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Title:
IMPROVED VENTILATION MEANS ARRANGEMENT FOR AN AIR COOLING SYSTEM
Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO/2022/053996
Kind Code:
A1
Abstract:
Ventilation means arrangement (1) for cooling an operational element of an air cooling system and comprising a plurality of fans (2) arranged in at least a first and a second rows (4) along a first direction, such fans (2) being centrifugal fans configured to aspire an airflow (F1) along a second direction and eject such airflow (F2) along a third direction, the first row (4) of fans (2) being arranged at a different height and/or inclination with respect to the second row (4) so that the ejected air flows (F2) of each fans (2) cannot interfere one with respect to the others.

Inventors:
ROSSO LUIGI (IT)
DACCO' GUIDO (IT)
Application Number:
PCT/IB2021/058238
Publication Date:
March 17, 2022
Filing Date:
September 10, 2021
Export Citation:
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Assignee:
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC HYDRONICS & IT COOLING SYSTEMS S P A (IT)
International Classes:
F25D17/06; F24F7/007; F24F7/06; F24F13/32; G06F1/20; H05K7/20
Domestic Patent References:
WO2019025377A12019-02-07
WO1998056226A11998-12-10
Foreign References:
US6252770B12001-06-26
US20070002536A12007-01-04
US20070002536A12007-01-04
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
FARALDI, Marco et al. (IT)
Download PDF:
Claims:
CLAIMS

1.- Ventilation means arrangement (1) for cooling an operational element of an air cooling system, such ventilation means arrangement (1) comprising a plurality of fans (2) arranged in at least a first and a second rows (4) extending along a first direction, said fans (2) being centrifugal fans configured to aspire an airflow (F1) along a second direction and eject such airflow (F2) along a third direction, wherein said third and second directions are not contained in the same plane, characterized in that said arrangement (1) comprising a single support structure (5) configured to delimit a common space (3) from which said airflows (F1) has to be aspired and to support said fans (2), said support structure (5) comprising a support wall (5a) for supporting, respectively, each of said first and second rows (4) and a lateral wall (5c) connecting two adjacent support walls (5a), said lateral wall (5c) delimiting laterally a row (4) of fans (2) with respect to said space (3), wherein said ejected airflow (F2) is directed opposite to said lateral wall (5c), said first row (4) being arranged on said support structure (5) at a different height and/or inclination with respect to said second row (4) so that the ejected air flows (F2) of said fans (2) cannot interfere one with respect to the others. 2 . - Ventilation means arrangement according to claim 1, wherein said first row (4) is placed at a different height with respect to said second row (4) so that each fan (2) of said first row (4) is placed upper with respect to each fan (2) of said second row (4).

3.- Ventilation means arrangement according to claim 1, wherein said support wall (5a) defined an opening for each of said fans (2) in order to allow the aspiration of said airflow (F1).

4 .- Ventilation means arrangement according to any of claims 1 to 3, further comprising divisor walls (5d) interposed between each fan (2) along said first direction. 5 . - Air cooling system comprising an operational element configured to exchange heat with an airflow (Fi) aspired by a ventilation means arrangement according to any of the preceding claims.

Description:
" IMPROVED VENTILATION MEANS ARRANGEMENT FOR AN AIR COOLING

SYSTEM"

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application claims priority from Italian patent application no. 102020000021583 filed on September 11, 2020, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention concerns a ventilation means arrangement, in particular a centrifugal fan arrangement for an air cooling system.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Air cooling systems such as IT cooling systems require air flows to cool down some among their operational elements.

Such air flows are provided by ventilations means, in particular centrifugal fans, i.e., as known, fans wherein the ejected airflow is in a different plane, normally perpendicular, with respect to the aspirated airflow.

In view of the dimensions and typologies of air cooling systems, there is need to use more fans to provide a suitable airflow to cool dove the operational elements of such air cooling system

Accordingly, as depicted in figure 1, ventilation means arrangements 1 are known wherein each fan 2 is disposed in rows 3'thereby providing a matrix of fans 2' interposed between a space 4' from which an airflow F 1 ' is aspired and the environment wherein an output airflow F 2 ' is ejected.

Since the fans 2’ utilized in such ventilation means arrangements 1' are usually centrifugal fans, the output airflow F 2 ' of each fan 2’ is disturbed by the output airflows F 2 ' of the other fans 2’ and because of the presence of the other fans 2’.

Accordingly, there are two possibility:

• the first is to compact the fan arrangement 1', thereby decreasing the efficiency of the system because the airflows F 2 ' interacts one with the other, and

• the second is to distanciate the fans 2', i.e. increase the space between fans 2’ so that the output airflows F 2 ' are not impacted one with the other, thereby increasing the linear encumbrance of the ventilation means arrangement 1'.

A peculiar solution is disclosed in US2007002536 A1 that discloses a plurality of independent fan modules placed in a stepped configuration one with respect to the other.

In view of the above, the need is felt to improve existing ventilation means arrangements to provide reduce their linear dimensions thereby maintaining adequate performances. Moreover, the above-proposed matrix configuration of the fans is aimed to provide a certain degree of redundancy to the ventilation means arrangement 1 . Indeed, if a fan of the matrix is in failure, the adjacent fans may be controlled to increase their airflow to compensate such failure thereby maintaining a constant overall airflow provided by the arrangement 1 .

However, in the above ventilation means arrangement 1', the failed fan provides a direct air passage between the arrangement and the space 4 from which the air is aspired. Accordingly, due to the pressure difference between such spaces a return airflow occurs, thereby generating power losses, i.e. increasing inefficiency.

An aim of the present invention is to satisfy the above mentioned needs in a cost effective, efficient and optimized way.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The aforementioned aim is reached by a ventilation means arrangement as claimed in the appended independent claims.

Preferred embodiments of the invention are realized according to the claims dependent on or related to the above independent claim.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

For a better understanding of the present invention, a preferred embodiment is described in the following, by way of a non-limiting example, with reference to the attached drawings wherein:

• Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a ventilation means arrangement as known in the prior art;

• Figures 2 and 3 are both perspective views showing a ventilation means arrangement according to the present invention .

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

In figures 2 and 3, reference number 1 indicates globally a ventilation means arrangement according to the invention.

Ventilation means arrangement 1 comprises a plurality of centrifugal fans 2 configured to aspire a flow F 1 of air from a common space 3 housing an operational element (not shown) of an air cooling system, e.g. a condenser, and to eject a flow F 2 of air in the environment.

Since fans 2 are centrifugal fans, the flows Fi, F2 are in different planes and, as shown, are preferably perpendicular; in particular, flow F 1 is substantially vertical while flow F 2 is transversal.

As shown, the plurality of fans 2 are arranged in rows 4 and, in the exemplarily shown embodiment, they are arranged in a first, bottom, row, a second, intermediate, row and a third, top, row. Each row 4 may comprise a plurality of fans 2; in the described example, each row 4 comprises three fans 2, however the number of fans 2 may vary between rows 4 according to the needs of the air cooling system.

According to the invention, a first row 4 of fans 2 is arranged at a different height and/or inclination with respect to a second row 4 of fans 2 so that the ejected air flows F 2 of the fans 2 of the first row 4 do not interfere with the ejected air flows F 2 of the fans 2 of the second row 4. In other words, the ejected air flows F 2 of a first row 4 do not cross the trajectory of the ejected air flows F 2 of a second row 4.

In the disclosed embodiment, each row 4 is placed at a different height so that the fan 2 of the first row 4 is placed upper with respect to the fan 2 of the second row 4 thereby making impossible the interference between the flows F 2 ejected by the respective fans 2 of each row 4.

Preferably, the ventilation means arrangement 1 comprises a single support structure 5 configured to support rows 4 and to delimit the common space 3. In particular, the support structure 5 comprises a support wall 5a carried by a frame 5b that is anchored to delimit the space 3 from which the airflow Fi are aspired by the fans 2.

Advantageously, the support structure 5 comprises a plurality of lateral walls 5c, each lateral wall 5c is interposed between two support walls 5a thereby laterally delimiting a row 4 of fans 2. According to the above defined configuration, the airflows Fi are aspired by openings realized in the support walls 5a and the ejected airflows F2 are directed on an opposite side with respect to lateral walls 5c.

Preferably the ventilation means arrangement 1 further comprises divisors walls 5d, e.g. carried by support structure 5, configured to laterally delimit the space between each fan 2 and the other fans 2 in a row 4, i.e. in a direction perpendicular to support wall 5a and lateral walls 5c.

The operation of the above described ventilation means arrangement 1 according to the invention is the following.

Fans 2 are controlled by a specific electronic control unit, not shown, to aspire a respective airflow Fi from space 3, i.e. generating an airflow through an operational element, not shown, of an the cooling system.

In view of their relative disposition, the ejected airflow F 2 of each fan 2 cannot interfere with the other airflows F 2 , thereby increasing the efficiency of the ventilation means arrangement 1. Clearly, each fan 2 can be controlled autonomously or in combination with respect to the other fans 2 to generate a requested airflow F 2 .

In view of the foregoing, the advantages of a ventilation means arrangement 1 according to the invention are apparent. Thanks to the relative positioning of the fans' rows, the ejected airflow of each fan is not perturbed by the airflow of the other fans even if the fans are placed closed together one with respect to the other. Accordingly, the linear extension of the ventilation means arrangement 1 is reduced while the efficiency is maintained at high level.

The peculiar disposition with air recovery on a support wall and lateral ejected airflow allows to provide large passage sections to the airflows without mutual interferences .

According to the above, the noise of the arrangement 1 according to the invention is reduced compared to known arrangements and the efficiency is increased. The efficiency is furthermore increases in case of fan failure because the proposed arrangement of the fan at different levels reduces the drag airflow generated by the failed fan.

It is clear that modifications can be made to the described ventilation means arrangement 1 which do not extend beyond the scope of protection defined by the claims.

In particular, the number and typology of fan 2 may vary according to the exigencies of the air cooling system, such as the number of rows 4. Moreover, the support structure 5 may have a different configuration and may allow a relative inclination of rows 4 one with respect to the other, to avoid the interference of ejected flows F 2 .