Segmented Battery Cooler Plate with Flow Webs
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery coolers are large and heavy, consuming excessive installation space and weight, and often fail to provide homogeneous temperature distribution to battery cells, leading to suboptimal performance.
Innovation Solution
A battery cooler design featuring a structure plate with a multi-flow channel configuration and island-like webs that reduce the flow cross-section, ensuring uniform fluid flow and minimizing material usage, while allowing for a thinner, more rigid construction that integrates easily into battery modules without additional structural support.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If heavy, massive battery coolers are used to provide structural support, then structural robustness is improved, but installation space and weight increase excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The battery cooler is divided into multiple thin plates (first plate, second plate, third plate) that are stacked and coupled together. Each plate has a specific function: the first plate provides structural support, the second plate contains flow channels for heat transfer, and the third plate provides additional support. This segmentation allows the cooler to achieve the required structural robustness through the combined effect of multiple thin components rather than relying on a single heavy massive structure.
Solution Approach 2:
The battery cooler employs a composite plate structure where multiple plates with different functionalities are coupled together. The plates may be made of different materials optimized for their specific functions (structural support versus heat transfer), creating a composite structure that achieves both mechanical strength and thermal management efficiency without excessive weight.
2Strength
If large battery coolers are designed to support heavy batteries, then structural support function is improved, but installation space increases excessively
Solution Approach 1:
The battery cooler is segmented into multiple thin plates stacked in layers. This segmentation allows the structural support function to be distributed across multiple components rather than requiring a single large monolithic structure. The stacked configuration provides the necessary support capability while maintaining a compact overall footprint that minimizes installation space.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention transitions from a conventional single-plane cooling structure to a multi-layer stacked configuration. By utilizing the vertical dimension (stacking plates on top of each other), the battery cooler achieves the required structural support and cooling capacity without increasing the horizontal installation area, thus effectively reducing the footprint.
3Ease of manufacture
If conventional flow channels are used in battery coolers, then manufacturing is simpler, but homogeneous temperature distribution to battery cells is not achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The second plate is provided with multiple flow channels that are strategically positioned to correspond with the locations of battery cells. Each flow channel is designed to deliver coolant to specific areas, ensuring that heat is removed uniformly from all battery cells. This local optimization of flow channel positioning and configuration achieves homogeneous temperature distribution while maintaining manufacturing feasibility.
4Loss of substance
If thin plates are used to reduce material consumption, then material economy is improved, but structural robustness decreases
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of using a single thick plate, the invention employs multiple thin plates stacked and coupled together. The first plate is designed with structural reinforcement features to provide support, the second plate contains flow channels for thermal management, and the third plate provides additional structural support. This segmentation allows each thin plate to be optimized for its specific function while the combined structure achieves the required overall robustness.
Solution Approach 2:
Multiple thin plates are merged through coupling mechanisms to form an integrated battery cooler assembly. The coupling structures connect the plates in a way that distributes mechanical loads across all plates, enabling the assembly to achieve structural robustness equivalent to or greater than a single thick plate while using significantly less material.
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 minimizes installation space and weight, ensures uniform cooling, and maintains structural robustness, achieving efficient thermal management and reducing the risk of local overheating by promoting turbulent flow and maximizing heat transfer surface area.
Implementation Method 1
Heat flows are transferred by heat conduction between a heat exchanger and the battery cells, and vice versa, respectively
Implementation Method 2
promoting turbulent flow and maximizing heat transfer surface area
Data Source
AI summary
A battery cooler includes at least one support plate and at least one structure plate coupled to the at least one support plate. The at least one structure plate includes a flow channel for receiving a fluid therein. A cross-section of the flow channel has a width greater than a height thereof. The flow channel includes a plurality of webs, wherein one of the webs is disposed adjacent another one of the webs in respect of a direction of flow of the fluid, and the webs decrease the cross-section of the flow channel.