Battery Module Cooling Structure for Cell Swelling Accommodation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional water-cooled battery modules face issues with structural damage and reduced cooling performance due to high swelling of battery cells, particularly in high-capacity and all-solid-state batteries, leading to a risk of cracks and impaired safety.
Innovation Solution
A battery module design featuring a battery cell stack with side plates acting as leaf springs, a disc spring part, and a moving cooling structure that accommodates swelling, combined with a zigzag-shaped cooling tube for surface cooling, minimizing stress and enhancing cooling efficiency.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If a water-cooled type cooling structure is used to cool high heat generated from large-capacity battery modules, then cooling performance is improved, but structural damage occurs due to high swelling of battery cells
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling tube is configured in a zigzag shape rather than a straight line, allowing it to dynamically accommodate the swelling and shrinking of battery cells during charge-discharge cycles. This dynamic configuration maintains continuous surface contact with the battery cells while preventing structural damage from swelling forces.
Solution Approach 2:
The zigzag-shaped cooling tube acts as a flexible structural element that can deform and adapt to the changing dimensions of battery cells during swelling. This flexibility allows the cooling tube to maintain thermal contact without imposing rigid constraints that would cause structural damage.
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional cooling structures are used, then manufacturing is simpler, but cooling performance deteriorates due to poor heat dissipation
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling tube is designed with a zigzag curved configuration instead of a straight linear form. This curvature increases the surface area of contact with the battery cells, significantly improving heat dissipation efficiency while maintaining practical manufacturability through standard bending processes.
3Stability of the object's composition
If battery cells are tightly fixed to maintain positional stability, then position stability is improved, but swelling causes cracks and reduces reliability
Solution Approach 1:
The zigzag-shaped cooling tube provides a dynamic constraint system that allows the battery cells to swell and shrink within the curved path without generating cracking forces. The tube maintains positional guidance while accommodating dimensional changes through its geometric configuration.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling tube's zigzag geometry changes the spatial parameters of the constraint system, creating multiple contact points and flexible zones that accommodate swelling. This parameter change transforms the constraint from rigid to flexible, preventing cracks while maintaining stability.
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 structural damage from cell swelling by allowing flexible movement and improves cooling performance through surface contact, preventing cracks and maintaining safety in high-swelling battery cells.
Implementation Method 1
a zigzag-shaped cooling tube for surface cooling
Implementation Method 2
side plates acting as leaf springs, a disc spring part, and a moving cooling structure that accommodates swelling
Data Source
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AI summary
A battery module according to one embodiment of the present disclosure includes a battery cell stack including a plurality of battery cells arranged along a first direction; side plates covering each of both side surfaces of the battery cell stack along the first direction; a busbar frame covering one surface of the battery cell stack in a direction in which the electrode leads of the battery cells protrude; and a disc spring part located on the outside of the side plate. The disc spring part is compressed in a direction parallel to the first direction.