Multi-sided Heat Exchanger with Compliant Plate for Battery Cooling
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing heat exchanger designs for prismatic lithium-ion battery cells suffer from non-uniform cooling, complexity, and increased manufacturing costs due to the need for multiple coolant connections, which can lead to reduced heat transfer efficiency and temperature uniformity.
Innovation Solution
A multi-sided heat exchanger with fluid-carrying panels arranged at angles, featuring a compliant second plate and support elements to ensure intimate contact with the battery cells, allowing for improved heat transfer and temperature uniformity without increasing complexity or manufacturing costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If multiple plate coolers are provided along different faces of the battery pack to improve temperature uniformity, then temperature uniformity is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase due to the large number of coolant connections required
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple cooling functions into a single integrated plate cooler assembly that contacts multiple faces of the battery pack simultaneously. The plate cooler is formed as a single piece with multiple cooling surfaces that can be compressed against different faces of the battery pack, eliminating the need for multiple separate coolers and their associated coolant connections.
Solution Approach 2:
The plate cooler is designed as a multi-functional component that performs cooling on multiple faces of the battery pack through a single structure. This universal cooling device can contact and cool different surfaces of the battery pack without requiring separate specialized coolers for each face, reducing complexity while maintaining temperature uniformity.
2Loss of energy
If compression between the plate cooler and battery pack face is increased to ensure adequate heat exchange, then heat transfer efficiency is improved, but manufacturing precision requirements increase due to non-flat surfaces and misalignment
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the physical state and mechanical properties of the plate cooler by using a compliant or flexible material that can deform under compression. This allows the plate cooler to adapt to non-flat battery pack surfaces and misalignments, maintaining intimate contact and effective heat transfer without requiring extremely tight manufacturing tolerances for surface flatness and alignment.
Solution Approach 2:
The plate cooler is constructed from a compliant material that can flex and conform to the actual geometry of the battery pack faces. This flexibility compensates for manufacturing variations, non-flat surfaces, and cell bulging, ensuring continuous intimate contact between the cooling surface and the battery pack for efficient heat transfer.
3Device complexity
If a single plate cooler is provided to maintain simplicity, then device complexity is reduced, but temperature uniformity deteriorates due to non-uniform cooling distribution
Solution Approach 1:
The patent transitions from a single-plane cooling approach to a multi-dimensional cooling structure. The plate cooler is designed with multiple cooling faces that extend in different spatial dimensions, allowing it to contact and cool multiple faces of the battery pack simultaneously. This dimensional expansion enables uniform temperature distribution while maintaining a single integrated cooling device.
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 multi-sided heat exchanger design enhances heat transfer efficiency and temperature uniformity across prismatic lithium-ion battery cells, reducing the need for multiple coolant connections and maintaining simplicity and reliability.
Implementation Method 1
the central fluid flow area of the second plate is deformable in a direction away from the central fluid flow area of the first plate in response to a pressure of a fluid inside the fluid flow passageway
Implementation Method 2
The fins transfer heat from the in-plane faces of the pouch cells to the coolant circulating through the panels
Data Source
AI summary
A heat exchanger for a battery has fluid-carrying panels and defines a multi-sided enclosure for enclosing at least two sides of the battery. The heat exchanger has first and second fluid-carrying panels defining first and second flow channels, where the first and second fluid-carrying panels are arranged at an angle to another. The heat exchanger may also include a third fluid-carrying panel defining a third flow channel, and being arranged at an angle to the second fluid-carrying panel. The heat exchanger has first and second plates sealingly joined together along their peripheries and defining a fluid flow passageway between their central fluid flow areas. The second plate may be compliant, its central fluid flow area being deformable away from the central fluid flow area of the first plate in response to a pressure of a fluid inside the fluid flow passageway.