Battery Module Layer Layout for Cooling and Stack Accessibility
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing stacked battery systems face challenges in accessibility and cooling efficiency, particularly due to mechanical constraints during assembly and the need for circulating coolant, which limits heat extraction and requires complex electrical connections.
Innovation Solution
A module layer design featuring a tray with a heat sink outer frame, a central shaft for conductive connections, and no cells in the central region to improve accessibility and cooling, allowing for direct replacement of module layers and enhanced heat extraction through a base plate and outer frame, with bus bars and sub-bus bars for efficient electrical connections and thermal management.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Power
If cells are arranged in stacked layers with mechanical clamping, then high power density is achieved, but accessibility of individual stacks is reduced and mechanical strain occurs during assembly
Solution Approach 1:
The battery system is divided into modular stack units that can be independently accessed and replaced. Each stack is a self-contained module with cells arranged in series, allowing individual stacks to be serviced without disassembling the entire battery system, thus maintaining high power density while improving accessibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent transitions from traditional horizontal layer stacking to a vertical stack arrangement with improved spatial organization. This dimensional reconfiguration allows for better accessibility of individual stacks while maintaining the compact high-power-density structure through optimized vertical stacking geometry.
2Temperature
If circulating coolant flow is used for cooling, then heat extraction is achieved, but device complexity increases and mechanical strain occurs
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling function is extracted from the cell structure and integrated into the tray base plate. The tray base plate serves dual purposes as both structural support and heat dissipation component, eliminating the need for separate circulating coolant systems and reducing overall device complexity while maintaining effective heat extraction.
Solution Approach 2:
The structural support function and thermal management function are merged into a single integrated tray base plate structure. This consolidation eliminates the need for separate cooling system components, reducing mechanical complexity and assembly strain while maintaining effective heat extraction from the cells.
3Area of stationary object
If cells are positioned in central region, then space utilization is improved, but heat extraction efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The tray base plate features localized thermal management with enhanced heat extraction pathways positioned strategically beneath the cell array. The base plate design incorporates thermal conduits and heat dissipation structures that efficiently conduct heat from centrally positioned cells to external cooling surfaces, maintaining both space utilization and heat extraction efficiency.
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
This design enhances accessibility and cooling efficiency by allowing direct replacement of module layers, improves heat extraction, and simplifies electrical connections, reducing mechanical strain and thermal differences within the battery system.
Implementation Method 1
a base plate, which in one embodiment of the invention advantageously consists of aluminum, which conveys a dissipated heat of the cells to the rim of the base plate
Implementation Method 2
bus bars protrude, which produce a conductive connection with the cells of a respective module layer
Data Source
AI summary
A module layer and to a battery system made therefrom, which, as a device for supplying and storing electrical energy between two final end components, comprises a number of battery modules that are electrically connected to one another in series. Each module here consists of a number of elementary cells, which are generally lithium-ion batteries. The module layer is embodied as a structural unit, wherein the cells in the module layer are positioned next to one another in a tray, in an upright position on a base element of the tray, and are enclosed by an outer frame that is embodied as a heat sink and constitutes the rim of the tray, the outer frame has a seal, and the module layer has a section of a central shaft into which bus bars protrude, which produce a conductive connection with the cells of the respective module layer.