Electric Vehicle Battery Mounting Structure with Traveling Wind Cooling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electric vehicle battery installation structures lack effective cooling for batteries and power cables, leading to reduced efficiency and safety concerns due to inadequate consideration of cooling mechanisms and potential for overheating.
Innovation Solution
The installation structure incorporates a traveling wind passage between electric storage devices and power cables, with connection terminals facing the passage for enhanced cooling, and modular design for improved maintainability and safety, along with liquid cooling for the electric motor.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If multiple batteries are installed in a battery box to increase energy storage capacity, then the energy storage capacity increases, but the cooling efficiency deteriorates because the batteries and power cables generate heat that is not effectively dissipated
Solution Approach 1:
The battery box is divided into multiple compartments by partition walls, with each compartment housing individual batteries. This segmentation allows cooling air to flow through each compartment separately, improving heat dissipation efficiency while maintaining high energy storage capacity through the arrangement of multiple batteries in series or parallel configurations.
Solution Approach 2:
Different regions of the battery box are designed with different functions: front portions have air intake ports for cooling, rear portions have air exhaust ports for heat discharge, and side portions accommodate power cables. This local differentiation ensures that heat-generating components are positioned in areas with optimal cooling airflow, resolving the contradiction between energy storage density and cooling efficiency.
2Volume of moving object
If batteries are arranged to maximize space utilization in the battery box, then the space efficiency improves, but the cooling airflow path is blocked and cooling efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The cooling airflow is directed to move in multiple dimensions: horizontally through the battery compartments, vertically along the power cables, and diagonally through the battery box structure. This multi-dimensional airflow approach allows efficient cooling while maintaining high space utilization through compact battery arrangement.
Solution Approach 2:
Partition walls with air passage holes serve as intermediaries between adjacent battery compartments. These partitions allow cooling air to flow from one compartment to another while providing structural support and maintaining compact battery arrangement, thus resolving the conflict between space utilization and cooling airflow.
3Reliability
If power cables are routed through the battery box to connect batteries, then the electrical connectivity improves, but the heat generated by power cables deteriorates the overall cooling efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
Power cables are extracted from the main battery compartment and routed through dedicated cable accommodation spaces in the side portions of the battery box. This separation removes the heat-generating power cables from the primary cooling airflow path of the batteries, allowing independent thermal management for each component while maintaining electrical connectivity.
Solution Approach 2:
The battery box structure is pre-designed with integrated cable guides and air passage holes positioned to accommodate power cables before assembly. This preliminary design ensures that power cables are routed through optimal paths that maximize cooling efficiency from the beginning, avoiding the need for retroactive modifications and ensuring reliable electrical connectivity.
4Temperature
If air intake ports and exhaust ports are added to the battery box for cooling, then the cooling efficiency improves, but the structural complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase
Solution Approach 1:
The partition walls in the battery box serve multiple functions: they provide structural support for battery mounting, create compartmentalization for thermal management, and incorporate air passage holes for cooling airflow. This multi-functionality reduces the need for separate cooling components, simplifying manufacturing while maintaining high cooling efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The air intake ports, exhaust ports, and cable guides are integrated into the battery box cover and base structures rather than being separate components. This merging of functions reduces the total number of parts, simplifies assembly procedures, and lowers manufacturing complexity while ensuring effective cooling airflow paths are established.
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 configuration effectively cools both batteries and power cables, reducing the risk of overheating and electrical resistance, while ensuring safety through efficient heat management and easy maintenance.
Implementation Method 1
a traveling wind passage extending in forward and rearward direction, through which a traveling wind, generated by traveling of the electric car, passes
Implementation Method 2
liquid cooling for the electric motor
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3(a)~3(b)
AI summary
In a case of installing a plurality of electric storage devices 51 such as batteries in an electric car such as an electric motorcycle 1, a traveling wind passage 52 which extends in forward and rearward direction and through which traveling wind passes along with traveling of the electric car 1 is formed in an electric storage device group 50 including the plurality of electric storage devices 51. Moreover, connection terminals 51a of each electric storage device 51 and a power cable 55 that connects the connection terminals to each other are disposed in a manner of facing the traveling wind passage 52. With this configuration, not only the electric storage devices 51 but also the connection terminals 51a and the power cables 55 can be effectively cooled. The plurality of electric storage devices 51 may be divided into two modules, a right side module and a left side module, and each module is collectively connected such that it can be attached to and detached from the electric car 1.