Battery module, battery and method for operating the battery

Abstract

The invention relates to a battery module (10, 20) with a plurality of individual battery cells (11, 21) and a pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder (13, 23) for actively compensating cell thickness growth, which cylinder is configured to be fed with medium from a pressure accumulator (2). The battery module according to the invention is characterized in that a suction jet pump (15, 25) and a switching valve (14, 24) are provided, wherein the switching valve (14, 24) is configured at least to selectively connect the pressure accumulator (2) to the cylinder (13, 23) or to the suction jet pump (15, 25) for extracting medium from the cylinder (13, 23). The invention also relates to a battery (1) with at least two such battery modules (10, 20) and to a method for operating the battery (1) in the event of thermal runaway of one of the individual battery cells (11, 21).

Claims

[1] Battery module (10, 20) with several individual battery cells (11, 21) and a pneumatic or hydraulic cylinder (13, 23) for actively compensating the cell thickness growth, which is designed to be fed with medium from a pressure accumulator (2), characterized by that a suction jet pump (15, 25) and a switching valve (14, 24) are provided, wherein the switching valve (14, 24) is at least designed to selectively connect the pressure accumulator (2) to the cylinder (13, 23) or to the suction jet pump (15, 25) for sucking medium out of the cylinder (13, 23). [2] Battery module (10, 20) according to claim 1, characterized by that the cylinder (13, 23) is designed as a pneumatic cylinder (13, 23) in a system operated with compressed air. [3] Battery module (10, 20) according to claim 1 or 2, characterized bythat the switching valve (14, 24) is designed as a 5 / 2-way valve which, in a first position, connects the pressure accumulator (2) to the cylinder (13, 23) and blocks a suction connection (16, 26) and a propulsion jet connection (17, 27) of the suction jet pump (15, 25), and which, in a second position, connects the pressure accumulator (2) to the propulsion jet connection (17, 27), the cylinder (13, 23) to the suction connection (16, 26) and an outlet (18, 28) of the suction jet pump (15, 25) to the environment. [4] Battery module (10, 20) according to claim 1, 2 or 3, characterized by that at least one temperature sensor is arranged in the region of the individual battery cells (11, 21). [5] Battery module (10, 20) according to one of claims 1 to 4, characterized by that the individual battery cells (11, 21) are designed as prismatic individual battery cells (11, 21). [6] Battery (1) with at least two battery modules (10, 20) according to one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the battery modules (10, 20) are connected to the same pressure accumulator (2) to compensate for the cell thickness growth. [7] Method for operating the battery (1) according to claim 6 in the event of a thermal runaway of a single battery cell (11, 21) in one of the battery modules (10, 20), characterized by that the switching valve (24) of the battery module (20) affected by the thermal runaway is switched so that its suction jet pump (25) sucks medium out of the cylinder (23) of the affected battery module (20). [8] Method according to claim 7, characterized by that the switching valves (14) of the unaffected battery modules (10) are left in the position in which they connect the pressure accumulator (2) to the cylinder (13). [9] Method according to claim 7 or 8, characterized bythat various parameters of the battery (1) are evaluated in order to detect the thermal runaway of an individual battery cell (11, 21) in one of the battery modules (10, 20).

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