On-board thermal management system, thermal management system group and electric aircraft system

Abstract

The utility model provides an onboard thermal management system, a thermal management system group and an electric aircraft system, and the onboard thermal management system is used for thermal management of an electric aircraft and comprises a thermal management object, a cooling device, a pump, a switch valve and two plugs. The heat management object, the cooling device, the pump and the switch valve are connected to form a main loop, and a heat exchange medium can flow in the main loop so that the heat exchange medium can exchange heat with the heat management object. And the switch valve can cut off the flow of the heat exchange medium in the main loop. And the two plugs are respectively connected to the upstream and the downstream of the heat management object through a section of pipeline to form two branches connected to the main loop and used for connecting an external heat management system. The two plugs have the disconnection and cut-off functions so that flowing of the heat exchange medium in the branch can be cut off when the plugs are not connected. The plug is a male end plug or a female end plug.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the technical field of electric aircraft thermal management, and particularly relates to an on-board thermal management system, a thermal management system group and an electric aircraft system. BACKGROUND

[0002] With the gradual maturity of the technology of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (Electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing, English abbreviation eVTOL), it can be applied to many fields such as low-altitude sightseeing, urban passenger transport, regional passenger transport, cargo transport, personal use and emergency medical rescue. The power system and the battery system of the electric aircraft will generate a large amount of heat during operation. If the heat cannot be effectively managed and dissipated, it may seriously affect the normal function and operating performance of the electric aircraft. Relying solely on the heat management device of the electric aircraft for heat dissipation will consume the electric quantity on the electric aircraft, thereby affecting the endurance of the electric aircraft.

[0003] The inventor understands that one kind of thermal management technology of electric aircraft is to connect an external thermal management system with the electric aircraft to manage the heat of the battery pack and other heat generating devices of the electric aircraft. When the external thermal management system is connected with the electric aircraft, the flow of the heat exchange medium is involved. If the flow control is improper, problems such as leakage of the heat exchange medium are easy to occur. A reliable thermal management system needs to be designed to meet the working requirements of the above-mentioned external thermal management mode. CONTENT OF THE UTILITY MODEL

[0004] The present application is made in view of the above-mentioned state of the art. The purpose of the present application is to provide an on-board thermal management system which is suitable for external thermal management technology and can prevent leakage of heat exchange medium when the electric aircraft is connected with the external on-board thermal management system.

[0005] The present application also provides a thermal management system group and an electric aircraft system comprising the above-mentioned on-board thermal management system.

[0006] The present application provides an on-board thermal management system for thermal management of electric aircraft, which comprises a thermal management object, a cooling device, a pump, a switch valve and two plugs,

[0007] The thermal management object, the cooling device, the pump and the switch valve are connected to form a main circuit, and the heat exchange medium can flow in the main circuit, so that the heat exchange medium can exchange heat with the thermal management object,

[0008] The switch valve can cut off the flow of the heat exchange medium in the main circuit,

[0009] The two plugs are connected to upstream and downstream of the thermal management object via a section of pipeline, forming two branches connected to the main circuit for connecting external thermal management system,

[0010] The two plugs have a disconnection function to cut off the flow of the heat exchange medium in the branch when the plugs are not connected,

[0011] The plugs are male or female plugs.

[0012] In at least one possible implementation, the on-board thermal management system further comprises a heating device arranged in the main circuit for heating the heat exchange medium.

[0013] In at least one possible implementation, at least one of the two branches is provided with a flow meter for monitoring flow information in the branch.

[0014] In at least one possible implementation, the ends of the two branches are provided with corresponding plugs and stop valves for cutting off or opening the flow of the heat exchange medium in the branch,

[0015] The two plugs are connected to form the male-female plug group, and the heat exchange medium can flow through the male-female plug group.

[0016] In at least one possible implementation, the thermal management object is one or more of a battery system, a power system, and an air conditioning system.

[0017] In at least one possible implementation, the cooling device is an air cooling device or a liquid cooling device.

[0018] The application also provides a thermal management system group comprising the on-board thermal management system described above; and an external thermal management system,

[0019] The external thermal management system comprises an external thermal management device and two external plugs connected to the upstream and downstream of the external thermal management device respectively,

[0020] The two external plugs can be connected to the two plugs of the on-board thermal management system to form two male-female plug groups,

[0021] The two male-female plug groups, the thermal management object and the external thermal management device can form an external circuit, and the heat exchange medium can flow in the external circuit to exchange heat with the thermal management object.

[0022] In at least one possible implementation, the external plugs have a disconnection function,

[0023] The heat exchange medium flows in the same direction in the main circuit and the external circuit and through the thermal management object.

[0024] The present application also provides an electric aircraft system, which comprises an electric aircraft provided with the on-board thermal management system.

[0025] In at least one possible implementation, the electric aircraft system further comprises a ground maintenance device, which comprises the external thermal management system.

[0026] The on-board thermal management system, the thermal management system group and the electric aircraft system provided by the present application can be applied to the external thermal management of the electric aircraft, and the external thermal management can reduce the power consumption of the electric aircraft and improve the endurance of the electric aircraft. The technical solution of the present application can avoid the leakage of the heat exchange medium when the electric aircraft is connected to the external thermal management system. At the same time, it can also avoid increasing the flow resistance by arranging the male-female plug set in the main circuit, thereby increasing the system energy consumption and reducing the service life of the male-female plug set. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0027] Figure 1 Structure diagram of a thermal management system known to the inventor.

[0028] Figure 2 Structure diagram of a male-female plug set known to the inventor.

[0029] Figure 3 Structure diagram of a male-female plug set known to the inventor.

[0030] Figure 4 Structure diagram of an on-board thermal management system according to one embodiment of the present application.

[0031] Figure 5 Structure diagram of a thermal management system group according to one embodiment of the present application.

[0032] Figure 6 Connection structure diagram of a thermal management system group according to one embodiment of the present application.

[0033] Figure 7 Another structure diagram of a thermal management system group according to one embodiment of the present application.

[0034] REFERENCE SIGNS

[0035] 10 male-female plug set

[0036] 11 male plug

[0037] 12 female plug

[0038] 100 on-board thermal management system

[0039] 110 thermal management object

[0040] 120 cooling device

[0041] 130 heating device

[0042] 140 pump

[0043] 150 on-off valve

[0044] 160 flow meter

[0045] 170 shut-off valve

[0046] 200 off-board thermal management system

[0047] 210 off-board thermal management device DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0048] The exemplary embodiments of the present application will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. It should be understood that the specific description is only for teaching those skilled in the art how to implement the present application, and is not intended to exhaust all possible ways of the present application, nor to limit the scope of the present application.

[0049] Figure 1 As shown, the inventor understands one scheme of on-board thermal management system of electric aircraft, which includes a thermal management object 110, a cooling device 120, a heating device 130, a pump 140 and two male-female plug sets 10. And the thermal management object 110, the cooling device 120, the heating device 130, the pump 140 and the two male-female plug sets 10 are all connected to the same circuit, and the two male-female plug sets 10 are respectively arranged upstream and downstream of the thermal management object 110. When the on-board thermal management system is connected with the off-board thermal management system, the two male-female plug sets 10 need to be disconnected, and the two male plugs or female plugs connected with the thermal management object are respectively connected with the male plugs or female plugs of the off-board thermal management system (it can be understood that the male plugs and the female plugs need to be connected one by one). When the two male-female plug sets of the on-board thermal management system are disconnected, the original circuit of the original on-board thermal management system is disconnected, and the thermal management object and the off-board thermal management system will form a new circuit.

[0050] It can be understood that the above technical solution will form a relatively large flow resistance to the flow of the liquid (heat exchange medium) in the circuit when actually operating. The relatively large flow resistance will increase the energy consumption of the thermal management system, further weakening the endurance of the electric aircraft. The technical solution needs to disconnect and connect the male and female plug groups multiple times in actual application, which will increase the operation difficulty, prolong the operation time, and reduce the service life of the male and female plug groups and the overall thermal management system on the aircraft. In addition, the long-term pressure bearing of the male and female plug groups will affect the service life and increase the risk of leakage of the heat exchange medium.

[0051] It should be understood that although some disadvantages of the on-board thermal management system are illustrated above, the on-board thermal management system still has certain advantages compared with some prior art. Figure 1 Figure 1 The above description still constitutes part of the disclosure or embodiments of the present application.

[0052] Embodiments of the present application provide an on-board thermal management system suitable for an electric aircraft (which can be an electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft, i.e., eVTOL), as shown in Figure 4 The on-board thermal management system 100 can include a thermal management object 110, a cooling device 120, a pump 140, a switch valve 150, and two plugs (a male plug 11 or a female plug 12, for example, Figure 4 Both plugs in the above are male plugs 11.

[0053] As shown in Figure 4 The thermal management object 110, the cooling device 120, the pump 140, and the switch valve 150 can be connected to form a main circuit, and the heat exchange medium can flow in the main circuit to exchange heat with the thermal management object. The thermal management object 110 can be a structure or device on the electric aircraft that needs to exchange heat, which can be a battery pack (battery system), a power system, an air conditioning system, etc. of the electric aircraft. The cooling device 120 can be a wind cooling device or a liquid cooling device, which can cool the heat exchange medium to exchange heat with the thermal management object 110, thereby reducing the temperature of the thermal management object 110. Specifically, the wind cooling device can use a fan or the like to use gas flow to dissipate heat for the heat exchange medium to reduce the temperature of the heat exchange medium; the liquid cooling device can use a liquid medium to absorb the heat of the heat exchange medium to reduce the temperature of the heat exchange medium. The pump 140 can provide flow power for the heat exchange medium. The switch valve 150 can control the on-off of the main circuit of the on-board thermal management system according to the instruction, i.e., the switch valve 150 can cut off the flow of the heat exchange medium in the main circuit. The switch valve 150 can be an electronic switch valve.

[0054] Preferably, the heat exchange medium can be a solution of ethylene glycol and water mixed in a certain proportion. However, the type of heat exchange medium is not limited to this.

[0055] ​Preferably, the on-board thermal management system can further comprise a heating device 130, which can be arranged in the main loop of the on-board thermal management system, so that the on-board thermal management system has a heating function for the thermal management object 110. It can be understood that the cooling device 120 and the heating device 130 usually do not work at the same time.

[0056] As shown in Figure 2 , Figure 3 and Figure 4 , two plugs can be connected to the upstream and downstream of the thermal management object 110 via a section of pipeline, forming two branches connected to the main loop. The two branches can be used to connect external (not arranged on the electric aircraft) heat exchange equipment (i.e. the external thermal management system 200 described below). The male plug 11 or the female plug 12 connected to the main loop can have a disconnecting stop function. When the male plug 11 and the female plug 12 form a plug set 10 by corresponding connection, the plug set 10 can be connected to allow the heat exchange medium to pass freely. When the male plug 11 or the female plug 12 is not connected, it can automatically close and cut off the flow of heat exchange medium. Preferably, the male plug 11 and the female plug 12 constituting the plug set 10 can both have a disconnecting stop function. The plug with the disconnecting stop function can effectively prevent heat exchange leakage.

[0057] When the thermal management system 100 itself undertakes the heat exchange function of the thermal management object 110, the heat exchange medium can flow in the main loop of the thermal management system 100, and the temperature of the heat exchange medium can be adjusted by the cooling device 120 or the heating device 130, and then the heat exchange medium exchanges heat with the thermal management object 110. Due to the disconnecting stop function of the plug, when the thermal management system 100 is not connected with the external heat exchange equipment (the plug of the thermal management system is not connected with the corresponding plug of the external heat exchange equipment), the heat exchange medium will not flow out from the two branches.

[0058] When the on-board thermal management system 100 is connected with the external heat exchange equipment (the plug of the on-board thermal management system is connected with the corresponding plug of the external heat exchange equipment), the thermal management object 110 can form an external loop with the external heat exchange equipment via two plug sets, so that the heat exchange medium exchanges heat with the thermal management object 110 after the temperature is adjusted by the external heat exchange equipment. When the on-board thermal management system 100 is connected with the external heat exchange equipment, the switch valve 150 can cut off the flow of heat exchange medium in the main loop according to the connection state information (automatically or manually by the staff) of the on-board thermal management system, so that the heat exchange medium only flows in the external loop.

[0059] Preferably, as shown in Figure 4As shown, a flow meter 160 can be provided in one of the two branches where the plug is provided. Alternatively, both branches where the plug is provided can be provided with a flow meter 160. The flow meter 160 can be used to monitor the flow information in the branch to feedback the connection status of the branch (whether it is connected to form an external loop). When the two branches are connected in place (an external loop has been formed), the flow meter 160 will feedback that the branch flow has reached a preset flow range (exceeding the threshold). If the branch is not connected to the external heat exchange equipment (or a connection error occurs such as the plug not being correctly connected), the flow meter 160 will feedback that the branch flow is 0 or the flow is not within the standard range (equal to or less than the threshold). It can be understood that based on the flow information fed back by the flow meter 160, the staff or the control device of the onboard thermal management system can accurately grasp the connection status of the plug, and can promptly detect situations such as the plug not being correctly connected.

[0060] Preferably, in the main loop and the external loop, the direction in which the heat exchange medium flows through the heat management object 110 may be consistent.

[0061] Preferably, Figure 7 As shown, the plugs of the two branches can be connected to the corresponding plugs to form a male and female plug group 10, and a stop valve 170 is set at the end of the branch (downstream of the male and female plug group). The stop valve 170 can be used to cut off the flow of the heat exchange medium in the branch. It can be understood that although the heat exchange medium in the branch can flow through the connected male and female plug group 10, the stop valve 170 at the end of the branch can prevent the heat exchange medium from overflowing. Here, a stop valve is used instead of an unconnected plug to cut off the circulation of the heat exchange medium, which can prevent the disconnection and cut-off structure of the plug from being under pressure for a long time, thereby extending the service life of the plug. When the on-board thermal management system is connected to an external thermal management system, the male and female plug group 10 in the branch can be disconnected first, and then the plug at the upstream end of the branch can be connected to the plug of the external thermal management system.

[0062] The embodiment of the present application also provides a thermal management system group, which includes the above-mentioned on-board thermal management system 100 and an external thermal management system 200. The external thermal management system 200 may include an external thermal management device 210 and two external plugs connected to the upstream and downstream of the thermal management device 210 respectively. The two external plugs can be connected to the two plugs of the on-board thermal management system respectively to form two male and female plug groups 10. The two male and female plug groups 10, the thermal management object 110 and the external thermal management device 210 can form an external loop, and the heat exchange medium can flow in the external loop so that the heat exchange medium can exchange heat with the thermal management object 110. It can be understood that using an external thermal management device to perform thermal management for the thermal management object 110 can effectively reduce the thermal management energy consumption of the electric aircraft itself and increase the endurance of the electric aircraft.

[0063] The embodiments of the present application also provide an electric aircraft system, which can include an electric aircraft and a ground maintenance device. The electric aircraft can be provided with the on-board thermal management system 100 described above, and the ground maintenance device can be provided with the external thermal management system 200 described above.

[0064] The following briefly describes some beneficial effects of the above embodiments of the present application.

[0065] The on-board thermal management system, the thermal management system group and the electric aircraft system provided by the embodiments of the present application can be suitable for the external thermal management mode of the electric aircraft, and the external thermal management mode can reduce the power consumption of the electric aircraft and improve the endurance of the electric aircraft. The technical solution of the present application can avoid the leakage of the heat exchange medium when the electric aircraft is connected to the external thermal management system. At the same time, it can also avoid increasing the flow resistance and increasing the system energy consumption and reducing the service life of the male-female plug set by arranging the male-female plug set in the main circuit.

[0066] It can be understood that in the present application, when the number of components or members is not particularly limited, the number can be one or more, and the plurality here refers to two or more. For the case where the number of components or members is described as a specific number such as two, three, four, etc. in the drawings and / or the description, the specific number is generally exemplary and not limiting, and it can be understood as a plurality, i.e. two or more, but this does not mean that the present application excludes the case of one.

[0067] It should be understood that the above embodiments are only exemplary and are not used to limit the present application. Those skilled in the art can make various modifications and changes to the above embodiments under the teaching of the present application without departing from the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. An on-board thermal management system for thermal management of an electric aircraft, characterized in that, The heat management object, the cooling device, the pump, and the on-off valve are connected to form a main loop in which a heat exchange medium can flow and exchange heat with the heat management object. The on-off valve can cut off the flow of the heat exchange medium in the main loop. The two plugs are connected to the upstream and downstream of the heat management object via a section of pipeline to form two branches connected to the main loop for connecting an external heat management system. The two plugs have a disconnecting cutoff function to cut off the flow of the heat exchange medium in the branch when the plug is not connected. The plug is a male plug or a female plug. The two branches are provided with a flow meter for monitoring the flow information in the branch.

2. The on-board thermal management system of claim 1, wherein, 4. The on-board heat management system according to claim 1, wherein 3. The on-board thermal management system of claim 1, wherein, The two branches are provided with a corresponding plug and a cutoff valve at the end to cut off or open the flow of the heat exchange medium in the branch. The two plugs are connected to form a male-female plug group, and the heat exchange medium can flow through the male-female plug group. The heat management object is one or more of a battery system, a power system, and an air conditioning system. The cooling device is an air cooling device or a liquid cooling device.

5. The on-board thermal management system of claim 1, wherein, The on-board heat management system according to any one of claims 1 to 6; and an external heat management system, 6. The on-board thermal management system of claim 1, wherein, The external heat management system includes an external heat management device and two external plugs connected to the upstream and downstream of the external heat management device, respectively.

7. A thermal management system pack, characterized by The two external plugs can be connected to the two plugs of the on-board heat management system to form two male-female plug groups, respectively. The two male-female plug groups, the heat management object, and the external heat management device can form an external loop in which the heat exchange medium can flow and exchange heat with the heat management object.

8. The heat management system group according to claim 7, wherein The external plug has a disconnecting cutoff function. The heat exchange medium flows in the same direction in the main loop and the external loop. An electric aircraft is provided with the on-board heat management system according to any one of claims 1 to 6. A ground maintenance device is also provided, which includes the external heat management system according to claim 7 or 8.

9. An electric aircraft system, characterized by ​ 10. The electric aircraft system of claim 9, wherein, ​

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