Battery Housing Frame Joint Layout for Sealing and Crash Loads
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery housing frame structures for electric motor-driven vehicles have limited crashworthiness and require complex and costly end machining to achieve the necessary tightness and stability.
Innovation Solution
A frame structure part with mitered ends of hollow chamber profiles, where the sealing fillet on the mounting surface allows for a secure seal and improved crash performance by merging the joint-end openings of the sealing fillets and connecting the profiles at an angle.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If miter joints are used to connect hollow chamber profiles, then the manufacturing process is simplified and costs are reduced, but the crashworthiness is limited because side impact forces are introduced directly into the welded joint as shear forces
Solution Approach 1:
The connection between hollow chamber profiles is divided into two distinct types: miter joints for the upper mounting surface area and end-face-to-side-wall joints for the lower structural area. This segmentation allows each joint type to fulfill its specific function optimally - miter joints provide simplified manufacturing for sealing surfaces while end-face joints provide superior crashworthiness for load-bearing connections.
Solution Approach 2:
Different joint configurations are applied to different locations of the frame structure. The upper region near the mounting surface uses miter joints with sealing fillets for simplified manufacturing and sealing, while the lower region uses end-face-to-side-wall joints for enhanced crash performance. This local differentiation of joint quality resolves the contradiction between ease of manufacture and crashworthiness.
2Reliability
If end pieces are added to close the end openings of hollow chamber profiles, then tightness and stability are improved, but the manufacturing process becomes complex and costly
Solution Approach 1:
The sealing function and the structural connection function are merged into a single integrated joint design. The miter joint configuration inherently provides both the structural connection between profiles and the sealing surface through its geometry and the integrated sealing fillet, eliminating the need for separate end pieces to achieve tightness.
Solution Approach 2:
The miter joint structure itself generates the sealing surface through its geometric configuration. The angled cutting surfaces and the integrated sealing fillet create a self-contained sealing system that does not require additional end pieces or separate sealing components, thereby reducing manufacturing complexity while maintaining tightness.
3Ease of operation
If mechanical fasteners are spaced far apart to secure the cover, then the mounting process is simplified, but the mounting flange may swell causing leaks
Solution Approach 1:
A seal is introduced as an intermediary element between the cover mounting flange and the frame structure mounting surface. This seal compensates for potential swelling or deformation of the mounting flange by providing a compliant sealing interface that maintains seal integrity even when fasteners are spaced far apart, thus preserving both ease of operation and reliability.
Data Source
AI summary
A frame structure part for forming a frame structure for a battery housing of an electric motor vehicle with at least two hollow chamber profiles, which are connected to one another at an angle and each have at least two chambers and a mounting surface extending in the x-y plane and located on the upper side of the profiles in a common plane. A sealing fillet following the longitudinal extension of the profiles is introduced into the mounting surface for receiving a seal, wherein the ends of both profiles are mitered in a first profile section extending from the mounting surface over the entire extension of the uppermost chamber in the z-direction, and the miter joints are connected to one another, so that the joint-end mouths of the fillets of the two profiles adjoin one another. The first profile, in a second profile section located in the z-direction below the first profile section adjoining the same, bears with its end face against a side face of the second profile and is connected thereto. Also described is a battery housing with a frame structure having a plurality of such frame structure parts.