Integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device and electric vehicle

Abstract

The present application relates to the technical field of electric vehicles, and particularly provides an integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device and an electric vehicle, aiming to solve the problem that a high-voltage loop protection device is prone to damage and has slow response to short-circuit faults. The integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device provided by the present application is connected in a high-voltage loop formed by a battery assembly and a high-voltage load, and comprises a current detection module, an opening device and a power supply controller which are integrated; the current detection module is used for detecting a current on the high-voltage loop and outputting the detected current to the power supply controller; the power supply controller is used for determining, on the basis of the current output by the current detection module, whether a fault occurs in a positive / negative electrode loop of the battery assembly, and controlling the opening device; and the opening device is used for controlling, when a fault occurs in the positive / negative electrode loop of the battery assembly, the positive / negative electrode loop to be opened. The present invention has the effects of good reusability, quick response to short-circuit faults and higher safety.

Description

An integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device and electric vehicle

[0001] This application claims priority to Chinese patent application No. 202323461349.9, filed on December 18, 2023, entitled “An integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device and electric vehicle”. The entire contents of the above Chinese patent application are incorporated into this application by reference. Technical Field

[0002] The present application relates to the technical field of electric vehicles, and specifically provides an integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device and an electric vehicle. Background Art

[0003] With the rapid development of new energy technologies, new energy power batteries are increasingly being used in electric vehicles. The safety performance of power battery systems is also receiving increasing attention. Therefore, to meet power battery safety requirements, it is essential to design a reasonable vehicle high-voltage circuit to ensure power battery safety. To this end, high-voltage short-circuit protection schemes designed for vehicle high-voltage circuits are increasingly being used in power battery systems. When a short circuit occurs, a high-voltage short-circuit protector can disconnect the short-circuit circuit, ensuring the safety of new energy vehicle power battery systems. Currently, new energy electric vehicles often use a circuit protection strategy that uses fuses or contactors for disconnection functions. When a short circuit occurs, the fuse or contactor blows to disconnect the circuit. However, the short-circuit melting time of fuses or contactors is long, resulting in a slow response to short-circuit faults. Furthermore, the short-circuit melting time is longer than the time the relay in the high-voltage circuit can carry overcurrent. After a short circuit occurs, the fuse or contactor and other components are easily damaged and need to be replaced. This leads to potential after-sales replacement and repair costs.

[0004] Summary of the Invention

[0005] In order to overcome the above-mentioned defects, the present invention proposes an integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device and an electric vehicle to provide a solution or at least partially solve the technical problems of easy damage of high-voltage circuit protection components and slow short-circuit fault response.

[0006] In a first aspect, the present application provides an integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device connected to a high-voltage circuit formed by a battery assembly and a high-voltage load, the integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device comprising an integrated current detection module, a disconnect device, and a power controller;

[0007] The current detection module is used to detect the current on the high-voltage circuit and output the detected current to the power controller;

[0008] The power controller is used to determine whether the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly have failed based on the current output by the current detection module, and to control the disconnect device;

[0009] The disconnecting device is used to control the disconnection of the positive and negative circuits when a fault occurs in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly.

[0010] According to one embodiment of the present application, the disconnecting device includes a contact portion, and the disconnecting device is connected to the positive and negative pole circuits of the battery assembly through the contact portion, and the contact portion includes at least a moving contact and a static contact.

[0011] Furthermore, when a fault occurs in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly, the power controller controls the moving contact to separate from the static contact to disconnect the positive and negative circuits.

[0012] According to one embodiment of the present application, the disconnecting device further includes an arc extinguishing chamber; the arc extinguishing chamber is used to extinguish the arc generated when the positive and negative pole circuits are disconnected when the disconnecting device controls the positive and negative pole circuits to be disconnected.

[0013] Furthermore, the arc extinguishing chamber adopts a silicon steel sheet mechanical structure, the disconnecting device adopts a magnetic coil excitation element or a semiconductor switch element, and the current detection module adopts a Hall current sensor.

[0014] According to one embodiment of the present application, the power controller is used to determine that a fault has occurred in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly when the current output by the current detection module exceeds a preset threshold current, and control the disconnect device to be in a disconnected state.

[0015] Furthermore, the power controller is also used to supply power to the disconnect device. When it is determined that a fault occurs in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly, the power controller cuts off power to the disconnect device.

[0016] In a second aspect, the present application provides an electric vehicle, comprising a battery assembly and the integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device as described above.

[0017] Beneficial effects of the present application: The present invention provides an integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device, which integrates a current detection module, a disconnecting device and a power controller into one. The current detection module detects the current on the high-voltage circuit and outputs the detected current to the power controller. The power controller determines whether the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly are faulty based on the detected current, and when the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly fail, the disconnecting device is used to disconnect the positive and negative circuits. By integrating a high-voltage short-circuit protection device inside the power battery system, high-voltage short-circuit protection of the battery output is achieved, replacing the traditional relay and fuse or fuse to achieve the function of disconnecting the short-circuit circuit, eliminating the high-voltage relay or contactor and fuse or fuse and other protective devices inside the battery system, and the disconnecting device used to disconnect the short-circuit circuit is reusable, responds quickly to short-circuit faults, and is safer. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0018] The disclosure of this application will be more easily understood with reference to the accompanying drawings. Those skilled in the art will readily appreciate that these drawings are for illustrative purposes only and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of this application. Furthermore, similar numbers in the figures represent similar components, where:

[0019] FIG1 is a schematic diagram of a traditional high-voltage short-circuit protection device and its application scenario;

[0020] FIG2 is a schematic diagram of an integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device and its application scenario provided by the present invention;

[0021] FIG3 is a schematic structural diagram of an integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device provided by the present invention;

[0022] FIG4 is a schematic structural diagram of another integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device provided by the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0023] Some embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Those skilled in the art should understand that these embodiments are only used to explain the technical principles of the present invention and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present invention.

[0024] In the description of the present invention, the term "A and / or B" refers to all possible combinations of A and B, such as just A, just B, or A and B. The term "at least one of A or B" or "at least one of A and B" has a similar meaning to "A and / or B" and may include just A, just B, or A and B. The singular terms "a" and "the" may also include plural forms.

[0025] In addition, the terms "center", "up", "down", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "inside", "outside", etc., indicating the orientation or position relationship, are based on the orientation or position relationship shown in the accompanying drawings, or are the orientation or position relationship in which the invented product is usually placed when in use. They are only for the convenience of describing the present invention 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 the present invention.

[0026] In the description of the present invention, it should also be noted that, unless otherwise expressly specified or limited, the terms "disposed," "installed," "connected," and "connected" should be understood in a broad sense. For example, they may refer to fixed connections, detachable connections, or integral connections; they may refer to mechanical connections or electrical connections; they may refer to direct connections or indirect connections through an intermediate medium; and they may refer to internal communication between two components. Those skilled in the art will understand the specific meanings of the above terms in the present invention based on the specific circumstances.

[0027] The traditional high-voltage short-circuit protection solution, shown in Figure 1, uses relays (main negative and main positive) within the power battery system (HV Battery, shown in the figure) in conjunction with a battery fuse or pyro fuse to provide short-circuit protection for the battery pack or battery assembly (Battery Cell, shown in the figure). The DC fast-charging circuit in the power distribution unit (PDU) also requires high-voltage relays (charging positive and charging negative) to switch charging scenarios. A high-voltage fuse or pyro fuse within the PDU provides short-circuit protection for charging. In some scenarios, the PDU's internal high-voltage fuse or pyro fuse also needs to provide short-circuit protection for electric drives, PTCs, and other high-voltage loads. Consequently, using traditional solutions, matching relays and high-voltage fuses is complex, protection thresholds are dispersed, response time is slow, and the high-voltage protection components are easily damaged and cannot be reused after a short-circuit fault occurs.

[0028] It can be seen that in the current high-voltage system of electric vehicles, when the positive and negative circuits of the battery components fail due to high-voltage overload, collision, short circuit, insulation failure, contactor adhesion, etc., its protection strategy relies on the disconnection function of traditional physical fuses and contactors, which will have the following pain points: the fuse melting time is not fast enough and the balance problem of protection threshold; the matching problem of main contactor adhesion and fuse; the balance problem of wiring harness diameter design and smoke parameters; insufficient matching design of high-voltage load distributed fusing; the problem of after-sales replacement and repair and potential market costs caused by the single destructive application of fuses or fuses.

[0029] Therefore, in view of the defects and pain points of the traditional high-voltage short-circuit protection solution shown in Figure 1, an embodiment of the present application provides an integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device 100 with fast short-circuit fault response and reusability, as shown in Figure 2.

[0030] The integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device provided by the present application will be described in detail below in conjunction with specific implementation methods.

[0031] In one embodiment, the specific implementation of the integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device 100 shown in FIG2 is shown in FIG3 , which is a schematic diagram of the main structure of an integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device according to an embodiment of the present application. The integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device 100 of this embodiment is connected to the battery assembly 200 and the high-voltage load 300, and plays a role in high-voltage short-circuit protection in the high-voltage circuit formed by the battery assembly 200 and the high-voltage load 300. The high-voltage circuit can provide high voltage electricity for the high-voltage load or components of the entire vehicle, and the battery assembly provides high voltage electricity for the entire high-voltage circuit. When a high-voltage short circuit occurs, the circuit is mainly cut off by controlling the disconnect device, disconnecting the battery assembly from outputting high voltage electricity to the high-voltage load.

[0032] As shown in FIG3 , the high-voltage short-circuit protection device 100 according to the embodiment of the present application includes a current detection module 101 , a disconnect device 102 , and a power controller 103 , which are integrated into one body.

[0033] The current detection module 101 is used to detect the current in the high-voltage circuit and output the detected current to the power controller;

[0034] In a specific implementation, the current detection module can use a Hall current sensor, which is set between the positive output port of the battery assembly and the high-voltage input port of the high-voltage load. The Hall current sensor collects the current on the high-voltage circuit and outputs it to the power controller.

[0035] In this embodiment, the current detection function is realized by providing a current detection module inside the integrated device, which can save the external high-voltage current detection circuit of the power battery system.

[0036] The disconnection device 102 is used to control the disconnection of the positive and negative circuits when a fault occurs in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly.

[0037] In a specific embodiment, the disconnecting device includes a contact portion, and the disconnecting device is connected to the positive and negative pole circuits of the battery assembly through the contact portion. The contact portion includes at least a moving contact and a static contact, and the moving contact and the static contact are equivalent to an electromagnetic switch.

[0038] When a fault occurs in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly, the power controller controls the moving contact to separate from the static contact to disconnect the positive and negative circuits.

[0039] For example, in order to ensure that the response to disconnecting the high-voltage power supply is fast enough when a short circuit occurs, the disconnecting device can be implemented using an excitation coil. When a fault occurs in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly, such as current overload or current short circuit, the power controller can separate the moving contact and the static contact by controlling the magnetic field of the excitation coil, thereby achieving a rapid response to disconnect the high-voltage power supply.

[0040] It is understandable that the disconnecting device can also adopt a semiconductor switching element, such as a high-voltage semiconductor switch. When the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly fail, the power controller controls the semiconductor switch to disconnect to achieve the disconnection of the positive and negative circuits.

[0041] The disconnect device in this embodiment can replace the traditional fuse or fuse, can be reused to achieve multiple short-circuit protection, and has reusability, effectively solving the single destructive use brought about by the traditional use of fuse or fuse and the resulting after-sales maintenance problems and cost problems.

[0042] The power controller 103 is used to determine whether the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly have failed based on the current output by the current detection module 101, and to control the disconnection device 102;

[0043] In a specific embodiment, the power controller can be specifically an electronic control unit ECU, and a threshold current is pre-stored in the power controller. When the power controller receives the current output by the current detection module, when it is determined that the current output by the current detection module is greater than the currently stored threshold current, the power controller determines that a short circuit fault has occurred in the positive and negative pole circuits of the battery assembly. At this time, the power controller controls the disconnect device to be in the disconnect state, cutting off the high-voltage power supply output to the high-voltage load, thereby protecting all loads.

[0044] Furthermore, the power controller is also used to supply power to the disconnect device. When it is determined that a fault occurs in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly, the power controller cuts off power to the disconnect device.

[0045] The integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device provided in this embodiment uses the above-mentioned disconnection device to realize the disconnection of the high-voltage short-circuit loop, and has the characteristics of fast detection response, low standby power consumption, fast short-circuit protection speed, and can be restored and reused.

[0046] In another embodiment, the specific implementation method of the integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device 100 shown in Figure 2 is shown in Figure 4. The high-voltage short-circuit protection device of the embodiment of the present application includes an integrated current sensor 201, a magnetic coil excitation element 202 and a power supply controller 203, wherein the magnetic coil excitation element 202 further includes a static contact 2021, a moving contact 2022 and an arc extinguishing chamber 2023.

[0047] The working principle of the high-voltage short-circuit protection device shown in Figure 4 is as follows: a contact loop is formed between the moving contact and the static contact of this magnetic coil excitation element, and the current of the contact loop is detected by the current sensor 201 and the detected current signal is transmitted to the power supply controller 203. The power supply controller 203 can pre-store a threshold current. The power supply controller 203 judges the current signal transmitted by the current sensor 201 based on the threshold current. When the current signal is greater than the threshold current value, it is judged that a high-voltage short-circuit fault has occurred. At this time, the power supply controller 20 will establish and switch the magnetic field of the magnetic coil excitation element, pull the moving contact 2022 back to the position shown in Figure 4, and the static contact 2021 and the moving contact 2022 are separated. The arc generated during the separation process will be extinguished by the arc extinguishing chamber 2023.

[0048] It is understandable that the arc extinguishing chamber preferably adopts a silicon steel sheet mechanical structure. The arc extinguishing chamber can cut the high-voltage arc into isolated and independent smaller voltages through the silicon steel sheet and extinguish them separately. For example, a high voltage of 1000V can be cut into 20 parts, and each smaller voltage is 50V. The 1000V voltage itself is difficult to extinguish or consume and cool down, but the 50V voltage is a relatively small voltage value and can easily extinguish the arc. By providing an arc extinguishing chamber structure in the disconnecting device, the harmful arc that may be generated in the process of cutting off the short-circuit loop can be effectively eliminated, thereby ensuring the service life of the components in the device and improving the safety of the vehicle.

[0049] It can be understood that the power supply controller 203 can store multiple different threshold currents and set the value of each threshold current according to the actual application scenario. Each threshold current is used to judge circuit faults that may occur in different application scenarios. For example, different current thresholds are stored for situations such as high voltage overload and short circuit.

[0050] Furthermore, the present invention also provides an electric vehicle, including a battery assembly, and an integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device provided in an embodiment of the present application, which is used to disconnect the high-voltage power output of the battery assembly to ensure vehicle safety when a fault occurs in the positive and negative pole circuits of the vehicle's battery assembly.

[0051] Thus far, the technical solutions of the present application have been described in conjunction with the preferred embodiments shown in the accompanying drawings. However, it is readily understood by those skilled in the art that the scope of protection of the present application is obviously not limited to these specific embodiments. Without departing from the principles of the present application, those skilled in the art may make equivalent changes or substitutions to the relevant technical features, and the technical solutions after such changes or substitutions will fall within the scope of protection of the present application.

Claims

1. An integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device, connected in a high-voltage circuit formed by a battery assembly and a high-voltage load, characterized in that: It includes a current detection module, a disconnect device and a power controller integrated into one body; The current detection module is used to detect the current on the high-voltage circuit and output the detected current to the power supply controller; The power supply controller is used to determine whether the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly are faulty according to the current output by the current detection module, and to control the disconnection device; The disconnection device is used to control the disconnection of the positive and negative circuits when a fault occurs in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly.

2. The integrated high voltage short circuit protection device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The disconnect device comprises a contact portion, through which the disconnect device is connected to the positive and negative electrode circuits of the battery assembly, and the contact portion comprises at least a moving contact and a static contact.

3. The integrated high voltage short circuit protection device according to claim 2, characterized in that: When a fault occurs in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly, the power controller controls the moving contact to separate from the static contact to disconnect the positive and negative circuits.

4. The integrated high voltage short circuit protection device according to claim 2, characterized in that: The disconnecting device also includes an arc extinguishing chamber; the arc extinguishing chamber is used to extinguish the arc generated when the positive and negative pole circuits are disconnected when the disconnecting device controls the positive and negative pole circuits to be disconnected.

5. The integrated high voltage short circuit protection device according to claim 4, characterized in that: The arc extinguishing chamber adopts a silicon steel sheet mechanical structure.

6. The integrated high voltage short circuit protection device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The disconnecting device adopts a magnetic coil excitation element or a semiconductor switch element.

7. The integrated high voltage short circuit protection device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The current detection module adopts a Hall current sensor.

8. The integrated high voltage short circuit protection device according to claim 1, characterized in that: The power supply controller is used to determine that a fault occurs in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly when the current output by the current detection module exceeds a preset threshold current, and control the disconnect device to be in a disconnected state.

9. The integrated high voltage short circuit protection device according to claim 8, characterized in that: The power controller is also used to supply power to the disconnect device. When it is determined that a fault occurs in the positive and negative circuits of the battery assembly, the power controller cuts off power to the disconnect device.

10. An electric vehicle, characterized in that: It comprises a battery assembly and an integrated high-voltage short-circuit protection device as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 9.

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