Researchers from Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Instruments and Forming Expertise IWU have teamed up with companions within the COOLBat joint analysis mission to develop next-generation battery enclosures for EVs.
The COOLBat mission focuses on making lighter enclosures to cut back energy consumption and improve driving vary by combining particular person programs, packing extra capabilities right into a smaller set up house and utilizing new heat-conductive supplies and bio-based flame-retardant coatings.
The researchers have explored combining particular person programs within the enclosure that beforehand carried out thermal and mechanical capabilities individually. The cooling unit perform is mixed with that of underride safety in a single part, the bottom plate.
Aluminum foam inside the bottom plate absorbs the affect power from stone impacts and accidents. Mixed with a phase-change materials (PCM), a form of wax that can be utilized to retailer and later launch thermal and cooling power, the aluminum foam additionally reduces the quantity of power wanted to chill the battery.
This configuration protects the battery cells from mechanical masses and overheating without delay. A fluid flows by way of the channels, cooling the cells from under and from the perimeters. This reduces the electrical energy wanted to chill the cells and eliminates the necessity for cooling parts elsewhere within the automobile.
One of many goals of the mission is to switch the heavy conductive pastes with ecofriendly heat-conductive supplies to attach the battery module for thermal functions. To do that, the researchers are utilizing a plasma course of to metallize open-pored reusable foams which are then positioned within the areas between the battery and enclosure in pad type.
A brand new flame-retardant coating utilized to the underside of the enclosure lid prevents fireplace from spreading from the battery cells beneath. The earlier metal enclosure lid has been changed with a brand new fiber composite lid, lowering the part’s mass and making it potential to reuse the lid.
The researchers are utilizing the Mercedes-Benz EQS battery as a reference and technological demonstrator.
Future plans name for the mission’s outcomes to be prolonged to different purposes and industries that use giant batteries, comparable to in trains, plane and boats.
“We’re specializing in functionally built-in constructions. Duties that was dealt with by totally different modules contained in the battery are being built-in right into a single part—the bottom meeting, on this case—to shrink the set up house and streamline interfaces,” stated Rico Schmerler, a mission supervisor and scientist within the Battery Methods division at Fraunhofer IWU. “These base plates will present safety from overheating and avert injury to the battery core in case of an accident.”
Supply: Fraunhofer Institute for Machine Instruments and Forming Expertise IWU
