variations in size, materials, shape,
form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are
deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and
all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings
and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed
by the present invention.
* * * * *