LWRT Interlayer for Battery Module Pressure Management
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery modules face challenges in maintaining constant pressure over the service life due to crystal formation and cyclic volume changes in battery cells, leading to potential damage and reduced performance, as conventional interlayers either provide insufficient compressive force or occupy excessive installation space.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a porous Low Weight Reinforced Thermoplastic (LWRT) interlayer with a thermoplastically bonded fiber tangle, which exhibits both elastic and plastic deformation behavior, allowing it to absorb cyclic volume changes while maintaining a constant compressive load on battery cells and dissipating stress from crystal formation without increasing module size.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If rigid pressure surfaces clamp battery cells to counteract volume expansion, then compressive force is applied to slow crystal formation, but pressure increases further in battery cells over operating life causing damage and reduced service life
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a porous interlayer material positioned between the pressure surface and battery cell. This porous structure allows the interlayer to deform and absorb volume expansion while maintaining contact, thereby distributing compressive force without creating excessive localized pressure that would damage the battery cell over time.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the physical parameters of the interlayer material to exhibit both elastic and plastic deformation characteristics. This allows the interlayer to adapt its stiffness - providing rigid support when needed while yielding to accommodate crystal formation volume increase, thus maintaining optimal pressure levels throughout the battery's operating life.
2Force
If rubber plates are preloaded to elasticity limit to provide sufficient compressive force, then crystal formation is counteracted, but expansion reserve must be provided for crystallization-induced expansion reducing preloading effectiveness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent creates a dynamic system where the interlayer's deformation characteristics change in response to loading conditions. The material transitions from elastic to plastic deformation based on the magnitude and duration of applied force, allowing it to provide both immediate compressive support and long-term accommodation of volume expansion without losing effectiveness.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a composite interlayer structure combining materials with different deformation properties. This composite construction enables the interlayer to exhibit both elastic recovery for cyclic volume changes and plastic flow for steady crystal formation, simultaneously providing sufficient compressive force and expansion reserve.
3Volume of moving object
If interlayers are arranged with spacing from battery cells to provide expansion space, then volume expansion is accommodated, but compressive force impingement area decreases reducing effectiveness
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs a flexible interlayer that can conform to the battery cell surface and maintain full contact during compression. This thin, adaptable film provides expansion accommodation through its deformability while preserving maximum surface contact area for effective compressive force transmission throughout the battery module.
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 LWRT interlayer effectively counters crystal formation and cyclic volume changes, extending the service life and maintaining constant performance of battery modules by absorbing elastic deformations and dissipating stress through plastic flow, thus preventing pressure-induced damage and optimizing compressive force distribution.
Implementation Method 1
the interlayer, which constitutes an LWRT interlayer, encompasses a porous LWRT material having a thermoplastically bonded fiber tangle... exhibits both elastic and plastic deformation behavior, allowing it to absorb cyclic volume changes while maintaining a constant compressive load
Implementation Method 2
exhibits both elastic and plastic deformation behavior, allowing it to absorb cyclic volume changes while maintaining a constant compressive load on battery cells and dissipating stress from crystal formation
Data Source
AI summary
A battery module, in particular for a motor vehicle, encompassing at least one battery cell that is received, in a manner impinged upon by compressive force along a spacing axis, between two pressure surfaces arranged with a spacing from one another along the spacing axis and clamped toward one another; at least one interlayer additionally being provided along the spacing axis between the pressure surfaces; the interlayer, constituting an LWRT interlayer, encompasses a porous LWRT material having a thermoplastically bonded fiber tangle.