Crash Protection for EV Battery Systems

Battery management system that can quickly cool a vehicle battery after thermal runaway to prevent fires and explosions. The system monitors battery temperature and, if thermal runaway is detected, stops supplying power to non-essential loads like air conditioning, audio, and lighting. It then prioritizes powering the cooling system and sends alerts to the driver and emergency services. This allows passengers to escape before the battery overheats and prevents secondary fires.

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A comprehensive safety prevention and control system for electric vehicle battery packs that can actively prevent and mitigate battery failures and fires. The system has components like fault diagnostics, thermal runaway detection, and actuators to suppress spread and extinguish fires. It provides proactive prevention measures before thermal runaway, like draining leaking electrolyte, and then targeted suppression like cooling, gas extraction, and fire suppression if runaway spreads. This step-by-step approach maximizes safety protection by activating appropriate measures based on the specific accident scenario.

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Battery pack design and thermal runaway protection method to improve safety by shortening the path and increasing reliability of thermal runaway suppression compared to traditional methods. The battery pack has a cooling unit, switch unit, and multiple battery modules. When one module has thermal runaway, the switch gates the other modules to isolate them. The cooling unit directly cools the isolated module instead of relying on the vehicle's low-voltage power supply. This shortens the processing path and avoids failures due to damaged pipes or low capacity. The module that didn't runaway powers the cooling unit.

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A system to prevent battery packs from thermal runaway and explosions in electric vehicles. The system helps the battery management system (BMS) by adding external modules to intervene and mitigate runaway events. When the BMS detects a battery is at risk of runaway, an energy output control module isolates that battery and actively discharges it. This releases energy from the faulty battery to prevent it from overheating. The energy consumption module then takes excess charge from other batteries to balance the pack. Finally, a cooling module cools the pack to further delay runaway. The external modules intervene to isolate, discharge, and cool the pack to prevent thermal runaway domino effects and explosions.

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Active battery thermal runaway suppression method to prevent explosions when lithium-ion batteries overheat. The method involves actively cooling the battery pack during thermal runaway instead of just shutting down the pack. This slows down the self-generated heat of the battery pack after thermal runaway, prolonging the time for the pack temperature to rise to dangerous levels. By continuing to cool the pack during runaway, it gives more time for other control strategies to respond and improves pack safety. The method can be implemented using existing battery pack cooling systems without hardware modifications.

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Smart connection sheet for battery packs in electric vehicles that can provide automatic safety protection. The smart connection sheet has a conductive member to connect adjacent battery cells and a cut-off device that can be triggered to sever the conductive member. When a fault condition like a short circuit, overheating, or collision is detected, the cut-off device can be activated to disconnect the battery cells and prevent further damage.

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Chassis design for electric vehicles to provide a secure connection between the vehicle chassis and the traction battery housing that will prevent detachment in the event of a rear impact. The chassis features projections that fit into corresponding recesses on the battery housing. This three-dimensional form fit engagement locks the battery housing securely onto the chassis beams in all directions.

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Quickly mitigating the consequences of thermal runaway of power batteries in electric vehicles by using the vehicle's cooling system and components to consume remaining battery power and dissipate heat when a battery cell starts to overheat. The method involves forcibly starting the electric heater and vehicle cooling system when a thermal event is detected in a battery cell. This speeds up battery drain and heat dissipation to reduce the risk of fire or explosion. The forced start of the heater and cooling system is controlled through onboard electronics. The strategy improves safety by consuming more power and preventing overheating when passengers are still inside.

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Battery protection apparatus for electric vehicles that effectively protects the battery pack during collisions without adding excessive weight compared to previous battery pack protection systems. The battery protection apparatus includes a separate main body fixed under the vehicle that extends up to shield the battery pack side. This main body has a cavity and gaps to absorb and disperse collision forces from impacts rather than transmitting them directly to the battery pack. A protrusion on the vehicle sill between the main body and battery helps absorb forces.

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Battery system for electric vehicles that reduces safety risks during thermal runaway of the battery pack. The system has a support assembly that can switch between supporting the pack when healthy and releasing it during runaway. This allows the pack to safely fall under gravity instead of potentially exploding. A control module switches the support based on pack state detected by sensors. The support has heat dissipation structures to cool the pack when supported.

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Battery pack for electric vehicles that prevents damage to battery modules during impacts. The pack has a tray with enclosing edge beams and a vapor chamber on top. The vapor chamber edges clamp onto the tray beams. This couples the vapor chamber to the tray to increase strength and prevent beam deformation when squashed. The chamber also protects the battery from above.

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To prevent a vehicle sub-frame from striking the battery during a collision, the sub-frame is designed to engage with the vehicle side members using brackets that have downwardly inclined portions. This causes the sub-frame to move downward and away from the battery when pushed during a collision, preventing impact. The angled engagement brackets allow the sub-frame to tilt downward if rearward force is applied, avoiding contact with the battery.

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A vehicle body design that improves crash safety for electric vehicles, particularly to prevent damage to the high-voltage battery. The design includes reinforced side sills, front side members, rear lower members, and a lower bar to protect the battery from both side and front impacts. This provides additional structural support around the battery to prevent striking in the event of a crash. The reinforced components absorb impact forces and prevent the battery from being damaged by other vehicle parts.

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A two-stage safety protection system for lithium-ion battery electric vehicles to prevent thermal runaway and fires. It has a primary response to cool the battery if abnormal heat is detected, and a secondary response to extinguish flames and further cool after thermal runaway. The primary response uses refrigerant to remove heat before runaway, the secondary response releases fire suppressant to extinguish flames, followed by more refrigerant to prevent runaway spread. This provides multiple levels of intervention and cooling to mitigate battery fires.

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Control method and device to prevent battery pack fires in electric vehicles during collisions by actively balancing cell charges and discharges. The method involves monitoring cell voltages, regulating cell charges, and simulating collisions to proactively equalize cell states. This prevents cells from getting too imbalanced during normal operation, reducing the risk of fire when collisions cause external cells to deform and block venting. The equalization is achieved by prioritizing charging and discharging peripheral cells to safer SOC levels.

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Preventing thermal runaway diffusion of batteries in energy storage systems to mitigate the risk of cascading cell failures. The method involves extracting the failed battery module from the storage array when it thermally runaways. This is done by pushing the inner battery case out of the outer container using the internal pressure from the runaway cells. It also uses mechanisms like springs and tilting shells to aid extraction. This isolates the failed module to prevent further spread of thermal damage.

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Delaying thermal runaway of a power battery in electric vehicles to prevent spread and damage when it occurs. The method involves detecting battery thermal runaway and then simultaneously waking up the vehicle controller and activating the cooling system to cool the battery. This allows reducing or preventing further spread of thermal runaway without adding an independent cooling system. By connecting the battery to the cooling system and monitoring temperatures, if cooling brings the inlet temperature below the outlet, it indicates the battery has stabilized and the connection is disconnected to stop cooling. This simple and low-cost method prevents thermal runaway propagation compared to independent cooling systems.

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Active cooling of a failing battery in an electric vehicle by leveraging a healthy secondary battery to quickly cool the failing battery. The method involves detecting thermal runaway in the primary battery, making the secondary battery perform self-tests, and if normal, having the secondary battery supply power to the vehicle cooling system to actively cool the primary battery. This prevents further thermal propagation and improves electric vehicle safety.

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Battery energy control method and system for electric vehicles to safely disconnect the high-voltage battery circuit during collisions to prevent electric shock hazard. The method involves detecting collision events using vehicle sensors, determining collision severity based on airbag deployment, and using a battery management system to power off the battery distribution unit when a severe collision is detected. This disconnects the high-voltage circuit to prevent leaks and shocks from damaged vehicle electrical connections.

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Battery thermal management system to prevent battery packs from spreading thermal runaway through adjacent packs. It uses a telescopic rod between packs that can extend when a pack detects thermal runaway. This increases the distance between packs to stop heat transfer and contain runaway. An intelligent control module coordinates the rod extension.

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