Busbar Heatsink Assembly Using Side-Surface Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
The challenge in vehicles, particularly electrified vehicles, is to effectively cool busbars that heat up due to high electrical currents while maintaining a compact arrangement without causing electrical short circuits or overheating, given limited installation space.
Innovation Solution
A busbar assembly with a metallic heatsink featuring cooling fins that provide planar contact with the side surfaces of the busbar, allowing effective heat dissipation and compact arrangement of multiple busbars, using insulators and fixing elements to prevent short circuits.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If busbars are arranged compactly to save installation space, then space utilization is improved, but heat dissipation becomes insufficient leading to overheating
Solution Approach 1:
The invention transitions from traditional top-surface cooling to side-surface cooling of busbars. By utilizing the lateral surfaces of the busbars for heat dissipation through planar contact with cooling fins, the system effectively adds a new thermal management dimension, enabling compact arrangement while maintaining adequate heat dissipation
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling system is segmented into multiple cooling fins that can be independently arranged along the busbar length. This segmentation allows optimized thermal contact at different positions while maintaining compact overall structure
2Volume of moving object
If multiple busbars are arranged adjacent to each other in compact configuration, then space utilization is improved, but electrical short circuits become a risk
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling fins serve dual functions: they provide thermal management through heat dissipation and simultaneously act as electrical insulators preventing short circuits between adjacent busbars. This multi-functionality resolves the contradiction by integrating both thermal and electrical safety requirements into a single component
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling fins act as an intermediary element between adjacent busbars, providing both thermal contact for cooling and electrical isolation to prevent short circuits, thus enabling compact arrangement while maintaining reliability
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 solution enables efficient cooling of busbars via their side surfaces, allowing multiple busbars to be arranged compactly without overheating or short circuits, optimizing space utilization and thermal management.
Implementation Method 1
the side face of the electrical busbar (28) is in planar contact with an associated cooling fin (18) of the busbar heatsink (12)... the cooling fin can cool the electrical busbar over the entire side surface
Implementation Method 2
A busbar assembly with a metallic heatsink featuring cooling fins that provide planar contact with the side surfaces of the busbar, allowing effective heat dissipation
Data Source
AI summary
A busbar assembly contains: an electrical busbar having two end faces, a bottom surface, a top surface, and two side faces connecting the bottom surface and the top surface, and a metallic busbar heatsink having a bottom wall and at least two cooling fins extending from the bottom wall. The cooling fins together with the bottom wall forming a receiving space for receiving the busbar and the busbar is arranged in the receiving space in such a manner that at least one of the two side faces of the busbar is in planar contact with one of the cooling fins.