EV Battery Mounting Structure for Side-Impact Rigidity
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electric vehicles face challenges in maintaining the rigidity and stability of the battery mounting structure, particularly during side collisions, which can lead to battery damage due to insufficient structural support.
Innovation Solution
The vehicle body design incorporates a pair of underside members with varying cross-sectional areas and reinforcing members to enhance rigidity, featuring a multi-section structure in both the underside and upper body components to absorb impact energy and secure battery stability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Stability of the object's composition
If the battery is mounted on the bottom of the chassis to lower the center of gravity, then the vehicle's stability is improved, but the rigidity of the battery mounting structure is insufficient, making the battery vulnerable to side collisions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the battery mounting structure with the vehicle's side member structure. The battery is mounted between the lower flange and the side member, creating an integrated structure where the side member serves dual purposes: maintaining vehicle stability and protecting the battery from side collisions. This combination resolves the contradiction by making the mounting structure inherently stronger without requiring separate reinforcement elements.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extends the side member to protrude downward below the battery mounting location, adding vertical dimensionality to the protection structure. This downward extension creates an overlapping area between the side member and the battery mounting portion, providing rigidity support from a different spatial dimension and preventing side collision damage while maintaining the battery's low-positioned stable mounting.
2Strength
If the cross-sectional area of the underside member is increased to enhance rigidity, then the battery protection is improved, but the vehicle's weight increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by varying the cross-sectional area of the underside member along its length. The cross-sectional area is larger at the battery mounting portion where rigidity is needed for protection, and smaller in other sections where full rigidity is not required. This localized reinforcement provides the necessary strength to prevent battery damage while minimizing the overall weight increase of the vehicle.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the geometric parameter (cross-sectional area) of the underside member to optimize the balance between rigidity and weight. By adjusting the cross-sectional dimensions specifically at the battery mounting portion and maintaining smaller dimensions elsewhere, the structure achieves adequate protection rigidity without the penalty of uniformly increasing the entire member's size and associated weight.
3Strength
If reinforcing members are added to the battery mounting portion, then the structural rigidity is improved, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the reinforcing function with the existing side member structure. The side member is designed to extend downward and overlap with the battery mounting portion, serving both as a structural component of the vehicle body and as a reinforcement element. This merging eliminates the need for separate, additional reinforcing members, thereby providing the necessary rigidity without increasing device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The side member is given multi-functionality: it serves as both a primary structural component for maintaining vehicle stability and as a reinforcement element for protecting the battery mounting portion. This universal design allows a single component to fulfill multiple functions, avoiding the need for additional specialized reinforcing parts and thus preventing an increase in device complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A vehicle body includes: an underbody with a pair of underside members spaced apart from each other in the width direction of a vehicle and extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle; a battery mounted between the pair of underside members; and an upper body coupled to a top portion of the underbody to define an interior space of the vehicle. The upper body includes an upper side member protruding from each of both side ends thereof to the lower side of the vehicle, extending in the longitudinal direction of the vehicle, and laterally overlapping the outer side of the corresponding underside member.