Electrified Vehicle Thermal Management with Combinable Cooling Circuits
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Electrified vehicles face challenges in effectively managing thermal loads across battery packs and electric drive components, as existing thermal management systems often fail to adequately address excessive heat generation during high load operating conditions, leading to inefficient cooling and potential component damage.
Innovation Solution
A thermal management system that integrates a battery cooling circuit and an e-drive cooling circuit, controlled by multi-position valves, allowing coolant flow between the two circuits when the e-drive component temperature exceeds a predefined value, thereby augmenting cooling during high load conditions, and includes a control unit to monitor temperatures and adjust valve positions to optimize cooling.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If separate cooling circuits are used for battery pack and electric drive components, then each component can be thermally managed independently, but the system complexity increases and cooling efficiency decreases during high load conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines the battery cooling circuit and e-drive cooling circuit into a single integrated thermal management system. The circuits are merged through common components including a shared chiller, combined coolant reservoir, integrated pump system, and unified valve control architecture. This merging reduces overall system complexity while enabling efficient thermal management during high load conditions by allowing coolant to flow between circuits as needed.
2Reliability
If separate cooling circuits are used for battery pack and electric drive components, then each component can be thermally managed independently, but cooling efficiency decreases during high load conditions
Solution Approach 1:
The integrated cooling circuit is designed with multi-functionality to serve both battery pack and electric drive components. The system includes universal components such as a common chiller that can cool both circuits, shared coolant reservoirs, and interconnected piping that allows coolant to be routed to either or both circuits based on thermal demand. This universality enables the system to maintain high cooling efficiency during high load conditions while avoiding the complexity of completely separate circuits.
3Productivity
If coolant flow is allowed between battery cooling circuit and e-drive cooling circuit, then cooling efficiency is enhanced during high load conditions, but temperature control precision may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs dynamic valve control to manage coolant flow between the battery cooling circuit and e-drive cooling circuit. Multi-position valves are actuated based on real-time temperature sensor feedback from both circuits, allowing the system to adaptively route coolant flow according to instantaneous thermal demands. This dynamic control maintains temperature precision while enabling enhanced cooling efficiency during high load conditions when additional cooling capacity is required.
4Device complexity
If integrated cooling system is used, then system complexity is reduced, but the ability to independently manage thermal loads of each component decreases
Solution Approach 1:
While the cooling circuits are physically integrated to reduce complexity, the system maintains functional segmentation through independently controllable multi-position valves for each circuit. The battery cooling circuit has its own valve control, and the e-drive cooling circuit has its own valve control, allowing each component's thermal load to be managed independently when needed. This segmentation within integration preserves adaptability while achieving system simplification.
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
This integrated system enhances cooling efficiency by allowing coolant from the battery cooling circuit to support the e-drive cooling circuit during high load conditions, effectively managing thermal loads and preventing overheating, thus extending component lifespan and improving vehicle performance.
Implementation Method 1
a battery cooling circuit configured to thermally manage the battery pack
Implementation Method 2
the coolant is permitted to flow from the battery cooling circuit to the e-drive cooling circuit
Implementation Method 3
the coolant subsystem includes a chiller, a pump, the first multi-position valve, at least one T-joint, and a degas overflow bottle
Data Source
AI summary
This disclosure details thermal management systems for thermally managing battery packs and other electric drive components of electrified vehicles. An exemplary thermal management system may include a battery cooling circuit and an e-drive cooling circuit. The e-drive cooling circuit may be fluidly connected to the battery cooling circuit by a combination of valves and coolant lines during or in anticipation of certain vehicle conditions, such as high load operating conditions, to augment cooling of electric drive components during the high load operating conditions.