Battery Box Frame Reinforcement for Crash Load Absorption
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery boxes for electric vehicles face a conflict between maintaining a simple structural design and achieving improved energy absorption in collisions, while minimizing internal support structures to avoid damaging battery cells.
Innovation Solution
A battery box design featuring a circumferential frame reinforcing element with a full cross-section, arranged below the frame to distribute crash loads and prevent buckling, combined with a multi-layer floor structure and hollow profile sections to absorb crash-related forces, ensuring the batteries are protected without compromising internal space.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a simple structural design is used for the battery box, then manufacturing complexity is reduced, but energy absorption capacity in collisions deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The frame reinforcement element merges multiple functions: it reinforces the frame structure, absorbs crash loads through deformation, and distributes forces to the base. This consolidation of reinforcement, energy absorption, and force distribution functions into a single integrated component achieves improved energy absorption capacity without increasing overall structural complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The frame reinforcement element is designed as a composite structure combining a frame portion and a base portion with different material properties and deformation characteristics. The frame portion provides structural support while the base portion absorbs crash loads through controlled deformation, creating a composite system that achieves high energy absorption capacity.
2Strength
If internal support structures are added to absorb crash loads, then energy absorption capacity improves, but available internal space for batteries deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The frame reinforcement element merges the energy absorption function with the existing frame structure by extending it into the base region. This integration allows crash load absorption without adding separate internal support structures that would occupy battery space, as the reinforcement element utilizes the existing structural boundaries.
Solution Approach 2:
The frame reinforcement element extends the energy absorption mechanism from the vertical frame dimension into the horizontal base dimension. By positioning the element below the frame and extending it into the base region, the design absorbs crash loads in a different spatial dimension, avoiding interference with the vertical battery arrangement.
3Strength
If the frame reinforcement element has a solid cross-section, then crash load distribution and buckling prevention improve, but material usage and weight increase
Solution Approach 1:
The frame reinforcement element applies solid cross-section construction locally only in the regions requiring maximum crash load distribution and buckling prevention, rather than throughout the entire structure. This localized solid construction optimizes material usage by concentrating it where structural integrity is most critical.
Solution Approach 2:
The frame reinforcement element combines solid cross-section portions for structural integrity with potentially optimized or varied material distribution in different sections. The frame portion and base portion may use different material configurations to achieve optimal crash load distribution while minimizing overall material usage.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design effectively distributes crash loads, prevents damage to battery cells, and maintains a compact internal structure, enhancing crash safety and energy absorption capabilities while allowing for integration into existing vehicle programs.
Implementation Method 1
The frame reinforcement ensures a distribution of the crash load to prevent buckling, especially of the sheet metal(s) of the housing base
Implementation Method 2
The frame and frame reinforcement element are located in the so-called deformation zone and absorb crash-related forces
Implementation Method 3
Each structural component has at least one partially hollow profile segment... Within at least one of the profile segments, a reinforcing element for absorbing impact energy in the event of a collision is arranged
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2~3b
Figure 4~5b
AI summary
The invention relates to a battery box for accommodating at least one battery for an electric vehicle, having an outer circumferential frame and a base. Below the frame, a circumferential frame reinforcing element is arranged for reinforcing the frame, wherein the material thickness of the frame reinforcing element corresponds to its cross-sectional height.