Ribbed Battery Pack Housing for Compact Cooling Channels
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Existing battery packs face challenges in achieving high energy density with minimal installation space while ensuring effective heat dissipation and preventing dirt ingress through cooling air openings.
Innovation Solution
The battery pack design incorporates longitudinal ribs on the housing's outer surface, forming cooling grooves that guide cooling air through channels with the receiving compartment's inner wall, using heat-conducting materials like aluminum or magnesium alloy, and optimizing rib spacing for efficient heat transfer.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Temperature
If cooling air openings are provided in the housing, then heat dissipation is improved, but dirt ingress into the housing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The housing surface is segmented into multiple longitudinal ribs that create numerous narrow cooling grooves. These grooves are distributed across the housing surface, allowing heat dissipation through multiple pathways while each individual groove remains narrow enough to prevent dirt ingress.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling grooves have different dimensions and orientations at different locations on the housing. The grooves are positioned to align with cooling channels in the receiving compartment, creating localized efficient cooling paths while maintaining protection against dirt through their narrow cross-sections.
2Volume of moving object
If the battery pack is made compact with high energy density, then installation space is reduced, but heat dissipation capability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of increasing opening area in the planar dimension, the solution extends cooling pathways into the third dimension by creating longitudinal grooves that run along the height of the housing. These grooves connect to vertical cooling channels in the receiving compartment, providing volumetric heat dissipation pathways without increasing the battery pack's footprint.
Solution Approach 2:
The cooling grooves in the housing are designed to nest with cooling channels in the receiving compartment. The grooves align and interface with the channels when the battery pack is inserted, creating an integrated cooling system that maximizes heat dissipation within the compact nested structure.
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 design enhances heat dissipation by increasing the effective heat transfer surface area, minimizing thermal damage to battery cells, and reducing the risk of dirt ingress, while maintaining a compact form factor.
Implementation Method 1
Battery packs can comprise cooling air openings in the housing for letting in and letting out cooling air with the goal of dissipating as much heat as possible
Implementation Method 2
The longitudinal ribs in regard to their height are configured such that the cooling groove is suitable to delimit together with the inner wall of the receiving compartment a cooling channel extending in the upright direction of the battery pack
Data Source
AI summary
A battery pack for exchangeable insertion into a receiving compartment delimited by an inner wall has a housing accommodating battery cells. The housing has a basic shape with an upright side and first and second end walls opposite each other. The upright side extends in upright direction of the housing between the first and second end walls. The upright side has an outer surface and longitudinal ribs arranged thereon and extending in upright direction. The longitudinal ribs have a height measured in upright direction and are positioned at a distance from each other. The distance is measured transversely to the upright direction. The longitudinal ribs delimit together with the outer surface of the upright side a cooling groove extending in upright direction. The longitudinal ribs are designed along the height such that the cooling groove can delimit, together with the inner wall, a cooling channel extending in upright direction.