Battery Pack Sidewall Gas Discharge for Thermal Runaway Suppression
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery packs lack effective means to promptly and actively respond to fires or temperature increases within battery modules, which can lead to thermal runaway and explosions.
Innovation Solution
A battery pack design incorporating a pack case with a side wall containing gas-filled parts filled with extinguishing gas, discharge ports, and a thermoplastic or sealing resin-sealed sealing plate that ruptures upon temperature increase to discharge the gas and extinguish fires.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If control devices are provided to monitor and control voltage and current, then battery management capability is improved, but response speed to fire occurrence is insufficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent incorporates fire-fighting agents in advance within the battery pack structure, specifically in the second chamber of the box walls. When thermal runaway occurs, these pre-positioned agents can immediately be discharged through the communication between chambers, eliminating the delay associated with external fire suppression systems needing to locate and deploy equipment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a structural intermediary mechanism through the box wall design with integrated fire-fighting agent chambers. This intermediary structure enables automatic response by utilizing the thermal runaway heat itself to trigger the discharge mechanism, bridging the gap between detection and active suppression without requiring external intervention.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If external fire extinguishing devices are provided, then fire suppression capability is improved, but prompt response at early stage is not achieved
Solution Approach 1:
The patent embeds the fire-fighting agent storage chamber (second chamber) within the structural box walls that already enclose the battery cells (first chamber). This nested design allows the fire suppression system to be integrated into the battery pack's existing structure, enabling immediate response when the chambers communicate during thermal runaway, without requiring separate external deployment mechanisms.
3Reliability
If fire-fighting agents are stored in separate chambers, then fire safety is improved, but structural complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The box walls serving as structural enclosures for the battery cells simultaneously function as containers for the fire-fighting agents. The same box wall structure that provides mechanical protection and defines the battery module boundaries also houses the safety system, eliminating the need for separate dedicated fire suppression containers and reducing overall structural complexity.
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 effectively extinguishes fires and lowers temperatures within the battery module by rapidly discharging extinguishing gas, preventing thermal runaway and explosions.
Implementation Method 1
a thermoplastic or sealing resin-sealed sealing plate that ruptures upon temperature increase to discharge the gas
Data Source
Figure 1(a)~1(b)
Figure 2~3
Figure 4~5(c)
AI summary
The present technology relates to a battery pack capable of quickly extinguishing a fire. Specifically, the battery pack of the present technology includes a pack case including a base plate including a plurality of module regions each having the battery module located therein, a side wall extending along an edge of the base plate and vertically coupled to the base plate to surround the module regions, and a partition wall coupled to the side wall and configured to partition the base plate to form the plurality of module regions, wherein the side wall includes a gas-filled part that is filled with a high-pressure extinguishing gas therein and corresponds to the module region, a discharge port that is open to allow the gas-filled part to communicate with the module region, and a sealing plate coupled to the discharge port to seal the extinguishing gas, wherein the sealing plate is coupled to the discharge port so as to be separable in response to a temperature change in the module region.