Cooling System Management

Abstract

A cooling system controller, method, and computer program (or product) for an installation of heat generating machines having variable cooling requirements, the cooling system comprising two or more thermal components sharing a first cooling fluid circuit and first cooling fluid for cooling the installation, the cooling system controller comprising: a requirement discovery engine for recording the variable cooling requirements of the machines; a characterizing engine for measuring and recording outputs for each thermal component in response to a plurality of input control settings for generating a respective set of static set-points for each thermal component; a logic model generator for generating a logical model of the thermal components based on: relationships between the thermal components, operating fluid flow and around the thermal components, static set-points of each component; an optimizer for finding minimum energy consumption for the cooling system; and an interface for continuously adjusting control settings for each component to keep the cooling system operating at the minimum energy consumption.

1 . A method for managing a cooling system for an installation of heat generating machines having variable cooling requirements, the cooling system comprising two or more thermal components sharing a first cooling fluid circuit and first cooling fluid for cooling the installation, the method comprising:
 recording the variable cooling requirements of the heat generating machines;   measuring and recording outputs for each thermal component in response to a plurality of input control settings for generating a respective set of set-points for each thermal component;   measuring and recording changes in output over time for each thermal component in response to a plurality of input control setting changes;   generating a logical model of the thermal components based on: relationships between the thermal components, operating fluid flow and around the thermal components, and set-points of each component;   finding a minimum energy consumption for the cooling system; and   continuously adjusting control settings for each component to match the minimum energy consumption.   
     
     
         2 . The method as in  claim 1 , further comprising adjusting the logical model to accommodate dependencies of each of the thermal components as behavior of other thermal components changes over time. 
     
     
         3 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein the cooling system comprises one or more cooling subsystems, whereby a cooling subsystem comprises two or more cooling components. 
     
     
         4 . The method as in  claim 3 , wherein at least one of the plurality of cooling subsystems comprises a second cooling fluid circuit and a second operating fluid different from the first operating fluid of the cooling system, and wherein generating the logical model incorporates adjustments respecting characteristics of the second operating fluid different from the first operating fluid. 
     
     
         5 . The method as in  claim 2 , wherein a component dynamic behavior comprises a response time. 
     
     
         6 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein for a given static regulation point, when a new sampling deviates from an average and standard deviation, an alert is addressed to an administrator to validate if the deviation is an acceptable increase of a statistical characterization envelope or is a true anomaly. 
     
     
         7 . The method as in  claim 1 , further comprising generating predictive warnings when measurements move out of threshold envelopes whereby potential problems can be identified before installation crashes. 
     
     
         8 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein the logical model considers energy reuse between thermal components. 
     
     
         9 . The method as in  claim 1 , wherein the logical model of the thermal components is further based on reaction times of the thermal components.