Battery pack temperature control structure for electric vehicles

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9742043-B2
Application number	US-201314373371-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 7, 2013
Priority date	Feb 20, 2012
Publication date	Aug 22, 2017
Grant date	Aug 22, 2017

Abstract

A battery pack temperature control structure is provided for an electric vehicle, and basically includes first and second battery modules, a temperature control unit and an air duct. The first and second battery modules are disposed inside a battery pack case. The second battery module has a lower height than the first battery module. The temperature control unit has an air blowing port for blowing a temperature control air to the first and second battery modules. The air duct is connected to the air blowing port of the temperature control unit, and has an air blowout opening arranged to blow out the temperature control air to a front of the first battery module at a location above the top of the second battery module. The air blowout opening-extends in a vehicle width direction and blows out the temperature control air toward the first battery module.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A battery pack temperature control structure for an electric vehicle, the battery pack temperature control structure comprising:
a first battery module disposed in a first region of an inner space of a battery pack case, the first battery module having a first height;
a second battery module disposed in a second region adjacent to the first region in the inner space of the battery pack case, the second battery module having a second height lower than the first height of the first battery module;
a temperature control unit having an air blowing port for blowing a temperature control air to the first battery module and the second battery module; and
an air duct having a first end connected to the air blowing port of the temperature control unit and a second end having an air blowout opening arranged to blow out the temperature control air from the temperature control unit toward a module front upper region of the first battery module that is disposed lower than a top surface of the first battery module, the air duct being a closed passage between the first end and the second end, the air duct protruding in a vehicle upper direction above a top surface of the second battery module, the air blowout opening being disposed opposite to the module front upper region toward a rear of the vehicle and extending in a vehicle width direction along the module front upper region and blows out the temperature control air toward the first battery module such that the temperature control air from the module front upper region of the first battery module to a rear of the first battery module.

2. The battery pack temperature control structure as claimed in claim 1 , wherein
the inner space of the battery pack case is divided into a battery module mounting region spaced apart by a boundary line on one side and an electrical equipment mounting region spaced apart by the boundary line on the other side;
the first battery module is represented by a battery module No. 1 mounted in a first divided rectangular region partitioned in the battery module mounting region by a first passage;
the second battery module is represented by a battery module No. 2 and a battery module No. 3 , respectively mounted in a second divided rectangular region and a third divided rectangular region, which are partitioned by a second passage that extends in a region in the battery module mounting region except for the first divided rectangular region to cross the first passage,
the air blowing port of the temperature control unit is disposed in the electrical equipment mounting region towards the second passage; and
the air duct is placed in a T-shaped clearance space formed by the second passage and the first passage crossing each other, which are created by partition-mounting of each of the battery modules.

3. The battery pack temperature control structure as claimed in claim 2 , wherein
the battery module No. 2 and the battery module No. 3 have a first battery module portion on the electrical equipment mounting side and a second battery module portion lower in height than the first battery module portion on the mounting side of the battery module No. 1 ,
the air duct includes an equal-width duct portion with a constant size in a vehicle lateral direction and extending towards the battery module No. 1 connected to the air blowing port of the temperature control air unit, and a width widening duct portion connected to the equal-width duct portion and that expands in size in the vehicle width direction gradually towards the blowout opening, and
the equal-width duct portion is disposed along the second passage while the width widening duct portion is disposed in the upper space of the second battery module portion and in the first passage.

4. The battery pack temperature control structure as claimed in claim 3 , wherein
the equal-width duct portion has a vertically elongated cross-section similar to a shape of the cross section of the second passage, and
the width widening duct portion has a duct cross-section with a height of the duct cross-section gradually decreasing as the duct cross-section approaches towards the blowout opening while a width of the duct cross-section gradually increases as the duct cross-section approaches towards the blowout opening.

5. The battery pack temperature control structure claim 1 , wherein
the first battery module includes a plurality of stacked battery cells in a thickness direction of the battery cells, each of the battery cells being retained by a cell holder from outside, and the battery cells being vertically orientated so that stacking direction of the battery cells matches the vehicle width direction, and
the cell holder has an air intake opening for introducing the temperature control air between pieces of the cell holder and an air discharge opening for discharging the introduced temperature control air.

6. The battery pack temperature control structure as claimed in claim 2 , wherein
the first battery module includes a plurality of stacked battery cells in a thickness direction of the battery cells, each of the battery cells being retained by a cell holder from outside, and the battery cells being vertically orientated so that stacking direction of the battery cells matches the vehicle width direction, and
the cell holder has an air intake opening for introducing the temperature control air between pieces of the cell holder and an air discharge opening for discharging the introduced temperature control air.

7. The battery pack temperature control structure as claimed in claim 3 , wherein
the first battery module includes a plurality of stacked battery cells in a thickness direction of the battery cells, each of the battery cells being retained by a cell holder from outside, and the battery cells being vertically orientated so that stacking direction of the battery cells matches the vehicle width direction, and
the cell holder has an air intake opening for introducing the temperature control air between pieces of the cell holder and an air discharge opening for discharging the introduced temperature control air.

8. The battery pack temperature control structure as claimed in claim 4 , wherein
the first battery module includes a plurality of stacked battery cells in a thickness direction of the battery cells, each of the battery cells being retained by a cell holder from outside, and the battery cells being vertically orientated so that stacking direction of the battery cells matches the vehicle width direction, and
the cell holder has an air intake opening for introducing the temperature control air between pieces of the cell holder and an air discharge opening for discharging the introduced temperature control air.

9. A battery pack temperature control structure for an electric vehicle, the battery pack temperature control structure comprising:
a first battery module disposed in a first region of an inner space of a battery pack case, a top surface of the first battery module having a first height in a vehicle vertical direction when the battery pack case is installed in the electric vehicle;
a second battery module disposed in a second region adjacent to the first region in the inner space of the battery pack case, a top surface of the second battery module having a second height lower than the first height of the first battery module;
a temperature control unit having an air blowing port for blowing a temperature control air to the first battery module and the second battery module; and
an air duct having a first end and a second end, the first end being connected to the air blowing port of the temperature control unit and the second end having an air blowout opening arranged

Assignees

• Nissan Motor

Inventors

• Tanigaki Tatsunori
• Hatta Kentaro
• Tsujimura Norihisa

Classifications

• H01M50/249

  specially adapted for aircraft or vehicles, e.g. cars or trains (constructional details of batteries specially adapted for electric vehicles B60L50/64) · CPC title

• H01M50/209

  adapted for prismatic or rectangular cells (H01M50/216 takes precedence) · CPC title

• B60L50/64 Primary

  Constructional details of batteries specially adapted for electric vehicles · CPC title

• B60L11/1875

  Operations & Transport · mapped topic

• H01M10/613 Primary

  Cooling or keeping cold · CPC title