CN219086085U - Liquid cooling piece, liquid cooling assembly, liquid cooling system, battery and power utilization device - Google Patents

Abstract

The application is applicable to the technical field of batteries and provides a liquid cooling piece, a liquid cooling assembly, a liquid cooling system, a battery and an electric device. The liquid cooling piece comprises a heat conduction part and an insulation part; the heat conducting parts are provided with a plurality of heat conducting parts and are sequentially arranged at intervals along the first direction, and each heat conducting part is internally provided with a first cavity; each insulating part is internally provided with a second cavity with two open ends; wherein, adjacent two heat conduction portions are communicated through the insulating portion to make the first cavity that arranges in proper order along first direction form the cooling channel through the communication of second cavity. The utility model provides a liquid cooling spare, liquid cooling subassembly, liquid cooling system, battery and power consumption device can reduce the risk that different battery monomers realized the short circuit through the liquid cooling spare.

Description

Liquid cooling piece, liquid cooling assembly, liquid cooling system, battery and power utilization device

Technical Field

The application belongs to the technical field of batteries, and particularly relates to a liquid cooling piece, a liquid cooling assembly, a liquid cooling system, a battery and an electric device.

Background

The temperature has an important influence on the battery. The battery has the problems of thermal runaway, serious decay of service life, limitation of charge and discharge and the like. For this reason, battery thermal management systems are widely used in batteries. Current battery thermal management mainly includes: air cooling, liquid cooling, thermoelectric cooling, heat pipe cooling, phase change material thermal management and other modes. Among them, liquid cooling is widely used because of its low cost and good cooling effect.

The core component in the liquid cooling system is a liquid cooling piece such as a liquid cooling plate, a liquid cooling pipe and the like which are in direct contact with the battery cell. When the battery pack is used, the liquid cooling piece is generally in direct contact with the battery cells, and the same liquid cooling piece is in simultaneous contact with a plurality of battery cells. Therefore, when the insulation of the battery cell fails, the battery cell is easy to realize electric connection with other battery cells through the liquid cooling piece, so that short circuit is caused.

Disclosure of Invention

In view of the above, the present application provides a liquid cooling member, a liquid cooling assembly, a liquid cooling system, a battery and an electric device, which aim to reduce the risk of short circuit between different battery monomers through the liquid cooling member.

In a first aspect, the present application provides a liquid cooling member, including a heat conducting portion and an insulating portion; the heat conducting parts are provided with a plurality of heat conducting parts and are sequentially arranged at intervals along a first direction, and each heat conducting part is internally provided with a first cavity; a second cavity with two open ends is arranged in each insulating part; wherein, two adjacent heat conduction portions are communicated through the insulating portion, so that the first cavities which are sequentially arranged along the first direction are communicated through the second cavities to form a cooling channel.

The liquid cooling spare that this application provided, including a plurality of heat conduction portions and quantity than the insulating part of quantity less one of heat conduction portion, wherein establish first cavity in every heat conduction portion, establish the open second cavity in both ends in every insulating part all, adjacent two heat conduction portions communicate through the insulating part to make a plurality of first cavities communicate in proper order through the second cavity and form cooling channel. Through the length of reasonable setting heat conduction portion and the length of insulating part, can be in the liquid cooling spare when being applied to the battery for heat conduction portion in the same liquid cooling spare and be located each battery monomer one-to-one heat conduction contact in same row or same row, and make the insulating part be located the interval department between two adjacent battery monomers, thereby make the arbitrary two battery monomers that are located same row or same row can not contact simultaneously with same heat conduction portion, even like this be located same row or same row arbitrary two battery monomer's insulating film take place wearing and tearing, insulation failure, also can not realize the electricity through same heat conduction portion and connect, and then reduced the risk of taking place the short circuit between the battery monomer. In addition, adopt the liquid cooling spare that this application provided, can also reduce the risk that insulation failure took place for whole battery.

In some embodiments, the insulating portion is sealingly connected to the thermally conductive portion. The insulating part is communicated with the heat conducting part in a sealing connection mode, and the connection mode is simple and convenient to operate.

In some embodiments, the insulating portion is a resilient member that is in an interference seal with the thermally conductive portion. Therefore, the sealing connection operation of the insulating part and the heat conducting part can be realized, and compared with the insulating part which adopts a hard piece, the operation is more convenient and easier to realize.

In some embodiments, the thermally conductive portion is a metal piece; and/or, the insulating part is a nonmetallic part. The heat conduction part is made of metal materials, has higher heat conductivity and can realize heat exchange with the battery monomer. The insulating part is made of nonmetallic insulating materials, so that the insulation between the insulating part and the heat conducting part can be realized.

In some embodiments, the density of the insulating portion is less than the density of the thermally conductive portion. By adopting the scheme, the liquid cooling piece can be made of materials used for the heat conducting part, the weight is lower, and the energy density of the battery can be improved when the liquid cooling piece is applied to the battery.

In some embodiments, the insulating portion is a plate-type structural member; and/or, the heat conduction part is a plate-type structural member. The insulating part is a plate-type structural part, has a simple structure, is convenient to connect with the heat conducting part, and is communicated with the second cavity and the first cavity. The heat conduction part is a plate type structural member, and compared with the heat conduction part which adopts a tubular structural member, the heat conduction part adopts a plate type structural member, so that the heat conduction part can have larger contact area with the battery cell, and further the battery has better heat dissipation effect.

In some embodiments, a plurality of the first cavities are disposed in each of the heat conducting parts; and/or, a plurality of second cavities are arranged in each insulating part. By adopting the scheme provided by the embodiment, a user can conveniently select different types of liquid cooling pieces according to different cooling effects so as to meet the temperature control requirements under different conditions.

In some embodiments, the thermally conductive portion is a harmonica tube plate; and/or the insulating part is a plastic pipe. The heat conduction part adopts the harmonica tube plate, so that the weight of the battery is lighter, the cost is lower, and the energy density of the battery is beneficial to meeting the preset requirement. The insulating part is a plastic pipe, has certain elasticity, can directly realize through the mode of cup jointing when cup jointing with the heat conduction part is sealed, or can realize with the help of simple appurtenance, like heating member, sealant, and adopts this structure, and the simple structure of insulating part, the convenience of drawing materials, low cost.

In a second aspect, the present application provides a liquid cooling assembly, including a liquid cooling member and a current collecting member provided in any one of the embodiments, the current collecting member is connected to the liquid cooling member, and the current collecting member has a current collecting space, and the current collecting space is in communication with the cooling channel.

The liquid cooling subassembly that this application provided includes the liquid cooling spare that collector and above-mentioned arbitrary embodiment provided, when can reduce the battery temperature adjustment for the liquid cooling subassembly, realizes the risk of short circuit through the liquid cooling subassembly between the battery monomer.

In some embodiments, the current collector is provided with two current collectors and is separately arranged at two ends of the liquid cooling piece. Therefore, the cooling medium in the liquid cooling piece can form a smooth circulation loop with the external liquid supply assembly through the current collector, so that the temperature control effect of the liquid cooling assembly is good.

In a third aspect, the present application provides a liquid cooling system, including a liquid cooling assembly provided in any one of the above embodiments and a liquid supply assembly, where the liquid supply assembly is in communication with the current collector to supply a cooling medium into the cooling channel. The liquid cooling system provided by the application comprises a liquid supply assembly and the liquid cooling assembly provided by any embodiment, so that the risk that different battery monomers realize short circuit through the liquid cooling system can be reduced when the liquid cooling system is applied to a battery.

In a fourth aspect, the present application provides a battery, including the liquid cooling member provided in any one of the embodiments and a plurality of battery cells, at least some of the plurality of battery cells are disposed at intervals along a first direction, and are in thermal contact with different thermal conductive portions in one-to-one correspondence; the heat conducting part is used for conducting heat to the battery cells, wherein the interval between any two adjacent battery cells corresponds to one insulating part in the battery cells in heat conducting contact with the heat conducting part. The battery provided by the application, including liquid cooling spare and a plurality of battery monomer that above-mentioned each embodiment provided, can reduce the risk of taking place the short circuit through the liquid cooling spare between the battery monomer in the use.

In some embodiments, the length of the insulating portion is greater than or equal to the width of the space between the corresponding two battery cells along the first direction. By adopting the battery provided by the embodiment, the risk that two adjacent battery monomers are short-circuited through the same heat conducting part in the using process can be further reduced.

In a fifth aspect, the present application provides an electrical device, including a battery provided in any one of the embodiments above, the battery being configured to provide electrical energy to the electrical device.

The power utilization device provided by the application adopts the battery provided by any one of the embodiments, has lower risk of short circuit among battery monomers, and is higher in safety.

The foregoing description is only an overview of the technical solutions of the present application, and may be implemented according to the content of the specification in order to make the technical means of the present application more clearly understood, and in order to make the above-mentioned and other objects, features and advantages of the present application more clearly understood, the following detailed description of the present application will be given.

Drawings

Various other advantages and benefits will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating the preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the application. Also, like reference numerals are used to designate like parts throughout the accompanying drawings. In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a schematic view of a structure of a battery in the prior art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural view of a vehicle according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a liquid cooling member according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a liquid cooling member along the direction A-A in FIG. 3 according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of a liquid cooling assembly according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a liquid cooling assembly along the direction B-B in FIG. 5 according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a usage state of a liquid cooling system according to some embodiments of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic structural view of a battery according to some embodiments of the present application.

Reference numerals in the specific embodiments are as follows:

1000. a vehicle;

100. a battery; 200. a controller; 300. a motor; 400. a liquid cooling member; 500. a current collector; 600. a liquid supply assembly;

11. a battery cell; 12. the intervals among the battery monomers; 41. a heat conduction part; 42. a first cavity; 43. An insulating part; 44. a second cavity; 51. a collecting space; 61. a liquid pump; 62. a liquid supply pipeline; 63. a heat exchanger;

x, a first direction; a. and the width of the interval between two adjacent battery cells.

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the technical solutions of the present application will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. The following examples are only for more clearly illustrating the technical solutions of the present application, and thus are only examples, and are not intended to limit the scope of protection of the present application.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this application belongs; the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of the application; the terms "comprising" and "having" and any variations thereof in the description and claims of the present application and in the description of the figures above are intended to cover non-exclusive inclusions.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the technical terms "first," "second," etc. are used merely to distinguish between different objects and are not to be construed as indicating or implying a relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated, a particular order or a primary or secondary relationship. In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the meaning of "plurality" is two or more unless explicitly defined otherwise.

Reference herein to "an embodiment" means that a particular feature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment may be included in at least one embodiment of the present application. The appearances of such phrases in various places in the specification are not necessarily all referring to the same embodiment, nor are separate or alternative embodiments mutually exclusive of other embodiments. Those of skill in the art will explicitly and implicitly appreciate that the embodiments described herein may be combined with other embodiments.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the term "and/or" is merely an association relationship describing an association object, which means that three relationships may exist, for example, a and/or B may mean: a exists alone, A and B exist together, and B exists alone. In addition, the character "/" herein generally indicates that the front and rear associated objects are an "or" relationship.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the term "plurality" refers to two or more (including two), and similarly, "plural sets" refers to two or more (including two), and "plural sheets" refers to two or more (including two).

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, the orientation or positional relationship indicated by the technical terms "center", "longitudinal", "transverse", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", "axial", "radial", "circumferential", etc. are based on the orientation or positional relationship shown in the drawings, and are merely for convenience of describing the embodiments of the present application and for simplifying the description, rather than indicating or implying that the apparatus or element referred to must have a specific orientation, be configured and operated in a specific orientation, and therefore should not be construed as limiting the embodiments of the present application.

In the description of the embodiments of the present application, unless explicitly specified and limited otherwise, the terms "mounted," "connected," "secured" and the like are to be construed broadly and may be, for example, fixedly connected, detachably connected, or integrally formed; or may be mechanically or electrically connected; can be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, and can be communicated with the inside of two elements or the interaction relationship of the two elements. The specific meaning of the above terms in the embodiments of the present application will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art according to the specific circumstances.

Currently, the application of power batteries is more widespread from the development of market situation. The power battery is not only applied to energy storage power supply systems such as hydraulic power, firepower, wind power and solar power stations, but also widely applied to electric vehicles such as electric bicycles, electric motorcycles, electric automobiles, and the like, and a plurality of fields such as military equipment, aerospace, and the like. With the continuous expansion of the application field of the power battery, the market demand of the power battery is also continuously expanding.

The main current power battery is mainly divided into two types of lithium iron phosphate and nickel cobalt manganese batteries, and monomers are divided into three shapes of a cylinder, a square and a soft package, wherein the cylinder battery has long history, high self standardization degree, mature process, high yield and low cost. The square battery has the advantages of small internal resistance, long cycle life, high packaging reliability and good tolerance. The soft package battery has the advantages of good safety performance, light weight, large capacity, good cycle performance, small internal resistance and flexible design.

The effect of temperature on the cell is not insignificant regardless of the shape. The temperature difference will affect the safety, life, function, performance and the like of the power battery, and the power battery is over or under in terms of thermal runaway, serious decay of life, limitation of charge and discharge and the like, so that in order to keep the power battery working within a reasonable temperature range, the temperature of the battery is generally required to be regulated by means of a battery thermal management system in actual use. Depending on the heat transfer medium, battery thermal management systems may be classified into air cooling systems, liquid cooling systems, heat pipe cooling systems, phase change cooling systems, and the like. The liquid cooling system has the advantages of better cooling effect than the air cooling system, lower cost than the heat pipe cooling system and the phase change cooling system, stability and high efficiency, and is widely applied.

The liquid cooling system is also called as a liquid cooling system, and the flow of the cooling liquid in the battery system is completed by using a liquid pump and a liquid cooling pipeline by using the cooling liquid as a heat exchange carrier and is divided into direct contact type and indirect contact type. Direct contact cooling is where the battery pack is immersed directly in a cooling liquid; the indirect contact cooling is to arrange a liquid cooling pipeline between the battery modules or to arrange a liquid cooling piece in the battery pack, directly contact the battery modules or the liquid cooling piece with a battery monomer in the battery pack through the liquid cooling pipeline, and absorb and take away heat by liquid in the liquid cooling pipeline or the liquid cooling piece.

The liquid cooling member in direct contact with the battery cell is a core component in the indirect contact cooling system. The liquid cooling member may have a plate-type structure, a tube-type structure, or other structures. The liquid cooling system can comprise a plurality of liquid cooling pieces paved at the bottom of the battery cell, wherein one surface (generally the surface with larger area) of the plurality of liquid cooling pieces is contacted with the lower surface of the battery cell in the battery; the battery pack also comprises a plurality of liquid cooling pieces attached to the side parts of the battery cells, wherein one surface (generally the surface with larger area) of the plurality of liquid cooling pieces is contacted with the side surface of the battery cells in the battery. In the above two schemes, when the battery cell is a cube, the side surface area is generally larger than the lower surface area, so that the heat dissipation effect of the second scheme is better.

It should be noted that "liquid cooling" is only a conventional term for temperature control, and the liquid cooling member may be used for heat preservation, heating, and other purposes besides liquid cooling.

In the prior art, the liquid cooling piece is generally made of integrally formed metal materials and has a certain length, and when the liquid cooling piece is used, the same liquid cooling piece is often contacted with a plurality of battery monomers at the same time. In some cases, a plurality of battery cells in the battery are connected in series by adopting the structure shown in fig. 1, at this time, the battery cells 11 located at two sides of the same liquid cooling member 400 are connected in series, and there is no connection relationship between adjacent ends of the plurality of battery cells 11 located at the same side of the same liquid cooling member 400. However, in the actual use process, the position of the battery monomer 11 may move, such as a battery mounted on a vehicle, and along with the movement of the vehicle, the battery monomer 11 in the battery may vibrate or move back and forth and left and right along with the vehicle body, and during this period, extrusion, friction and the like may inevitably occur between the battery monomer 11 and the liquid cooling member 400, so that the insulating film coated outside the battery monomer 11 is damaged and becomes insulation failure, and further a short circuit is formed between the battery monomers 11 through the liquid cooling member 400 or the insulation failure of the whole battery is caused.

In order to reduce the risk, the embodiment of the application provides a liquid cooling piece. The liquid cooling piece is not made of integrally formed metal materials, but is of a multi-section structure, and comprises a plurality of heat conducting parts and insulating parts, wherein the number of the insulating parts is one less than that of the heat conducting parts, and two adjacent heat conducting parts are communicated through the insulating parts. When the battery pack is used, a plurality of battery monomers needing cooling can be respectively in heat conduction contact with different heat conduction parts, each heat conduction part is at most in contact with one heat conduction part, and the insulating part is positioned at a gap between two battery monomers in contact with two adjacent heat conduction parts, so that any two battery monomers positioned on the same side of the liquid cooling piece can be prevented from being electrically connected through the same heat conduction part capable of conducting electricity, and the risk of short circuit formation between the battery monomers through the liquid cooling piece in the use process is reduced.

The liquid cooling piece disclosed by the embodiment of the application can be used in batteries, and various energy storage systems using batteries as power supply power utilization devices or energy storage elements. The power utilization device can be, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, a tablet, a notebook computer, an electric toy, an electric tool, a battery car, an electric automobile, a ship, a spacecraft and the like. Among them, the electric toy may include fixed or mobile electric toys, such as game machines, electric car toys, electric ship toys, electric plane toys, and the like, and the spacecraft may include planes, rockets, space planes, and spacecraft, and the like.

For convenience of description, the following embodiments will take an electric device according to an embodiment of the present application as an example of a vehicle.

Referring to fig. 2, fig. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a vehicle 1000 according to some embodiments of the present application. The vehicle 1000 may be a fuel oil vehicle, a gas vehicle or a new energy vehicle, and the new energy vehicle may be a pure electric vehicle, a hybrid vehicle or a range-extended vehicle. The battery 100 is provided in the interior of the vehicle 1000, and the battery 100 may be provided at the bottom or the head or the tail of the vehicle 1000. The battery 100 may be used for power supply of the vehicle 1000, for example, the battery 100 may be used as an operating power source of the vehicle 1000. The vehicle 1000 may also include a controller 200 and a motor 300, the controller 200 being configured to control the battery 100 to power the motor 300, for example, for operating power requirements during start-up, navigation, and travel of the vehicle 1000.

In some embodiments of the present application, battery 100 may not only serve as an operating power source for vehicle 1000, but may also serve as a driving power source for vehicle 1000, instead of or in part instead of fuel oil or natural gas, to provide driving power for vehicle 1000.

In some embodiments, a battery includes a housing, a battery cell, and a liquid cooling system. Wherein, the box is used for providing accommodation space for battery monomer. The battery cell refers to the smallest unit constituting the battery. The battery cells are provided with a plurality of battery cells, and the plurality of battery cells can be connected in series or in parallel, and the series-parallel connection means that the plurality of battery cells are connected in series or in parallel. The plurality of battery monomers can be directly connected in series or in parallel or in series-parallel, and then the whole formed by the plurality of battery monomers is accommodated in the box body; of course, the battery can also be in a form of a battery module formed by connecting a plurality of battery monomers in series or parallel or series-parallel connection, and then connecting a plurality of battery modules in series or parallel or series-parallel connection to form a whole body and accommodating the whole body in the box body. The battery may further include other structures, for example, a bus member for making electrical connection between the plurality of battery cells. Each battery cell may be a secondary battery or a primary battery; but not limited to, lithium sulfur batteries, sodium ion batteries, or magnesium ion batteries. The battery cell may be in a cylindrical, flat, rectangular or other shape, etc., and the outer surface is generally coated with an insulating film. In some cases, the battery cells may also be directly loaded without a case or housing, i.e., without forming a battery pack, with the structure of the vehicle body itself serving as a fixed structure of the battery cells.

The liquid cooling system generally comprises a liquid cooling piece, a current collecting piece, a liquid pump and the like. The liquid cooling piece is positioned in the box body and is in heat conduction contact with the battery unit, namely, is in contact with the insulating film coated outside the battery unit. The current collector is generally provided with two current collectors which are respectively arranged at two ends of the liquid cooling piece. Two ends of each liquid cooling piece are respectively communicated with an external pipeline through a current collecting piece and then are communicated with a liquid pump through the external pipeline.

In some embodiments, the plurality of battery cells in the battery are connected in series by adopting the structure shown in fig. 1, and at this time, the battery cells 11 located at two sides of the same liquid cooling member 400 are connected in series, and there is no electrical connection relationship between adjacent ends of the plurality of battery cells 11 located at the same side of the same liquid cooling member 400. In other embodiments, adjacent ends of a plurality of battery cells 11 on the same side of the same liquid cooling member 400 are connected in parallel.

Referring to fig. 3 and further referring to fig. 4, fig. 4 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a liquid cooling member according to some embodiments of the present application along the direction A-A in fig. 3. Embodiments of the present application provide a liquid cooling member 400. The liquid cooling member 400 includes a heat conduction portion 41 and an insulating portion 43. The heat conductive portions 41 are provided in plurality and are sequentially arranged at intervals along the first direction X. In general, the liquid cooling material 400 has a plate-like structure having a longitudinal direction and a width direction, or an elongated structure, and therefore the first direction X is generally the longitudinal direction of the liquid cooling material 400. The spaced arrangement means that a certain gap exists between two adjacent heat conducting parts 41, and the two heat conducting parts are not connected. A first cavity 42 is provided in each heat conducting portion 41. A second cavity 44 having both ends open is provided in each insulating portion 43. The open ends means that both ends of the second chamber 44 communicate with the external space. Wherein, two adjacent heat conducting parts 41 are communicated through an insulating part 43, so that first cavities 42 which are sequentially arranged along a first direction X are communicated through a second cavity 44 to form a cooling channel.

It should be noted that, in this embodiment, the number of the insulating portions 43 may be one less than the number of the heat conducting portions 41, and may be equal to or even greater than the number of the heat conducting portions 41, so long as the effect of "the adjacent two heat conducting portions 41 are communicated through the insulating portions 43 so that the first cavities 42 sequentially arranged along the first direction X are communicated through the second cavities 44 to form the cooling channel" can be satisfied.

The heat conducting part 41 is a thin-wall structural member with a first cavity 42 inside for cooling medium to flow and good heat conducting performance, and the shape of the heat conducting part can be a tube shape, a plate shape or other shapes, and the heat conducting part can be specifically arranged according to use. To be suitable for the use environment inside the battery, to facilitate sealing and heat conduction, the heat conduction portion 41 should be formed using a heat-conductive sealing material having corrosion resistance and adhesion. For example, a liquid cooling plate, a liquid cooling pipe, or the like made of a metal material may be used, and an external protective layer that can act as corrosion resistance or the like and does not greatly adversely affect the heat conductive performance of the heat conductive portion 41 may be provided outside the heat conductive portion 41.

The insulating part 43 is a thin-walled structural member having a second cavity 44 in which a cooling medium can flow and having excellent insulating performance, and may be formed in a tubular or plate shape, or may be formed in other shapes, and may be provided according to use. To be suitable for the use environment inside the battery, to facilitate sealing and insulation, the insulating part 43 should be formed using an insulating encapsulation material having corrosion resistance, adhesion. For example, a plastic material, a rubber material, or the like may be used, and an external protective layer that can function as corrosion resistance or the like may be provided outside the insulating portion 43.

The cooling passage is a closed passage capable of accommodating a cooling medium and flowing the cooling medium. To avoid leakage of the cooling medium in the cooling channel, the insulating portion 43 may be in sealing communication with the heat conducting portion 41 by means of gluing, sleeving, plugging or the like.

In practical use, as shown in fig. 8, the same liquid cooling member 400 is generally attached to a plurality of battery cells 11 arranged in rows at intervals or arranged in columns at intervals, heat conduction between the battery cells 11 and the liquid cooling member 400 is realized through heat conduction contact between the heat conduction portions 41 and the battery cells 11, and at most one heat conduction portion 41 is in heat conduction contact with one battery cell 11, so that in general, the plurality of heat conduction portions 41 need to be in heat conduction contact with the plurality of battery cells 11 arranged in the same row or the same column at intervals in sequence, and at this time, the number of the heat conduction portions 41 needs to be set according to the number of the actually contacted battery cells 11. The heat conductive contact means that the corresponding heat conductive portion 41 and the battery cell 11 can be in direct contact or indirect contact with each other to achieve heat conduction.

In some cases, the plurality of heat conductive portions 41 in the same liquid cooling member 400 may also be in heat conductive contact with a plurality of battery cells 11 arranged in different rows and different columns at intervals, which may be specifically determined according to the heat generating condition and cooling requirement of each battery cell 11 in the battery 100. Therefore, the size and number of the heat conducting parts 41 and the insulating parts 43 are designed according to the arrangement and number of the battery cells 11 in the battery 100, which are connected to the liquid cooling member 400.

If the number of single-row battery cells 11 is n, the liquid cooling member 400 is disposed on the side surface of the row battery cells 11, and the heat conducting portions 41 in the liquid cooling member 400 need to be in one-to-one heat conducting contact with the row battery cells 11, the number of the heat conducting portions 41 in the liquid cooling member 400 is n, the length of the heat conducting portions 41 is equal to or slightly greater than the length of the battery cells 11, and the number of the insulating portions 43 is n-1. In other cases, the number of the heat conducting portions 41 in the liquid cooling member 400 may be m (m. Gtoreq.n, or m. Gtoreq.n), and the number of the insulating portions 43 may be k (k. Gtoreq.m-1). When m > n, the liquid cooling member 400 may be used for cooling the single-row battery cell 11, and other parts may be cooled, when m < n, the liquid cooling member 400 is suitable for cooling the single-row battery cell 11, and the heat productivity of the single-row battery cell 11 is less than that of other battery cells 11, so that the cooling member 400 is not needed, or the cooling member 400 is not needed, and at this time, the heat conducting portion 41 may be only arranged on the battery cell 11 with the equivalent heat productivity. When k=m-1, two adjacent heat conducting parts 41 are communicated through one insulating part 43, and when k > m-1, two adjacent heat conducting parts 41 can be communicated through one or more insulating parts 43, or both ends of the heat conducting part 41 positioned at the end part are connected with the insulating parts 43, and the insulating parts 43 positioned outside the battery are used for waterway communication pipelines, or other purposes.

For convenience of description, the liquid cooling member 400 is placed on the side surface of the single row of battery cells 11, the number of the heat conducting portions 41 in the liquid cooling member 400 is n, and the number of the insulating portions 43 is n-1, which is taken as an example, to explain the working principle of the liquid cooling member 400 provided in the embodiment of the present application:

when in use, the liquid cooling member 400 is attached to the side surfaces of the battery cells 11 arranged in a row, and the plurality of heat conducting portions 41 in the liquid cooling member 400 are in heat conducting contact with the plurality of battery cells 11 in the row in a one-to-one correspondence manner, and the insulating portions 43 are located at intervals between two adjacent battery cells 11.

When heat conduction is needed, a cooling medium is provided to the liquid cooling member 400 through a liquid supply component (such as a liquid pump, a pipeline and the like) in the liquid cooling system, and the heat obtained by the battery cells 11 through direct contact or indirect contact of the heat conduction part 41 is taken away in the process of flowing in the cooling channel by the cooling medium, so that the heat dissipation of each battery cell 11 is realized.

The cooling medium is an electrically poor conductor, that is, any two heat conducting portions 41 cannot be electrically connected by the cooling medium flowing therein.

In the above process, due to the existence of the insulating portion 43, any two battery cells 11 located on the same side of the same liquid cooling member 400 will not be in heat conduction contact with the same heat conducting portion 41 at the same time, so that even if the insulating films of any two battery cells 11 located on the same side of the same liquid cooling member 400 wear out and fail in insulation, electrical connection will not be realized through the same heat conducting portion 41, and the risk of short circuit between the battery cells 11 or insulation failure of the whole battery 100 is reduced.

To sum up, the liquid cooling member 400 provided in this embodiment of the present application includes a plurality of heat conducting portions 41 and an insulating portion 43 with a number less than that of the heat conducting portions 41 by one, where each heat conducting portion 41 is internally provided with a first cavity 42, each insulating portion 43 is internally provided with a second cavity 44 with two open ends, and two adjacent heat conducting portions 41 are communicated through the insulating portion 43, so that the plurality of first cavities 42 are sequentially communicated through the second cavities 44 to form a cooling channel. Through rationally setting up the length of heat conduction portion 41 and the length of insulating part 43, can be when liquid cooling spare 400 is applied to in the battery, make the heat conduction portion 41 in same liquid cooling spare 400 with be located each battery monomer 11 one-to-one heat conduction contact in same row or same row, and make insulating part 43 be located the interval department between two adjacent battery monomers 11, thereby make arbitrary two battery monomers 11 that are located same row or same row can not with same heat conduction portion 41 heat conduction contact simultaneously, even the insulating film that even be located arbitrary two battery monomers 11 in same row or same row takes place wearing and tearing, insulation failure, also can not realize the electricity through same heat conduction portion 41 and connect, and then reduced the risk of taking place the short circuit between the battery monomer 11. In addition, by adopting the liquid cooling member 400 provided in the embodiment of the present application, the risk of insulation failure of the whole battery can be reduced.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 3 and 4, the insulating portion 43 is hermetically connected to the heat conducting portion 41. The sealed connection means that the cooling medium does not flow out from the gap between the insulating part 43 and the heat conducting part 41 after the two parts are connected to each other, or even if a small amount of the cooling medium overflows, the overflow amount thereof is within an acceptable reasonable range. The insulating part 43 is communicated with the heat conducting part 41 in a sealing connection mode, and the connection mode is simple and convenient to operate.

In some embodiments, please continue to refer to fig. 3, the insulating portion 43 is an elastic member, and is in interference sealing with the heat conducting portion 41. The elastic member has a certain elasticity, and can be directly sleeved on the heat conducting portion 41, so as to realize the sealing communication between the insulating portion 43 and the heat conducting portion 41, such as a plastic member, a rubber member, and the like. It should be noted that, the sealing communication achieved by directly sleeving the insulating portion 43 and the heat conducting portion 41 may meet the final sealing requirement, or may have a certain sealing property between the insulating portion 43 and the heat conducting portion 41, but the sealing degree does not meet the final sealing requirement. The insulating part 43 adopts the elastic piece, and can be sealed with the heat conduction part 41 in an interference manner, so that the insulating part 43 and the heat conduction part 41 are in sealing connection, and compared with the insulating part 43 which adopts a hard piece, the operation is more convenient and easier to realize.

In some embodiments, the heat conducting part 41 is a metal piece, and the heat conducting part 41 is made of a metal material (such as aluminum alloy, stainless steel, etc.), so that the heat conductivity is high, and the heat exchange with the battery cell can be realized.

In some embodiments, the insulating portion 43 is a non-metallic piece. The insulating portion 43 is made of a nonmetallic insulating material (such as rubber, plastic, etc.), and insulation with the heat conducting portion 41 can be achieved.

In some embodiments, the density of the insulating portion 43 is less than the density of the thermally conductive portion 41. The insulating portion 43 and the heat conducting portion 41 generally have a housing and a cavity surrounded by the housing, where the density of the insulating portion 43 refers to the mass per unit volume of the housing corresponding to the insulating portion 43, and the density of the heat conducting portion 41 refers to the mass per unit volume of the housing corresponding to the heat conducting portion 41. By adopting the solution provided by the embodiment, the liquid cooling member 400 can be made of a material used for the heat conducting portion 41, which has a lower weight, and is helpful for improving the energy density of the battery 100 when applied to the battery 100.

In some embodiments, the insulating portion 43 is a plate-type structural member, has a simple structure, and facilitates connection with the heat conducting portion 41, and communication between the second cavity 44 and the first cavity 42.

In some embodiments, referring to fig. 3, the heat conducting portion 41 is a plate-type structural member. Compared with the heat conduction part 41 which adopts a tubular structural member, the heat conduction part 41 adopts a plate-type structural member, so that the heat conduction part has larger contact area with the battery cell 11, and further the battery has better heat dissipation effect.

In some embodiments, please continue to refer to fig. 3 and 4, the heat conducting portion 41 is an integrally formed structure, which is stable in structure and convenient for improving the assembly efficiency of the liquid cooling member 400.

In some embodiments, please continue to refer to fig. 3 and 4, the insulating portion 43 is an integrally formed structure, which is stable in structure and convenient for improving the assembly efficiency of the liquid cooling member 400.

In some embodiments, a plurality of first cavities 42 are provided within each thermally conductive portion 41; and/or, a plurality of second cavities 44 are provided in each insulating portion 43. The following cases are included:

in the first case, a plurality of first cavities 42 are provided in each heat conducting portion 41; each insulating part 43 is internally provided with a second cavity 44, and different first cavities 42 in two adjacent heat conducting parts 41 are communicated through the same second cavity 44, so that the cross-sectional area of the second cavity 44 is generally larger, and the flow resistance of the cooling medium in the cooling channel is smaller.

In the second case, a plurality of first cavities 42 are disposed in each heat conducting portion 41, a plurality of second cavities 44 are disposed in each insulating portion 43, and the number of second cavities 44 in the insulating portion 43 may be identical to or different from the number of first cavities 42 in the heat conducting portion 41. When the number of the second cavities 44 in the insulating portion 43 may be identical to the number of the first cavities 42 in the heat conducting portion 41, the first cavities 42 located at different positions may be sequentially communicated through the second cavities 44 at corresponding positions to form a plurality of cooling channels, and at this time, different cooling media may be introduced into different cooling channels, so that the cooling effects of the different cooling channels are different. Therefore, according to the cooling effect required by different cooling channels, the cooling medium with equivalent cooling effect is introduced into different cooling channels, so that the cooling channels at different positions of the liquid cooling piece 400 have good temperature control effect. When the number of the second cavities 44 in the insulating portion 43 may be inconsistent with the number of the first cavities 42 in the heat conducting portion 41, the plurality of first cavities 42 in the same heat conducting portion 41 may be communicated with the corresponding first cavities 42 of another heat conducting portion 41 through the same second cavities 44, and at this time, a plurality of cooling channels may also be formed, and cooling mediums with equivalent cooling effects may be introduced into different cooling channels, so that the cooling channels at different positions of the liquid cooling member 400 all have good temperature control effects.

In the third case, a first cavity 42 is provided in each heat conducting portion 41; a plurality of second cavities 44 are arranged in each insulating part 43, and at this time, compared with each insulating part 43, one second cavity 44 is arranged, so that the flow velocity of the cooling medium in the liquid cooling piece 400 can be reduced, and the utilization rate of the cooling medium can be improved.

In summary, by adopting the solution provided in this embodiment, it is convenient for users to select different types of liquid cooling members 400 according to different cooling effects, so as to meet the temperature control requirements under different conditions.

In some embodiments, the thermally conductive portion 41 is a harmonica tube plate. The harmonica tube plate is generally formed by extrusion of aluminum alloy, has the advantages of light weight, low cost and the like, and is internally provided with a plurality of first cavities extending along the length direction. The heat conducting part 41 adopts the harmonica tube plate, so that the battery is lighter in weight and lower in cost, and the energy density of the battery is beneficial to meet the preset requirement.

In some embodiments, the insulating portion 43 is a plastic tube, has a certain elasticity, and can be directly connected with the heat conducting portion 41 in a sleeving manner, or can be realized by means of simple auxiliary tools such as a heating element and sealant, and by adopting the structure, the insulating portion 43 is simple in structure, convenient to obtain materials and low in cost.

Referring to fig. 5, and further referring to fig. 6, fig. 6 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a liquid cooling assembly along direction B-B in fig. 5 according to some embodiments of the present application. The application also provides a liquid cooling assembly comprising a current collector 500 and the liquid cooling member 400 provided in any of the above embodiments.

The current collector 500 is connected to the liquid cooling member 400, and the current collector 500 has a current collecting space 51. The collecting space 51 communicates with the cooling passage.

The current collector 500 is a structural member that converges the cooling medium provided by the external liquid supply assembly 600 in the cooling channel of the liquid cooling member 400, or converges the cooling medium output by the cooling channel and outputs the cooling medium to the external liquid supply assembly 600, and may be a long-strip pipe, where one current collector 500 is communicated with a plurality of liquid cooling members 400, or may be a pipe communicating member that communicates a single liquid cooling member 400 with the external liquid supply assembly 600. The current collector 500 may be in sealed communication with the liquid cooling member 400 by means of socket, plug, welding, etc. The manifold space 51 generally has two openings, one of which communicates with the cooling passages and the other of which communicates with the external liquid supply assembly 600.

The liquid cooling assembly provided in this embodiment of the present application includes the current collector 500 and the liquid cooling member 400 provided in any one of the embodiments described above, so that the risk of short circuit between the battery cells 11 through the liquid cooling assembly during the temperature adjustment of the battery 100 for the liquid cooling assembly can be reduced.

In some embodiments, the current collector 500 is provided with two and is separately provided at both ends of the liquid cooling member 400. Thus, the cooling medium in the liquid cooling member 400 can form a smooth circulation loop with the external liquid supply assembly 600 through the current collector 500, so that the temperature control effect of the liquid cooling assembly is better.

In some embodiments, the header 500 is welded to the respective ends of the liquid cooling member 400. The current collector 500 is communicated with the heat conducting part 41 in a welding mode, and compared with the current collector which is communicated with the heat conducting part 41 in a sleeving, inserting and other modes, the sealing performance of the liquid cooling assembly can be improved, and the leakage risk of a cooling medium is reduced.

Referring to fig. 5 and 6, a liquid cooling assembly is provided according to some embodiments of the present application. The liquid cooling assembly includes a header 500 and a liquid cooling member 400. The liquid cooling member 400 includes a heat conduction portion 41 and an insulation portion 43. The heat conducting portions 41 are provided with a plurality of heat conducting portions and are sequentially arranged at intervals along the first direction X, and each heat conducting portion 41 is internally provided with a first cavity 42. The first direction X is a longitudinal direction of the liquid cooling member 400. The number of the insulating parts 43 is one less than that of the heat conducting parts 41, and each insulating part 43 is provided with a second cavity 44 with two open ends. Adjacent two heat conducting portions 41 are communicated through an insulating portion 43, so that a plurality of first cavities 42 are communicated in sequence through a second cavity 44 to form a cooling channel. The heat conducting portion 41 is a mouth tube plate. The insulating part 43 is a plastic pipe with certain elasticity, and is sleeved with the heat conducting part 41 and is in interference sealing.

The current collector 500 has two ends respectively connected to both ends of the liquid cooling member 400. Each of the header 500 has a water inlet/outlet 52 and a header space 51 communicating with the water inlet/outlet 52, the header space 51 communicating with the cooling passage. Each current collector 500 is a metal member and communicates with the corresponding end of the liquid cooling member 400 by high frequency welding.

Adopt the liquid cooling subassembly that this embodiment provided, simple structure, stability, and can reduce the liquid cooling subassembly when being applied to in the battery, different battery monomers 11 realize the risk of short circuit through the liquid cooling subassembly.

Referring to fig. 7, in some embodiments, a liquid cooling system is also provided. The liquid cooling system includes a liquid supply assembly 600 and a liquid cooling assembly provided in any of the embodiments described above. The liquid supply assembly 600 communicates with the current collector 500 to supply a cooling medium into the cooling channels.

The liquid supply assembly 600 may include only a liquid supply pipe 62 communicating the cooling channel with an external water channel to supply the cooling medium into the channel in the liquid cooling assembly, or guide the cooling medium discharged through the liquid cooling member out of the liquid cooling assembly or the battery 100 through the liquid supply pipe 62. In addition, the liquid supply assembly 600 may further include a liquid pump 61, a heat exchanger 63, etc. to control the flow rate and on-off of the cooling medium, etc. In use, the liquid cooled assembly is mounted within the battery 100, and the liquid supply assembly 600 is mostly mounted outside the battery 100 except for a portion of the liquid supply line 62.

The liquid cooling system provided in this embodiment of the present application includes the liquid supply assembly 600 and the liquid cooling assembly provided in any one of the foregoing embodiments, so that the risk that different battery monomers realize short circuits through the liquid cooling system when the liquid cooling system is applied to the battery 100 can be reduced.

Referring to fig. 8, a battery 100 is also provided according to some embodiments of the present application. The battery 100 includes the liquid cooling member 400 and the plurality of battery cells 11 provided in the above embodiments. At least some of the battery cells 11 are disposed at intervals along the first direction X, and are in thermal contact with the different thermal conductive portions 41 in a one-to-one correspondence. Among the battery cells 11 in heat conductive contact with the heat conductive portion 41, the interval between any two adjacent battery cells 11 corresponds to one insulating portion 43. The term "an insulating portion 43 is a space between any two adjacent battery cells 11" means that a space region between the corresponding two battery cells 11 coincides with a projection region of at least a portion of the insulating portion 43 on a surface perpendicular to the first direction X.

The battery 100 may include the battery cell 11 not in heat conductive contact with the heat conductive portion 41, in addition to the battery cell 11 in heat conductive contact with the heat conductive portion 41. The heat conduction contact means that the corresponding heat conduction portion 41 and the battery cell 11 can achieve heat conduction by direct contact or indirect contact. Of the plurality of battery cells 11 located on the same side of the liquid cooling member, any two battery cells 11 are not in heat conductive contact with the same heat conductive portion 41.

In use, the heat dissipation path of the battery cell 11 in heat conduction contact with the liquid cooling member 400 is as follows:

in the battery cell 11, heat is mainly transferred from the inside of the battery cell 11 to the surface of the battery cell 11 in a heat conduction manner, then transferred to the casing of the heat conduction portion 41 in a heat conduction manner, then transferred to the surface of the first cavity 42 of the heat conduction portion 41 in a heat conduction manner by the casing of the heat conduction portion 41, then transferred to the cooling medium in the first cavity 42 in a heat conduction manner by the surface of the first cavity 42, and then transferred to the outside of the battery 100 in a convection manner by the cooling medium.

The battery 100 provided in the embodiment of the present application includes the liquid cooling member 400 and the plurality of battery cells 11 provided in the foregoing embodiments, so that the risk of short circuit between the battery cells 11 through the liquid cooling member 400 during use can be reduced.

Since the plurality of heat conducting portions 41 are in corresponding heat conducting contact with the plurality of sequentially adjacent and spaced battery cells 11, and the space between two adjacent battery cells 11 is small, if the width of the insulating portion 43 is smaller than the space between two adjacent battery cells 11, in actual use, the battery cells 11 located on any side of the insulating portion 43 easily pass through the insulating portion 43 when being moved in position due to external force, and at this time, the situation that the same heat conducting portion 41 is in heat conducting contact with two battery cells 11 simultaneously occurs, and if the insulating films of the two battery cells 11 are worn, electrical connection is achieved through the heat conducting portion 41. To reduce the risk of this, in some embodiments, the length of the insulating portion 43 is greater than or equal to the spacing width a between the corresponding two battery cells 11 in the first direction X. The space width refers to the distance between two faces disposed opposite to each other in the corresponding two battery cells 11. It should be noted that the interval width a may be any value within a range of possible interval widths between the respective two battery cells 11 in consideration of the thermal expansion and contraction factors of the battery 100. If the battery 100 can be used in the temperature range of t1-t2, the interval width a between two adjacent battery cells 11 is a1 when used at t1 temperature, and the interval width a between two adjacent battery cells 11 is a2 when used at t2 temperature, the interval width a in the present embodiment may be any value between a1-a2, or may be a1 or a2. With the battery 100 provided in this embodiment, the risk of short-circuiting between two adjacent battery cells 11 through the same heat conducting portion 41 during use can be further reduced.

According to some embodiments of the present application, there is also provided an electrical device including a battery provided in any of the above embodiments. The battery is used for providing electric energy for the electric device.

The powered device may be any of the aforementioned devices or systems employing batteries.

The power utilization device provided by the embodiment of the application adopts the battery provided by any one of the embodiments, has lower risk of short circuit among battery monomers, and is higher in safety.

Finally, it should be noted that: the above embodiments are only for illustrating the technical solution of the present application, and not for limiting the same; although the present application has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, it should be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: the technical scheme described in the foregoing embodiments can be modified or some or all of the technical features thereof can be replaced by equivalents; such modifications and substitutions do not depart from the spirit of the embodiments, and are intended to be included within the scope of the claims and description. In particular, the technical features mentioned in the respective embodiments may be combined in any manner as long as there is no structural conflict. The present application is not limited to the specific embodiments disclosed herein, but encompasses all technical solutions falling within the scope of the claims.

Claims (14)

1. A liquid cooling member, comprising:

the heat conducting parts are provided with a plurality of heat conducting parts and are sequentially arranged at intervals along the first direction, and each heat conducting part is internally provided with a first cavity; and

the insulation parts are internally provided with second cavities with two open ends;

wherein, two adjacent heat conduction portions are communicated through the insulating portion, so that the first cavities which are sequentially arranged along the first direction are communicated through the second cavities to form a cooling channel.

2. The liquid cooling member of claim 1, wherein the insulating portion is sealingly connected to the thermally conductive portion.

3. The liquid cooling member of claim 1, wherein the insulating portion is an elastic member that is in interference seal with the thermally conductive portion.

4. The liquid cooling member according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the heat conducting portion is a metal member;

and/or, the insulating part is a nonmetallic part.

5. The liquid cooling member according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the density of the insulating portion is less than the density of the heat conducting portion.

6. The liquid cooling member according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the insulating portion is a plate-type structural member;

And/or, the heat conduction part is a plate-type structural member.

7. A liquid cooling member according to any of claims 1-3, wherein a plurality of said first cavities are provided in each of said heat conducting portions;

and/or, a plurality of second cavities are arranged in each insulating part.

8. The liquid cooling member according to any one of claims 1 to 3, wherein the heat conducting portion is a mouth tube plate;

and/or the insulating part is a plastic pipe.

9. A liquid cooling assembly, comprising:

the liquid-cooled article of any one of claims 1-8; and

the current collecting piece is connected with the liquid cooling piece and is provided with a current collecting space which is communicated with the cooling channel.

10. The liquid cooling assembly of claim 9, wherein the collector member is provided in two separate units at both ends of the liquid cooling member.

11. A liquid cooling system, comprising:

the liquid cooled assembly of claim 9 or 10; and

and the liquid supply assembly is communicated with the current collector to supply cooling medium into the cooling channel.

12. A battery, comprising:

the liquid-cooled article of any one of claims 1-8; and

The plurality of battery cells are arranged at intervals along the first direction, and are in one-to-one heat conduction contact with different heat conduction parts;

the heat conducting part is used for conducting heat to the battery cells, wherein the interval between any two adjacent battery cells corresponds to one insulating part in the battery cells in heat conducting contact with the heat conducting part.

13. The battery of claim 12, wherein a length of the insulating portion is greater than or equal to a width of a space between corresponding two of the battery cells in the first direction.

14. An electrical device comprising a battery as claimed in claim 12 or 13 for providing electrical energy to the electrical device.

Images