Micro heat exchangers and methods for use in thermal management of transportation vehicle batteries

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2016233564-A1
Application number	US-201615017092-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 5, 2016
Priority date	Feb 5, 2015
Publication date	Aug 11, 2016
Grant date	—

Abstract

A vehicle-battery system including a battery cell and a micro heat exchanger. The micro heat exchanger includes at least one fluid tube positioned in direct contact with the battery cell. The fluid tube comprises a heat-transfer tube section positioned between a fluid tube entrance and exit and in direct contact with the battery cell. The fluid tube is configured to receive a heat-transfer fluid, such a nanofluid, and channel the heat-transfer fluid through the heat-transfer tube section, to the fluid tube exit. The heat-transfer fluid is configured to cool or heat the battery cell when, in operation of the vehicle-battery system, the heat-transfer fluid is channeled through the heat-transfer tube section. The technology in various embodiments also includes a fluid modification device and a computerized controller for controlling the fluid modification device or other operations of the system such as pumping of the heat-transfer fluid.

First claim

What is claimed:

1 . A vehicle-battery system comprising:
a battery cell; and a micro heat exchanger comprising at least one fluid tube positioned in direct contact with the battery cell; wherein:
the fluid tube comprises a fluid tube opening and a fluid tube exit, and a heat-transfer tube section positioned between the fluid tube opening and the fluid tube exit and in direct contact with the battery cell;
the fluid tube is configured to receive a heat-transfer fluid via the fluid tube opening and channel the heat-transfer fluid, from the fluid tube opening, through the heat-transfer tube section, and to the fluid tube exit; and
the heat-transfer fluid is configured to cool or heat the battery cell when, in operation of the vehicle-battery system, the heat-transfer fluid is channeled through the heat-transfer tube section.

2 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 wherein:
the fluid tube is a first fluid tube and positioned within the battery cell; and
the vehicle-battery system comprises a second fluid tube positioned in direct contact with a surface of the battery cell.

3 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 wherein the heat-transfer tube section is positioned fully within the battery cell.

4 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 wherein the battery cell comprises a battery tab and the heat-transfer tube section is positioned within the battery tab.

5 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 wherein the heat-transfer tube section is positioned on an outer surface of the battery cell.

6 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 wherein:
the fluid tube is a first fluid tube and positioned in direct contact with a first battery tab of the battery cell; and
the vehicle-battery system comprises a second fluid tube positioned in direct contact with a second battery tab of the battery cell.

7 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 wherein:
the fluid tube is a first fluid tube and positioned in direct contact with a first surface of the battery cell; and
the vehicle-battery system comprises a second fluid tube positioned in direct contact with a second surface of the battery cell.

8 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 wherein:
the fluid tube is a first fluid tube and positioned within the battery cell; and
the vehicle-battery system comprises a second fluid tube positioned within the battery cell.

9 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 wherein:
the battery cell includes a bus bar; and
the heat-transfer tube section is positioned on and/or within the bus bar.

10 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 further comprising the heat-transfer fluid, wherein the heat-transfer fluid is surface functionalized, yielding a surface-functionalized heat-transfer fluid, to, in operation of the system, cool or heat the battery cell in a predetermined manner.

11 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 10 , wherein the heat-transfer fluid includes nanoparticles and the surface-functionalized heat-transfer fluid is surface functionalized by addition of a functional group at a surface of the nanoparticles.

12 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 10 wherein nanoparticles of the surface-functionalized heat-transfer fluid have more particle dispersion, or are more isolated, than nanoparticles of the heat-transfer fluid if not surface functionalized.

13 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 further comprising the heat-transfer fluid, wherein the heat-transfer fluid comprises silicon (Si) nanoparticles with a base fluid.

14 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 wherein:
the fluid tube comprises a wall having a wall thickness of between about 10 nm and about 1000 μm; and
the fluid tube has an outside diameter between about 1 μm and about 100 μm.

15 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 further comprising a fluid modification device in fluid communication with the fluid tube, the fluid modification device being configured to, in operation of the vehicle-battery system, modify at least one characteristic associated with the heat-transfer fluid in a predetermined manner to cool or heat the battery cell more effectively than the heat-transfer fluid would if not modified.

16 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 15 further comprising a computerized controller configured for wired or wireless communication with the fluid modification device, and to send a signal to the fluid modification device causing the fluid modification device to modify said characteristic.

17 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 15 wherein said characteristic comprises at least one of:
a magnetic polarity of the heat-transfer fluid;
a type of nanoparticles in the heat-transfer fluid;
a concentration of nanoparticles in the fluid;
a ratio of base fluid-to-nanoparticles of the heat-transfer fluid;
temperature of the heat-transfer fluid; and
flow rate of the heat-transfer fluid through the fluid tube.

18 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 , wherein the heat-transfer tube section is disposed in a predetermined pattern selected from a group consisting of:
cross-hatched; a pin; a spiral or helicoid; manifold; serpentine; parallel; and interdigitated.

19 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 , wherein:
the battery cell is a pouch-type battery cell; and the heat-transfer tube section is positioned in a pouch portion of the pouch-type battery cell and/or on a surface of the pouch portion.

20 . The vehicle-battery system of claim 1 , wherein:
the battery cell is a prismatic-type battery cell; and the heat-transfer tube section is positioned at least partially on a surface of the prismatic-type battery cell.

21 . A micro-heat-exchanger control apparatus, for controlling functions of a vehicle-battery system comprising a battery cell, a micro heat exchanger having at least one fluid tube positioned in direct contact with the battery cell, and a fluid modification device connected in fluid communication with the fluid tube, the micro-heat-exchanger control apparatus comprising:
a processor configured for wired or wireless communication with the fluid modification device; and a computer-readable medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising sending, to the fluid modification device, a signal configured to cause the fluid modification device to modify at least one characteristic associated with heat-transfer fluid to be passed, in operation of the vehicle-battery system, through the fluid tube, wherein the heat-transfer fluid is modified to cool or heat the battery cell more effectively than the heat-transfer fluid would if not modified.

22 . The micro-heat-exchanger control apparatus of claim 21 wherein the characteristic comprises at least one of:
a magnetic polarity of the nanofluid;
a type of nanoparticles in the heat-transfer fluid;
a concentration of nanoparticles in the fluid;
a ratio of base fluid-to-nanoparticles of the nanofluid;
temperature of the nanofluid; and
flow rate of the nanofluid through the fluid tube.

23 . A process, for managing thermal conditions of a vehicle-battery system comprising a battery cell and a micro heat exchanger having at least one fluid tube, the process comprising:
controlling a temperature of the battery cell in a predetermined manner using the micro heat exchanger; wherein controlling the temperature using the micro heat exchanger comprises in

Assignees

• Gm Global Tech Operations Llc

Inventors

• Rinker Teresa J
• Chakraborty Debejyo
• Sekol Ryan C
• Abell Jeffrey A

Classifications

• H01M10/6556 Primary

  Solid parts with flow channel passages or pipes for heat exchange (closed pipes H01M10/6552) · CPC title

• B60L11/1874

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• H01M10/633

  characterised by algorithms, flow charts, software details or the like · CPC title

• H01M10/625

  Vehicles · CPC title

• H01M2220/20

  Batteries in motive systems, e.g. vehicle, ship, plane · CPC title