Low Profile Battery Pack Center Channel Design
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Solution Overview
Problem
Battery packs for vehicles face challenges in maintaining consistent operating temperatures across cells, leading to inefficient packaging, increased mass, and cost due to varying cell temperatures and inefficient wiring and mounting systems.
Innovation Solution
A battery pack design featuring module arrays connected by a center channel, reducing the need for an outer enclosure as a framework, using lower mass materials, and minimizing wiring length by integrating the power circuit along the center channel, thus reducing overall height and mass while maintaining structural integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If cells are packaged efficiently within the battery pack, then the overall height and mass of the battery pack can be reduced, but temperature variations between cells may increase due to differences in thermal paths
Solution Approach 1:
The battery pack is divided into multiple modules, each with its own cooling channels. This segmentation allows for optimized thermal management of each module while maintaining compact packaging, resolving the contradiction between volume efficiency and temperature uniformity.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the battery pack are provided with customized cooling solutions through the modular design. Each module can have cooling channels configured according to its specific thermal requirements, allowing efficient packaging while maintaining temperature uniformity across different locations.
2Power
If high voltage connections are disposed at various locations within the battery pack, then electrical performance can be optimized, but the length of wires and number of protective coverings increase mass and cost
Solution Approach 1:
Multiple high voltage connections are merged into integrated bus bars that run along the module structures. This consolidation reduces the number of separate wire connections and protective coverings needed, decreasing mass while maintaining electrical performance.
Solution Approach 2:
The module structures serve multiple functions: they provide mechanical support for cells, contain cooling channels for thermal management, and integrate high voltage connections through built-in bus bars. This multi-functionality eliminates the need for separate wiring harnesses and protective coverings, reducing overall mass.
3Strength
If an outer enclosure is used as a framework for the battery pack, then structural integrity is maintained, but the overall mass and cost of the battery pack increase
Solution Approach 1:
The traditional outer enclosure framework is removed and its structural functions are distributed to the individual module structures. Each module's frame provides local structural support, and the modules are connected to form the overall battery pack structure, eliminating the need for a heavy outer enclosure while maintaining structural integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The module structures are designed to perform multiple functions simultaneously: mechanical support for cells, thermal management through integrated cooling channels, and electrical connections via bus bars. This eliminates the need for a separate outer enclosure framework, reducing mass while maintaining structural integrity.
Data Source
AI summary
A battery pack according to the present disclosure includes a first module array, a second module array, and a center channel. The first module array includes a first frame and a first cassette of battery modules disposed within the first frame. The first cassette of battery modules includes a first plurality of prismatic cells and a first plurality of module terminals. The second module array includes a second frame and a second cassette of battery modules disposed within the second frame. The second cassette of battery modules includes a second plurality of prismatic cells and a second plurality of module terminals. The center channel extends through a center of the battery pack and connects the first module array to the second module array. The first plurality of module terminals and the second plurality of module terminals are disposed adjacent to the center channel on opposite sides of the center channel.