Liquid cooling plate and battery module

Abstract

The utility model relates to the technical field of liquid cooling plates, and discloses a liquid cooling plate and a battery module, the liquid cooling plate comprises a cold plate main body, the outer surface of the cold plate main body comprises a first surface, the first surface is used for being contacted with a heat conduction component, at least one limiting boss is convexly arranged on the first surface, and when a plurality of limiting bosses are arranged, the first surface is used for being contacted with the heat conduction component. The multiple limiting bosses are sequentially arranged at intervals in the first direction, and the first direction is the insertion direction of a heating object. The battery module comprises a battery cell, heat conduction components and the liquid cooling plate, a gap space is formed between the liquid cooling plate and the battery cell, the gap space is divided into a plurality of gap areas by the limiting bosses in the first direction, the heat conduction components are arranged in the gap areas, and the liquid cooling plate is arranged in the gap areas. The heat conduction component is in heat conduction contact with the first surface and the outer surface of the battery cell respectively; the technical problem that when an existing battery cell is downwards inserted into one side of the liquid cooling plate, a heat conduction component is downwards gathered is mainly solved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The utility model relates to the technical field of liquid cooling plates, in particular to a liquid cooling plate and a battery module. Background Art

[0002] Currently, multiple battery cells are cooled by liquid cooling plates installed between each column of battery cells to ensure that multiple battery cells can operate stably within a preset temperature range. Specifically, a gap is reserved between the liquid cooling plate and the battery cells to facilitate the insertion of multiple battery cells between the two liquid cooling plates. Due to the low thermal conductivity of air, a heat-conducting member is usually filled in the gap between the liquid cooling plate and the battery cells. This heat-conducting member is usually a thermal pad or thermal adhesive. More specifically, when inserting the battery cell, there is an action of inserting the battery cell from top to bottom. Specifically:

[0003] If the heat-conducting member is a thermal pad, the thermal pad will be pressed down along the battery cell by the static friction of the battery cell during the downward insertion process, causing wrinkles on the bottom of the thermal pad, thereby reducing the thermal conductivity of the thermal pad. In addition, the wrinkled thermal pad may gather at the bottom of the battery cell, making it impossible to insert the battery cell into place.

[0004] If the heat-conducting component is thermal adhesive, when the battery cell is inserted downward, the thermal adhesive will flow downward and gather along with the downward pressure of the battery cell. At this time, there will be a gap between the battery cell and the top of the liquid cold plate, which reduces the heat conduction effect of the thermal adhesive and has a great impact on the overall temperature uniformity of the battery pack. In addition, the thermal adhesive flowing downward may also be blocked at the bottom of the battery cell, making it impossible to insert the battery cell into place.

[0005] Therefore, there is a need to improve the existing technology. Utility Model Content

[0006] The utility model provides a liquid cooling plate and a battery module, which mainly solve the technical problem that when the existing battery core is inserted downwardly into one side of the liquid cooling plate, heat-conducting components will be gathered downward.

[0007] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention provides the following technical solutions:

[0008] A liquid cooling plate includes a cold plate body, the outer surface of the cold plate body includes a first surface, the first surface is used to contact a heat-conducting component, at least one limiting boss is protruding from the first surface, when there are multiple limiting bosses, the multiple limiting bosses are arranged in sequence along a first direction, the first direction is the insertion direction of the heating object, and the limiting boss is used to limit the movement of the heat-conducting component along the first direction.

[0009] In one of the technical solutions, the height of the limiting boss relative to the first surface is less than or equal to the gap between the first surface and the outer wall of the heat-generating object.

[0010] In one of the technical solutions, the gap value between the first surface and the outer wall of the heating object is set to A, the height of the limiting boss relative to the first surface is set to T1, and the thickness of the limiting boss in the first direction is set to T2, where T1≤A, 0.8*T1≤T2≤5*T1.

[0011] In one of the technical solutions, the limiting boss is a rectangular structure.

[0012] In one of the technical solutions, the limiting boss extends obliquely in the opposite direction to the first direction.

[0013] In one of the technical solutions, the limiting boss includes a limiting body and a limiting portion. The limiting portion is arranged at one end of the limiting body away from the first surface and extends in the opposite direction of the first direction, so that a limiting groove is formed between the limiting portion and the first surface. The limiting groove is used for the heat-conducting component to be embedded in order to limit the position of the heat-conducting component.

[0014] In one of the technical solutions, the limiting boss and the cold plate body are an integrally formed structure.

[0015] In one of the technical solutions, the cold plate body further includes a second surface disposed opposite to the first surface, and at least one of the limiting bosses is also protruded from the second surface.

[0016] The present application also provides a battery module, comprising a battery cell, a heat-conducting component and the liquid cooling plate described in any of the above technical solutions, wherein a gap space is provided between the liquid cooling plate and the battery cell, the limiting boss divides the gap space into a plurality of gap areas along the first direction, the heat-conducting component is provided in each of the gap areas, and the heat-conducting component is in heat-conducting contact with the first surface and the outer surface of the battery cell respectively.

[0017] In one of the technical solutions, the battery module includes multiple battery columns and liquid cooling plates. The battery columns include at least one layer of battery packs. The battery packs include multiple battery cells. The liquid cooling plates are provided between two adjacent battery columns.

[0018] Compared with the prior art, the liquid cooling plate provided by the present invention has at least the following beneficial effects:

[0019] This solution provides a limiting boss on the cold plate body so that when a heat-generating object (such as a battery cell) is inserted into one side of the liquid cold plate along a first direction (preferably vertically downward), the limiting boss can limit the downward aggregation of the heat-conducting component between the battery cell and the cold plate body, thereby improving the heat conduction effect of the heat-conducting component, that is, improving the cooling efficiency of the cold plate body on the battery cell, and facilitating improving the uniformity of the overall heat dissipation of the battery pack; in addition, since the heat-conducting component is restricted by the limiting boss and will not aggregate in the first direction, the heat-conducting component will not aggregate to the bottom of the battery cell, so that the battery cell can be inserted into the preset position along the first direction, ensuring that the battery cell has a high installation accuracy. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0020] In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following briefly introduces the drawings required for use in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some embodiments of the present invention. For ordinary technicians in this field, other drawings can be obtained based on these drawings without paying any creative work.

[0021] Figure 1 A schematic structural diagram of a battery module provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0022] Figure 2 for Figure 1 A partial enlarged view of point A in the middle;

[0023] Figure 3 for Figure 1 A top view of the battery module shown;

[0024] Figure 4 for Figure 3 Cross-sectional view at the middle BB;

[0025] Figure 5 for Figure 4 A partial enlarged view of point C in the middle;

[0026] Figure 6 A schematic structural diagram of the first liquid cooling plate provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0027] Figure 7 for Figure 6 A partial enlarged view of point D in the middle;

[0028] Figure 8 A schematic structural diagram of a second liquid cooling plate provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0029] Figure 9 for Figure 8 A partial enlarged view of point E in the middle;

[0030] Figure 10A schematic structural diagram of a third liquid cooling plate provided in an embodiment of the present application;

[0031] Figure 11 for Figure 10 A partial enlarged view of point F in the middle.

[0032] Reference numerals:

[0033] 1. Battery array; 11. Battery pack; 111. Battery cell;

[0034] 2. Liquid cooling plate; 21. Cold plate body; 211. First surface; 212. Second surface; 22. Limiting boss; 221. Limiting body; 222. Limiting portion; 223. Limiting groove;

[0035] 3. Interstitial space; 31. Interstitial area. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] In order to make the technical problems, technical solutions and beneficial effects to be solved by this application more clearly understood, this application is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments. It should be understood that the specific embodiments described herein are only used to explain this application and are not intended to limit this application.

[0037] It should be noted that when an element is referred to as being “fixed on” or “disposed on” another element, it may be directly on the other element or indirectly on the other element. When an element is referred to as being “connected to” another element, it may be directly connected to the other element or indirectly connected to the other element.

[0038] It should be understood that the terms, "upper", "lower", "top", "bottom", "inside", "outside", etc., indicating the orientation or position relationship are based on the orientation or position relationship shown in the accompanying drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing this application and simplifying the description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be constructed and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore cannot be understood as a limitation on this application.

[0039] Furthermore, the terms "first" and "second" are used for descriptive purposes only and should not be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly specifying the number of the technical features being referred to. Thus, a feature defined as "first" or "second" may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of the features. Throughout the description of this application, "plurality" means two or more, unless otherwise specifically defined.

[0040] In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention more clear, the present invention is further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings and embodiments.

[0041] Please also refer to Figures 1 to 5, an embodiment of the present utility model provides a battery module, which mainly includes a plurality of battery columns 1 arranged in sequence along the X direction and a plurality of liquid cooling plates 2 arranged in sequence along the X direction, wherein each battery column 1 includes at least one layer of battery packs 11 arranged in sequence along the Z direction, and each battery pack 11 includes a plurality of battery cells 111 arranged in sequence along the Y direction. This embodiment mainly takes the example of each battery column 1 having only one layer of battery packs 11. Among them, a liquid cooling plate 2 as mentioned above is arranged between each two adjacent battery columns 1, and the liquid cooling plate 2 is used to cool the adjacent battery columns 1 so that the multiple battery cells 111 can operate within a suitable temperature range. All the battery cells 111 in this embodiment take cylindrical battery cells as an example, and accordingly, the corresponding liquid cooling plates 2 are designed as follows Figure 1 The wavy shape shown in the Y direction increases the heat exchange area between the liquid cooling plate 2 and the adjacent battery column 1, thereby improving the cooling efficiency of the liquid cooling plate 2 on the adjacent battery column 1. During assembly, each liquid cooling plate 2 can be pre-fixed, and then each battery cell 111 can be inserted into one side of the liquid cooling plate 2 along the first direction (i.e., the Z direction in the figure, which is preferably the same as the vertical downward direction in this embodiment). Specifically, to ensure that the battery cells 111 can be reliably inserted into one side of the liquid cooling plate 2 along the Z direction, the spacing between two adjacent liquid cooling plates 2 is designed to be greater than or equal to the outer dimensions of the battery cells 111 (i.e., the outer diameter of the cylindrical battery cells 111). That is, a gap space 3 will exist between the side of the liquid cooling plate 2 and the battery cells 111. Currently, a thermally conductive member (not shown in the figure, the thermally conductive member is generally a thermally conductive glue or a thermally conductive pad) is placed in this gap space 3. The thermally conductive member fills the gap space 3, allowing the liquid cooling plate 2 to cool the adjacent multiple battery cells 111 through the thermally conductive member, thereby improving the cooling efficiency of the liquid cooling plate 2 for the multiple battery cells 111. More specifically, before assembling the battery cells 111, a thermally conductive member is usually pre-placed or coated on one side of the liquid cooling plate 2, and then the multiple battery cells 111 are inserted into the side of the liquid cooling plate 2 along the Z direction.

[0042] Please also refer to Figures 1 to 7The liquid cold plate 2 specifically includes a cold plate body 21 and at least one limiting boss 22 protruding from a first surface 211 of the cold plate body 21. The number of limiting bosses 22 is primarily determined by the height of the cold plate body 21 in the Z direction. In this embodiment, the cold plate body 21 is relatively tall in the Z direction. Therefore, the first surface 211 of the cold plate body 21 is preferably provided with a plurality of limiting bosses 22 spaced sequentially along the Z direction. Specifically, the limiting bosses 22 divide the gap space 3 between the side of the liquid cold plate 2 and the battery cells 111 into a plurality of gap regions 31 spaced sequentially along the Z direction. Each gap region 31 is provided with the aforementioned heat-conducting member. In practice, the heat-conducting member is in thermal contact with the first surface 211 of the cold plate body 21 and the outer surfaces of the plurality of battery cells 111, respectively. That is, the first surface 211 of the cold plate body 21 cools the plurality of adjacent battery cells 111 via the heat-conducting member.

[0043] In this solution, a limiting boss 22 is provided on the cold plate body 21, so that when the battery cell 111 is inserted into one side of the liquid cold plate 2 along the first direction (i.e., the vertically downward Z direction), the limiting boss 22 can limit the downward aggregation of the heat-conducting component between the battery cell 111 and the cold plate body 21, thereby improving the heat conduction effect of the heat-conducting component, that is, improving the cooling efficiency of the cold plate body 21 on the battery cell 111, and facilitating improving the uniformity of the overall heat dissipation of the battery pack; in addition, since the heat-conducting component is limited by the limiting boss 22 and does not aggregate in the Z direction, the heat-conducting component will not gather at the bottom of the battery cell 111, so that the battery cell 111 can be inserted downward in the Z direction to the preset position, ensuring that the battery cell 111 has a high installation accuracy.

[0044] In other embodiments, if the height of the cold plate body 21 in the Z direction is shorter, only one limiting boss 22 may be provided in the middle region of the first surface 211 of the cold plate body 21 .

[0045] See also Figure 5 The cold plate body 21 further includes a second surface 212 disposed opposite to the first surface 211. The second surface 212 is also provided with at least one limiting boss 22. This allows multiple battery cells 111 to be inserted downwardly on both sides of the liquid cooling plate 2, so that the liquid cooling plate 2 can cool down two adjacent battery columns 1 simultaneously through the heat-conducting member, thereby improving the efficiency of the liquid cooling plate 2 for the battery and making the overall structure of the battery module more compact and reasonable.

[0046] Please refer again Figure 5Assuming the gap between the first surface 211 and the outer wall of the battery cell 111 is A, and the height of the limiting boss 22 relative to the first surface 211 along the X direction is T1, then T1≤A, so that when the battery cell 111 is inserted downward into the side of the liquid cooling plate 2 along the Z direction, the limiting boss 22 will not block the insertion of the liquid cooling plate 2. In addition, the limiting boss 22 and the cold plate body 21 are an integrally formed profile structure. Assuming the thickness of the limiting boss 22 in the Z direction is T2, if the value of T2 is too small, the structural strength of the limiting boss 22 is poor, resulting in a greater risk of fracture. If the value of T2 is too large, the upper limiting boss 22 in the Z direction will occupy too much space, thereby reducing the area available for setting the heat conducting component, and further reducing the cooling efficiency of the liquid cooling plate 2 on the adjacent battery cells 111. Therefore, in this solution, preferably, 0.8*T1≤T2≤5*T1.

[0047] The limiting boss 22 can be as follows: Figure 6 and Figure 7 The rectangular structure shown; the limiting boss 22 can also be as Figure 8 and Figure 9 The parallelogram structure shown is tilted upward in the opposite direction of the Z direction, and the tilt angle α is 0<α<90°. In addition, please refer to Figure 10 and Figure 11 The limiting boss 22 can also specifically include a limiting body 221 and a limiting portion 222. The limiting portion 222 is arranged at one end of the limiting body 221 away from the first surface 211 and extends in the opposite direction of the Z direction, so that a limiting groove 223 is formed between the limiting portion 222 and the first surface 211. During installation, the bottom of the heat-conducting component can be embedded in this limiting groove 223, so that the heat-conducting component can be restricted by the limiting groove 223, thereby further suppressing the phenomenon of the heat-conducting component deforming and gathering downward when the battery cell 111 is inserted downward, thereby further improving the heat conduction effect of the heat-conducting component.

[0048] This paragraph supplements the explanation that the above-mentioned liquid cooling plate 2 is not limited to the technical field of cooling the battery cell 111. The liquid cooling plate 2 of this embodiment can be used to cool other heat-generating objects. As long as the heat-generating object needs to be inserted into one side of the liquid cooling plate 2 and a heat-conducting component is filled between the heat-generating object and the liquid cooling plate 2, the liquid cooling plate 2 of this embodiment can be applied, thereby also solving the technical problem that the heat-conducting component will gather downward when the heat-generating object is inserted.

[0049] The above is merely a preferred embodiment of the present invention and only specifically describes the technical principles of the present invention. These descriptions are intended only to explain the principles of the present invention and should not be construed in any way as limiting the scope of protection of the present invention. Based on the explanations herein, any modifications, equivalent substitutions, and improvements made within the spirit and principles of the present invention, as well as other specific embodiments of the present invention that can be imagined by those skilled in the art without inventive effort, shall be included within the scope of protection of the present invention.

Claims

1. A liquid cooling plate, characterized in that: The invention comprises a cold plate body (21), the outer surface of the cold plate body (21) comprises a first surface (211), the first surface (211) is used for contacting a heat-conducting component, at least one limiting boss (22) is convexly provided on the first surface (211), when the limiting bosses (22) are multiple, the multiple limiting bosses (22) are sequentially spaced along a first direction, the first direction being the insertion direction of the heating object, and the limiting bosses (22) are used for limiting the movement of the heat-conducting component along the first direction.

2. The liquid cooling plate according to claim 1, wherein: The height of the limiting boss (22) relative to the first surface (211) is less than or equal to the gap between the first surface (211) and the outer wall of the heating object.

3. The liquid cooling plate according to claim 2, wherein: Assume that the gap value between the first surface (211) and the outer wall of the heating object is A, the height of the limiting boss (22) relative to the first surface (211) is T1, and the thickness of the limiting boss (22) in the first direction is T2, wherein T1≤A, 0.8*T1≤T2≤5*T1.

4. The liquid cooling plate according to claim 1, wherein: The limiting boss (22) is a rectangular structure.

5. The liquid cooling plate according to claim 1, wherein: The limiting boss (22) extends obliquely in the opposite direction to the first direction.

6. The liquid cooling plate according to claim 1, wherein: The limiting boss (22) includes a limiting body (221) and a limiting portion (222), wherein the limiting portion (222) is arranged at one end of the limiting body (221) away from the first surface (211) and extends in the opposite direction of the first direction, so that a limiting groove (223) is formed between the limiting portion (222) and the first surface (211), and the limiting groove (223) is used for inserting the heat-conducting component to limit the position of the heat-conducting component.

7. The liquid cooling plate according to claim 1, wherein: The limiting boss (22) and the cold plate main body (21) are an integrally formed structure.

8. The liquid cooling plate according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein: The cold plate body (21) further comprises a second surface (212) disposed opposite to the first surface (211), and at least one limiting boss (22) is also protruded from the second surface (212).

9. A battery module, characterized in that: The invention comprises a battery cell (111), a heat-conducting component and a liquid cooling plate (2) according to any one of claims 1 to 8, wherein a gap space (3) is provided between the liquid cooling plate (2) and the battery cell (111), the limiting boss (22) divides the gap space (3) into a plurality of gap areas (31) along the first direction, the heat-conducting component is provided in each of the gap areas (31), and the heat-conducting component is in heat-conducting contact with the first surface (211) and the outer surface of the battery cell (111), respectively.

10. The battery module according to claim 9, wherein: The battery module comprises a plurality of battery columns (1) and the liquid cooling plate (2) according to claim 8, wherein the battery column (1) comprises at least one layer of battery pack (11), the battery pack (11) comprises a plurality of the battery cells (111), and the liquid cooling plate (2) is provided between two adjacent battery columns (1).

Images