Battery Pack Joining Structure for Side-Collision Tunnel Protection
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Solution Overview
Problem
The center tunnel of a vehicle's floor panel can be pressed down during a side collision, potentially causing damage to the battery pack due to insufficient structural rigidity and alignment.
Innovation Solution
A joining structure that includes a bracket, a reinforcing member, and a joining member with specific rigidity configurations to absorb and distribute collision forces, minimizing the deformation of the center tunnel and maintaining the battery pack's position.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Strength
If the battery pack is joined to the floor panel using a conventional rigid structure, then the structural strength is improved, but the center tunnel is pressed down during side collision causing battery pack damage
Solution Approach 1:
The joining member incorporates a fragile portion with specifically controlled rigidity that is lower than both the bracket and the center tunnel reinforcement. This parameter differentiation allows the fragile portion to deform preferentially during side collision, absorbing impact energy while preventing force transmission to the center tunnel and battery pack
Solution Approach 2:
The fragile portion acts as an intermediary element between the rigid bracket and the floor panel. During side collision, this intermediary component deforms first, serving as a buffer that protects the center tunnel and battery pack from direct impact forces while maintaining the overall joining function
2Length of moving object
If the battery pack is positioned closer to the floor panel to improve ground clearance, then the minimum ground clearance is improved, but the risk of battery pack damage during side collision increases
Solution Approach 1:
The fragile portion is designed in advance as a sacrificial cushioning element. Before the battery pack can be damaged during side collision, the fragile portion deforms preferentially due to its lower rigidity, absorbing impact energy and preventing direct force transmission to the battery pack, thereby enabling safer positioning closer to the floor panel
Data Source
AI summary
A joining structure of a battery pack according to one form of the present disclosure includes: a bracket to which a side end portion on either left or right of the battery pack is joined; and a joining member that joins an upper end portion of the bracket and the floor panel to each other. The joining member includes: an inclined portion that joins the bracket and the floor panel to each other and heads toward the upper side as the inner side of the vehicle is approached; and a fragile portion that is disposed in a lower end portion of the inclined portion and has a rigidity about an axis that extends in the front-rear direction of the vehicle that is lower than the rigidity of the center tunnel about the axis that extends in the front-rear direction of the vehicle.