A self-feedback regulating valve device and fire extinguishing equipment

Abstract

The present invention discloses a self-feedback regulating valve device and a corresponding fire extinguishing device. The valve device includes a valve assembly and a fusible storage device, and the valve assembly includes an inlet, an outlet, and a guide channel connecting the inlet and the outlet. The fusible storage device is used to store fusibles, and is arranged inside the valve assembly and partially overlaps with the guide channel. When the temperature outside the valve assembly rises, at least part of the fusibles in the fusible storage device melts and flows out of the outlet to the outside of the valve device to make the guide channel pass through. When the temperature outside the valve assembly decreases, the fusibles in the fusible storage device solidify in the guide channel to block the guide channel. The present invention has the advantages of low cost, maintenance-free, automatic detection of temperature increase, and automatic fire prevention and fire extinguishing, and can be used for fire prevention and fire extinguishing of lithium batteries.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application relates to the field of electrochemical energy storage fire protection, and more particularly to a self-feedback regulating valve device and fire extinguishing equipment. The present invention can be applied to lithium battery fire protection or applications requiring continuous upper critical temperature control. Background Art

[0002] With the gradual progress and promotion of lithium battery energy storage products, more and more energy storage products are facing the market and are widely used. However, the fire risks it brings cannot be ignored. It is urgent to take necessary fire prevention and fire extinguishing measures to reduce the risk of use and improve safety. The essence of lithium battery fire is that the heat in the battery cannot be released, causing internal and external combustion materials to catch fire. There are many reasons, such as: battery short circuit, excessive charging and discharging, manufacturing defects, improper design, etc. Due to the high energy density of lithium batteries, the fires caused cannot be treated by conventional means. Current data on lithium batteries show that it takes a long time for a large amount of energy stored inside to be released in the form of heat during an accident, resulting in the fire showing the characteristics of high temperature lasting for a long time and the fire is not easy to extinguish in a short time. Therefore, special control means are needed for the suppression and fire extinguishing system of lithium-ion battery systems.

[0003] Research has found that before an accident occurs, the battery pack will experience a high-temperature and high-heat release process. At this time, as long as temperature feedback is used to trigger a non-destructive cooling device, the heat released by the battery can be neutralized and absorbed in time, so that the temperature is controlled below the critical point, and major accidents such as fire or explosion can be delayed or directly avoided.

[0004] There are two main types of lithium battery energy storage fire extinguishing medium switch valves based on cost classification: one is a low-cost manual or automatic valve that can only open and close; the second is an expensive electromagnetically controlled controllable valve with sensor feedback, which must be matched with a complete set of complex control systems to be used.

[0005] For the first type of valve, since the opening cannot be controlled, the valve is often too large or too small during use because the displacement design is difficult to estimate. When the opening is too large, due to the long heat release time of lithium batteries, a large amount of cooling and fire extinguishing media is required. Combined with the high price of special lithium battery fire extinguishing media, it directly leads to excessive cost increase; when the opening is too small, the battery heat cannot be absorbed in time, and the temperature rise cannot be suppressed, resulting in safety accidents;

[0006] For the second type of valve, firstly, it must be combined with various sensors and equipped with a complete set of electronic control and power supply systems, which makes its use cost high; secondly, due to the complexity of its system design and layout, such as sensor reliability, line routing design, independent power supply, etc., it may fail during long-term use and requires regular inspection and maintenance. In summary, the applicable environment and customer objects of this type of valve are greatly limited. Summary of the invention

[0007] The main purpose of the present invention is to provide a self-feedback regulating valve device and a manufacturing method thereof, in order to at least partially solve the above technical problems.

[0008] In order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose of the invention, as one aspect of the present invention, a self-feedback regulating valve device is provided, including a valve assembly, wherein the valve assembly is a shell, including an inlet, an outlet and a guide channel connecting the inlet and the outlet, and is characterized in that: the valve device also includes a fusible storage device, the fusible storage device is used to store fusibles, is arranged inside the valve assembly and partially overlaps with the guide channel; when the external temperature of the valve assembly rises, at least part of the fusible in the fusible storage device melts and flows out of the outlet to the outside of the valve assembly to make the guide channel connected; when the external temperature of the valve assembly decreases, the fusible in the fusible storage device solidifies in the guide channel to block the guide channel.

[0009] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the fusible material storage device comprises a storage chamber and a wick.

[0010] The storage cavity is used to store fusible materials;

[0011] The imbibition body is partially located in the flow guide channel and communicated with the interior of the storage cavity, and is used for imbibing the fusible material in a molten state into the flow guide channel.

[0012] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the imbibition body is a porous mesh structure.

[0013] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the inlet, the outlet and the flow guide are located at the side of the valve device, and the fusible material storage device is located in the middle of the valve device.

[0014] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the flow guide channel is an annular channel located at a side of the valve device, and the imbibition body is an annular structure partially located in the annular channel.

[0015] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the valve assembly further comprises: a valve upper cover, a valve side wall and a base bottom plate, wherein:

[0016] The inlet is located at the upper end of the valve cover;

[0017] The flow guide channel is formed between the side wall of the valve and the outer side wall of the fusible material storage device;

[0018] The outflow port is located on the bottom plate of the base.

[0019] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the base bottom plate comprises a plurality of outflow ports, which are arranged on the outer side of the base bottom plate.

[0020] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the fusible material is paraffin.

[0021] The present invention also provides an automatic fire extinguishing device, comprising the valve device.

[0022] According to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, a fire extinguishing medium is further included. When the flow guide channel of the valve device is connected, the fire extinguishing medium flows through the flow guide channel and flows out to extinguish the fire.

[0023] Based on the above technical solutions, it can be seen that the valve device and the manufacturing method thereof described in the present invention have at least one of the following beneficial effects compared with the prior art:

[0024] 1. Compared with low-cost manual switch valves, the present invention can sense abnormal increases in target temperature, open the valve in a timely manner, and make the valve opening automatically follow the target temperature. When the designed maximum displacement is sufficient, it can ensure that the target temperature is always kept below the critical temperature, effectively avoiding accidents caused by the runaway temperature of the battery.

[0025] 2. Since the present invention discharges on demand, the amount of cooling fire extinguishing medium is greatly saved, and the use cost is also saved.

[0026] 3. The present invention adopts readily available low-cost fusible materials as temperature-sensitive fire extinguishing media, and utilizes phase change and molecular forces as opening adjustment drives. It does not require external sensors, electronic control and power supply system support, and does not need to consider system layout and wiring. At the same time, it does not require overhaul and maintenance, which greatly reduces the design and use costs. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0027] Figure 1 It is a structural schematic diagram of the self-feedback regulating valve device of the present invention;

[0028] Figure 2 It is a schematic diagram of a half-section structure of a self-feedback regulating valve device of the present invention;

[0029] Figure 3A is a schematic diagram of an initial closed state of a valve according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0030] Figure 3B Schematic diagram of the melting state of a wax body according to an embodiment of the present invention;

[0031] Figure 3C Schematic diagram of the valve opening state of one embodiment of the present invention.

[0032] Figure 3D It is a schematic diagram of increasing the valve opening according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0033] Figure 3E It is a schematic diagram of reducing the valve opening according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[0034] 1 Valve cover 101 Inlet 102 Connector thread

[0035] 2 Valve side wall

[0036] 3 Storage chamber 301 Wax storage chamber

[0037] 4 wicking body 401 mesh body 402 melted wax layer 403 capillary wax layer

[0038] 5. Base plate

[0039] 6 Flow outlet DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0040] The exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although exemplary embodiments of the present invention are shown in the accompanying drawings, it should be understood that the present invention can be implemented in various forms, and the embodiments are not intended to limit the scope of the present invention. On the contrary, the purpose of providing these embodiments is to enable those skilled in the art to more thoroughly understand the present invention.

[0041] In the process of introducing specific embodiments, the detailed description of the structure, performance, effect or other characteristics is to enable those skilled in the art to fully understand the embodiments. However, it does not exclude that those skilled in the art can implement the present invention with a technical solution that does not contain the above-mentioned structure, performance, effect or other characteristics under certain circumstances.

[0042] The term "and / or" in this article is only a description of the association relationship of the associated objects, indicating that there can be three relationships. For example, "A and / or B" can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist at the same time, and B exists alone. In addition, the character " / " in this article generally indicates that the associated objects before and after are in an "or" relationship.

[0043] In general, the present invention proposes a self-feedback regulating valve device. In combination with the current status of existing lithium battery fire switch valve products, the present invention utilizes its own temperature sensing fire extinguishing medium to sense the external temperature and feedback-regulate the valve opening without the need for external sensors and the support of electronic control and power supply systems, thereby achieving the purpose of automatically adjusting the output of the fire extinguishing medium as needed, so that the external temperature is always controlled below the critical temperature and no excess fire extinguishing medium is wasted.

[0044] In the present invention, the valve device includes a valve assembly, which is a shell, including an inlet, an outlet and a guide channel connecting the inlet and the outlet. The fire extinguishing medium that can be used in this device can flow into the inlet through the guide channel and flow out from the outlet. The fire extinguishing medium is limited to gas. The valve device also includes a fusible storage device, which is used to store fusibles and is arranged inside the valve assembly and partially overlaps with the guide channel. The fusibles in the fusible storage device are usually in a solidified state at room temperature. The fusibles in the solidified state block the guide channel inside the valve assembly, so that the fire extinguishing medium cannot flow out from the outlet.

[0045] When the temperature outside the valve assembly increases, at least part of the fusible material in the fusible material storage device melts and flows out of the flow outlet to the outside of the valve device, so that the flow guide channel is connected, and the fire extinguishing medium can flow into the flow inlet and flow out of the flow outlet through the flow guide channel;

[0046] When the temperature outside the valve assembly decreases, the fusible material in the fusible material storage device solidifies in the flow guide channel, so that the flow guide channel is blocked, and the fire extinguishing medium cannot flow in through the inlet and flow out through the flow guide channel from the outlet.

[0047] Figure 1 is a structural schematic diagram of the self-feedback regulating valve device of the present invention, Figure 2 FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a half-section structure of a self-feedback regulating valve device of the present invention. Figure 1 , Figure 2 As shown, the valve assembly described in the present invention is a shell, including a valve cover 1, a valve side wall 2 and a base bottom plate 5, the inlet 101 is located at the upper end of the valve cover 1, and the outlet 6 is located on the base bottom plate 5. The outer side of the upper end of the valve cover 1 is provided with a joint thread 102, which is used to connect with the front end fire extinguishing medium conduit (not shown in the figure), the outer side of the lower end of the valve cover 1, the inner side of the upper end of the valve side wall 2 and the outer side of the circumference of the base bottom plate 5 are all threaded structures, which can make the valve cover 1 and the valve side wall 2 threadedly connected and fixed, and the valve side wall 2 and the base bottom plate 5 threadedly connected and fixed, wherein the base bottom plate 5 includes a plurality of outlets 6, and the outlets 6 are arranged on the outer side of the base bottom plate 5.

[0048] Furthermore, the valve assembly includes a fusible material storage device, which is located in the middle of the valve device, and the inlet 101, the outlet 6 and the guide channel are located on the side of the valve device. The fusible material storage device includes a storage chamber 3 and a suction body 4. The storage chamber 3 is used to store fusible materials. The suction body 4 is partially located in the guide channel and is used to suction the fusible material in a molten state into the guide channel and is connected to the inside of the storage chamber 3. The guide channel is an annular channel located on the side of the valve device, and the suction body 4 is an annular structure partially located in the annular channel, wherein the suction body 4 is a porous mesh structure.

[0049] It is worth mentioning that the base bottom plate 5 has multiple outflow ports 6, and the base bottom plate 5 is used to support the fusible material storage device inside the valve device and transmit the external temperature at the same time, so that the storage cavity 3 and the wicking body 4 in the fusible material storage device can feel the heat under the external base bottom plate 5, and provide an outflow port for the outflow of the fire extinguishing medium and the liquid fusible material; the porous mesh structure can be understood as an annular mesh, which is a porous material and is wrapped by the valve side wall 2 for adsorbing and infiltrating the liquid fusible material. When it is first used, it is filled with the fusible material. When the valve side wall 2 conducts heat to the annular mesh, a designed temperature gradient is formed, generating a capillary effect, maintaining and replenishing the fusible material melting layer in the annular mesh, so that the melted fusible material is in a state of equilibrium during the change of the fire extinguishing medium pressure and the phase change boundary.

[0050] The following describes the working principle of a self-feedback regulating valve device of the present invention based on a specific embodiment. In the specific embodiment, the fusible material is in a solid state at room temperature, and when the temperature is higher than room temperature and reaches the melting point of the fusible material, the fusible material melts into a liquid state. In the present invention, the fusible material can be paraffin. The present invention also includes a fire extinguishing medium. When the guide channel of the valve device is connected, the fire extinguishing medium flows through the guide channel and flows out to extinguish the fire.

[0051] Figure 3A Schematic diagram of the initial closed state of a valve device according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which the valve device comprises a valve assembly, the fusible material is paraffin, and the storage cavity is a wax storage cavity 301. The wicking body is a mesh body 401, which is a porous structure with a capillary effect.

[0052] In this embodiment, the valve device is in the shape of an ink bottle as a whole, and its horizontal cross section is circular. The housing of the valve device includes a valve cover 1, a valve side wall 2, and a base bottom plate 5. A raised frustum is formed in the center of the upper part of the valve cover 1, and the horizontal cross-sectional area of ​​the frustum is smaller than the horizontal cross-sectional area of ​​the side wall 2. The inlet 101 is provided at the upper end of the valve cover 1.

[0053] The wax storage chamber 301 is formed near the center of the valve device. The upper part of the wax storage chamber extends to the valve cover 1, and the lower part near the base bottom plate 5 has a channel connected to the flow guide. Since the wax storage chamber 301 is located at the center of the valve device and partially extends to the valve cover 1, the wax storage chamber 301 is not easily exposed to external heat sources, and the outer side of the side wall 2 is used as the main heating area to prevent abnormal wax melting in the valve device and affect its normal operation.

[0054] The outlet 6 is located on the base bottom plate 5, and the outlet 6 is arranged on the outside of the base bottom plate 5. Since the outside of the side wall of the valve device is heated first, once the paraffin located on the outside is melted, it can immediately flow out from the outlet 6. The mesh body 401 is located in the flow guide channel, wrapped by the valve side wall 2, and its bottom is connected to the bottom of the wax storage chamber 301.

[0055] The first state of the valve is shown in 3A. When the valve device is in a standby state and / or the external temperature is lower than the opening design value of the valve device, the wax storage chamber 301 and the mesh body 401 are respectively sealed with paraffin, and the mesh body 401 is partially located in the flow guide channel, which is used to absorb the molten paraffin into the flow guide channel and is connected to the interior of the wax storage chamber 301.

[0056] In this embodiment, the flow guide is an annular channel located at the side of the valve device. The flow guide can be understood as a channel connected to the inlet 101 and the outlet 6, which is connected when the fusible paraffin melts. The mesh body 401 is an annular structure partially located in the annular channel, the wax storage cavity 301 is a storage cavity filled with paraffin, and the mesh body 401 is a porous mesh structure permeable body. Figure 3A As shown, the state of the valve is that the guide channel cannot be unblocked because the mesh body 401 is sealed with paraffin, and the valve device is in a closed state.

[0057] Figure 3B Schematic diagram of the wax melting state of an embodiment of the present invention, the second state of the valve is as follows Figure 3B As shown, when the outside temperature rises, the outside heat is transferred to the inside of the mesh body sealed with paraffin through the valve side wall 2 and the base bottom plate 5 by heat conduction. According to Fourier's law of heat conduction, the mesh body 401 presents a temperature distribution that decreases from the outside to the inside with a certain designed gradient. When the temperature increases to the melting temperature of the paraffin, the paraffin inside the mesh body begins to melt to form a melted wax layer 402. At this time, the melted wax layer 402 is very thin. Under the action of the capillary effect, the guide channel cannot be unblocked, and the valve device is in a critical opening state.

[0058] Figure 3C Schematic diagram of the valve opening state of an embodiment of the present invention, the valve third state as shown in FIG. Figure 3C As shown, when the outside temperature is higher than the design value temperature, the design value temperature may be the melting temperature of the molten paraffin and / or the melting temperature of other molten materials, the outside heat is transferred to the inside of the paraffin-encapsulated mesh body 401 through the valve side wall 2 and the base bottom plate 5 in the form of heat conduction, so that the fusible paraffin in the mesh body 401 continues to melt near the valve side wall 2 and the base bottom plate 5. At this time, the fire extinguishing medium continues to flow into the inlet 101. Under the action of the fire extinguishing medium pressure, part of the melted liquid paraffin flows out from the outflow port 6 of the base bottom plate 5 to form a guide channel and a capillary wax layer 403. The fire extinguishing medium can flow in from the inlet 101, pass through the guide channel formed by the melted part of the mesh body 401, and flow out from the outflow port 6. At this time, the valve is in an open state.

[0059] Figure 3D Schematic diagram of the valve opening increase according to an embodiment of the present invention. The fourth state of the valve is as follows Figure 3D As shown, when the outside temperature continues to rise, the paraffin-encapsulated mesh body 401 continues to receive more heat conduction from the valve side wall 2 and the base bottom plate 5, the fusible paraffin in the mesh body 401 further melts into the interior of the valve device, and the capillary wax layer 403 moves toward the center of the valve device, leaking more annular channels formed by the mesh structure infiltration body 4, so that the flow area of ​​the guide channel is gradually expanded, and the fire extinguishing medium is further released. At this time, the valve is in an increasing opening state.

[0060] Figure 3E Schematic diagram of valve opening reduction according to an embodiment of the present invention. The fifth state of the valve is as follows Figure 3E As shown, when the external temperature of the valve device decreases, the internal temperature of the valve device changes, and the fusible paraffin in the mesh body 401 begins to solidify. Under the wetting effect caused by its surface tension, the wax storage chamber 301 in the storage chamber 3 replenishes the capillary wax layer 403 through the bottom melting layer and moves toward the valve side wall 2. The paraffin in the mesh body 401 is replenished to form a new mesh body 401, and the flow guide channel is reduced accordingly until the mesh body 401 is completely filled with fusible paraffin and solidified, and the fire extinguishing medium cannot flow in from the inlet 101 and flow out from the outlet 6 via the flow guide channel. From this time on, the valve is in a state of reduced opening.

[0061] It is worth mentioning that the fire extinguishing medium flowing in from the inlet can be any gas that can cool down and / or extinguish fire, such as carbon dioxide, nitrogen, inert gas, heptafluoropropane, etc., which can be specifically replaced according to different usage environments.

[0062] The present invention also proposes an automatic fire extinguishing device, which includes a valve device as described above. The outside temperature is transmitted to the mesh body filled with paraffin by heat conduction through the side wall of the valve. According to the Fourier heat conduction equation, the mesh body presents a temperature distribution that decreases from the outside to the inside with a certain designed gradient. When the outside temperature is lower than the designed opening temperature, the sealing of the solid paraffin makes the valve body flow guide channel in a closed state; when the outside temperature rises to the designed opening temperature value, the outermost sealing paraffin of the mesh body begins to melt, and under the pressure of the fire extinguishing medium gas, part of the melted liquid paraffin is discharged, and the valve flow guide channel opening increases and begins to conduct; as the temperature further increases, the paraffin further melts into the inside of the valve device, and the valve flow guide channel opening continues to increase. When the heat released by the battery is balanced with the displacement of the fire extinguishing medium, the temperature will not increase. When the heat release of the battery decreases, the outside temperature drops. At this time, the temperature distribution inside the valve device changes, and the liquid paraffin layer in the mesh body begins to solidify. Under the wetting effect caused by surface tension, the paraffin in the storage cavity replenishes the liquid paraffin layer through the bottom melting layer, causing the valve guide channel opening to begin to decrease, achieving on-demand discharge. This process is repeated, and within the range between the opening temperature and the design critical temperature, the opening automatically follows the target temperature, thereby maintaining a balance between the discharge of the fire extinguishing medium and the heat released by the battery. When the battery fault is eliminated or the heat release is about to end, the temperature drops to the point where the infiltrator is completely filled with paraffin and solidified, and the valve device returns to its initial closed state.

[0063] It should be understood that in order to simplify the present invention and help those skilled in the art understand the various aspects of the present invention, in the above description of the exemplary embodiments of the present invention, the various features of the present invention are sometimes described in a single embodiment or described with reference to a single figure. However, the present invention should not be interpreted as the features included in the exemplary embodiments are all necessary technical features of the patent claims.

[0064] It should be understood that the modules, units, components, etc. included in the device of an embodiment of the present invention can be adaptively changed to be set in a device different from the embodiment. The different modules, units, or components included in the device of the embodiment can be combined into one module, unit, or component, or they can be divided into multiple sub-modules, sub-units, or sub-components.

Claims

1. A self-feedback regulating valve device, comprising a valve assembly, wherein the valve assembly is a housing, comprising an inlet, an outlet and a flow guide connecting the inlet and the outlet, characterized in that: The valve device further comprises a fusible material storage device, the fusible material storage device comprises a storage cavity and a wicking body, the storage cavity is used to store the fusible material, is arranged inside the valve assembly and partially overlaps with the flow guide channel; The infiltration body is a porous mesh structure, and the infiltration body is partially located in the flow guide channel and communicated with the interior of the storage cavity, and is used to infiltrate the fusible material in a molten state into the flow guide channel; Furthermore, when the temperature outside the valve assembly increases, at least part of the fusible material in the fusible material storage device melts and flows out of the flow outlet to the outside of the valve device, so that the flow guide channel is connected; When the temperature outside the valve assembly decreases, the fusible material in the fusible material storage device solidifies in the flow guide channel, so that the flow guide channel is blocked; Furthermore, the valve assembly further comprises: a valve upper cover, a valve side wall and a base bottom plate, wherein: The inlet is located at the upper end of the valve cover; The flow guide channel is formed between the side wall of the valve and the outer side wall of the fusible material storage device; The outflow port is located on the base bottom plate, and the base bottom plate includes a plurality of outflow ports, which are arranged on the outer side of the base bottom plate.

2. The valve device according to claim 1, characterized in that The inlet, the outlet and the flow guide are located at the side of the valve device, and the fusible material storage device is located at the middle of the valve device.

3. The valve device according to claim 2, characterized in that The flow guide channel is an annular channel located at the side of the valve device, and the imbibition body is an annular structure partially located in the annular channel.

4. The valve device according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that The fusible substance is paraffin wax.

5. An automatic fire extinguishing device, characterized in that: A valve device comprising the valve device according to any one of claims 1 to 3.

6. The automatic fire extinguishing equipment according to claim 5, characterized in that: It also includes a fire extinguishing medium. When the flow guide channel of the valve device is connected, the fire extinguishing medium flows through the flow guide channel to extinguish the fire.

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