Vehicle Battery Cooling Plate With Micro-Conduits
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional cooling systems for electric vehicle and hybrid electric vehicle batteries face challenges in efficiently managing heat dissipation, particularly under warm ambient conditions, leading to reduced energy capacity and increased power demands, with existing designs often requiring expensive components like refrigerant chillers and solenoids.
Innovation Solution
A cooling system featuring a cooling plate with integrated micro-conduits and manifolds that enhance heat transfer by circulating fluid between an inlet and outlet manifold, eliminating the need for expensive components and allowing for tailored performance optimization through geometry adjustments.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If conventional cooling systems use refrigerant chillers, thermal expansion valves, or solenoids to cool the battery under hot ambient conditions, then the cooling capability is improved, but the system cost and device complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and eliminates the complex components (refrigerant chillers, thermal expansion valves, solenoids) from the cooling system, retaining only the essential cooling plate with fluid conduits. This simplifies the system while maintaining cooling capability through direct fluid circulation.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling plate is designed to self-regulate coolant flow through its internal conduit structure, eliminating the need for external control valves and solenoids. The system serves itself by using the cooling plate's geometry to manage fluid distribution without additional active components.
2Temperature
If conventional cooling systems use refrigerant chillers and thermal expansion valves, then the cooling performance is improved, but the power consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes power-consuming components such as refrigerant chillers and thermal expansion valves, leaving a passive cooling plate that relies on natural fluid circulation and heat conduction, thereby significantly reducing power consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces active mechanical cooling systems (chillers, valves) with a passive thermal conduction-based cooling plate, substituting mechanical energy consumption with direct thermal transfer mechanisms that require no power input.
3Temperature
If conventional cooling systems use refrigerant chillers and solenoids, then the cooling capability is improved, but the system cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts expensive components (refrigerant chillers, solenoids, thermal expansion valves) from the system, retaining only the essential cooling plate structure that can be manufactured more cost-effectively using conventional machining or molding techniques.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces expensive, complex components with a simpler, more affordable cooling plate design that achieves the same cooling function through basic fluid conduction, reducing overall system cost while maintaining effectiveness.
4Quantity of substance
If battery packs are designed to increase the energy density of each battery cell, then the energy capacity is improved, but the heat dissipation increases
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling plate acts as an intermediary between the high-density battery cells and the coolant, providing a dedicated thermal management interface that captures and removes heat at its source, enabling high energy density without compromising thermal control.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling plate provides localized cooling directly at each battery cell contact point through its conduit network, allowing each cell to maintain optimal temperature independently, thereby supporting higher energy density while managing the increased heat generation from each individual cell.
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 solution provides a cost-effective and efficient heat transfer mechanism that optimizes cooling performance, reducing power demands and enhancing heat rejection capabilities while minimizing pressure drops, thus improving battery pack efficiency and reducing system costs.
Implementation Method 1
a cooling element which provides convective heat transfer from the batteries using fluid ducts
Implementation Method 2
improved heat transfer achieved by the placement of micro-conduits formed in a cooling plate
Data Source
AI summary
The present disclosure relates to a cooling system for a vehicle battery, having: a cooling plate; an inlet manifold configured to supply fluid from a heat exchanger to the cooling plate; an outlet manifold configured to return fluid to the heat exchanger; and a plurality of micro-conduits formed in the cooling plate, configured to deliver fluid between the inlet manifold and outlet manifold.