Central Tunnel Cavity Access for Vehicle Floor Battery
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Solution Overview
Problem
The arrangement of a traction battery on the lower side of a body floor structure in motor vehicles blocks the central tunnel's cavity, making it inaccessible for equipment components, limiting the usability of the installation space and requiring laborious disassembly for maintenance or component replacement.
Innovation Solution
Designing the central tunnel to be open in the direction of the vehicle interior allows for easy access and mounting of equipment components without removing the traction battery, using a configuration where the cavity is accessible from above and laterally delimited by flat profiles that can be fastened to the floor panel, eliminating the need for an additional bottom and simplifying production and mounting.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the traction battery is arranged on the lower side of the body floor structure, then the vehicle center of gravity is lowered and crash safety is improved, but the central tunnel cavity becomes blocked and inaccessible for equipment components
Solution Approach 1:
The cavity cover is segmented into a removable part and a fixed part, allowing selective access to the central tunnel cavity while maintaining structural integrity and crash safety benefits of the lower battery arrangement
Solution Approach 2:
The cavity cover acts as an intermediary element between the battery arrangement and the central tunnel cavity, providing a controlled access mechanism that maintains crash safety while enabling equipment installation and maintenance
2Ease of operation
If the central tunnel cavity is open downward for receiving equipment components, then equipment can be easily mounted, but the traction battery cannot be arranged on the lower side of the body floor structure
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of opening the cavity downward to access the battery area, the cavity is opened upward through the floor panel, inverting the access direction while maintaining the benefit of low battery placement for center of gravity optimization
3Reliability
If the central tunnel cavity is blocked by the traction battery, then crash safety is improved, but the usability of the central tunnel for equipment components is massively limited
Solution Approach 1:
The cavity cover is divided into removable and fixed segments, enabling the central tunnel to serve dual purposes: maintaining crash safety when closed and providing equipment access when the removable portion is opened
Solution Approach 2:
The central tunnel cavity is designed to serve multiple functions simultaneously: crash energy management, equipment installation space, and maintenance access, all while the battery remains in its optimal lower position for safety and dynamics
Data Source
AI summary
A body floor structure (1) for a motor vehicle having a traction battery (2) includes a first longitudinal member (3) and a second longitudinal member (4) that extend in a vehicle longitudinal direction. A floor panel (5) spans between the two longitudinal members (3, 4). A central tunnel (6, 6′) extends in the vehicle longitudinal direction and has a cavity (60, 60′) and is configured for receiving equipment components of the motor vehicle. The traction battery (2) is arranged on a lower side of the body floor structure (1), and the cavity (60, 60′) of the central tunnel (6, 6′) is designed to be open in the direction of a vehicle interior (7).