JP2006192969A - Power supply device for vehicle - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To uniformly cool a battery module quickly and efficiently while reducing a heat loss by utilizing the heat of vaporization of a refrigerant. <P>SOLUTION: This power supply device for a vehicle includes: a plurality of batteries 1; a battery case 2 for housing the batteries 1; and a cooling mechanism 3 for forcibly feeding the air to the batteries 1 in the battery case 2 to cool the batteries. The cooling mechanism 3 includes: an air cooling heat exchanger 4 for cooling the air blown to the batteries 1 by heat of vaporization of the refrigerant; a refrigerating cycle 5 for supplying the refrigerant to the air cooling heat exchanger 4; and a blower 6 for passing the air for the air cooling heat exchanger 4 to blow the air to the batteries 1. The air cooling heat exchanger 4 is provided in the battery case 2 and disposed under the batteries 1. The power supply device forcibly blows the air passing under the air cooling heat exchanger 3 upward to the batteries 1 to cool the batteries 1. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention mainly relates to a high-current power supply device used for powering a motor that drives a vehicle such as a hybrid vehicle, a fuel vehicle, and an electric vehicle.

  A high-current, high-output power supply device used as a power supply for driving a motor for driving an automobile further increases the output voltage by connecting a power supply module in which a plurality of batteries are connected in series. This is to increase the output of the drive motor. A power supply device used for this type of application is charged and discharged with a large current. For example, in a hybrid vehicle or the like, when starting or accelerating, a motor is driven by a battery to accelerate the vehicle, so that a very large current of 100 A or more flows. Furthermore, when regenerative braking is performed with sudden braking, the battery is charged with a large current.

  A power supply device used by passing a large current needs to be forcibly cooled because the temperature of the battery rises. In particular, in a power supply apparatus in which a large number of power supply modules are placed side by side in a holder case, it is important to cool each power supply module as quickly as possible. This is because the battery performance decreases as the temperature of the battery module increases. When the temperature of the battery module becomes higher than the set temperature, air outside the vehicle can be forcibly blown and cooled. However, this structure cannot quickly cool the battery module when the outside air temperature is high.

A power supply device for a vehicle having a cooling mechanism for preventing this problem has been developed. (See Patent Document 1)
JP 2002-31441 A

  The power supply device described in this publication uses an air cooling heat exchanger, which is an evaporator forcibly cooled by vaporizing a refrigerant supplied from a refrigeration cycle for air conditioning of a vehicle, as a cooling mechanism. The air cooling heat exchanger forcibly cools the air and cools the battery module with the cooled air. This cooling mechanism can quickly cool the battery module by blowing air that is forcibly cooled to a low temperature to the battery module. However, the cooling mechanism having the structure shown in this figure cannot efficiently cool the battery module with the air cooled by the air-cooling heat exchanger of the evaporator. This is because the temperature of the air cooled by the air-cooling heat exchanger rises when passing through the duct supplied to the battery module and heat loss increases. While air is cooled in a very short time passing through an air cooling heat exchanger, the temperature easily rises when passing through the duct. In addition, since the air cooled through the air cooling heat exchanger is forcibly blown to the battery module through the duct, it is difficult to uniformly blow the cooling air of the same temperature to all the battery modules. There is also a drawback that a temperature difference can occur.

  The present invention has been developed for the purpose of solving such drawbacks. An important object of the present invention is to provide a power supply device for a vehicle that can quickly and efficiently cool a battery module uniformly while using heat of vaporization of a refrigerant to reduce heat loss.

  The vehicle power supply device of the present invention has the following configuration in order to achieve the above-described object. The power supply device for a vehicle includes a plurality of batteries 1, a battery case 2 that houses the batteries 1, and a cooling mechanism 3 that cools the batteries 1 in the battery case 2 by forcibly blowing air. The cooling mechanism 3 includes an air cooling heat exchanger 4 that cools the air blown to the battery 1 by the heat of vaporization of the refrigerant, a refrigeration cycle 5 that supplies the refrigerant to the air cooling heat exchanger 4, and heat for air cooling. An air blower 6 for passing air through the exchanger 4 and blowing air to the battery 1 is provided. The air cooling heat exchanger 4 is disposed under the battery 1 in the battery case 2. The power supply device cools the battery 1 by forcibly blowing the air passing through the air cooling heat exchanger 4 from the bottom to the battery 1.

  The heat exchanger 4 for cooling air passes through a plurality of metal plates 19 through conduits 18 through which the refrigerant passes, arranges the metal plates 19 in a vertical posture, and allows the air passing between the metal plates 19 to flow upward. The battery 1 can be blown.

  The battery case 2 can have the bottom plate 21 as an air supply duct 24 and the top plate 22 as an air discharge duct 25.

  The refrigeration cycle 5 is connected between a compressor 7 for pressurizing the refrigerant, a condenser 8 for cooling and liquefying the refrigerant pressurized by the compressor 7, and the condenser 8 and the air cooling heat exchanger 4. The refrigerant that has passed through the expansion valve 9 is supplied to the air cooling heat exchanger 4, and the compressor 7 sucks the refrigerant vaporized in the air cooling heat exchanger 4, It can be pumped to the condenser 8.

  Furthermore, the power supply device for a vehicle of the present invention can supply a refrigerant from the refrigeration cycle 5 for cooling the vehicle to the heat exchanger 4 for cooling the air.

  The power supply device for a vehicle according to the present invention has an advantage that a built-in battery can be cooled quickly and efficiently and uniformly while using heat of vaporization of the refrigerant to reduce heat loss. The power supply device of the present invention includes a cooling mechanism that cools a plurality of batteries housed in a battery case by forcing air to cool, and this cooling mechanism is the heat of vaporization of the refrigerant supplied from the refrigeration cycle. In the battery case, an air cooling heat exchanger that cools the air that is blown to the battery is provided in the battery case, and the air that has been passed through the air cooling heat exchanger by the blower is forcibly blown to the battery to cool the battery. It is. The power supply device of this structure forcibly blows air that has been cooled by passing it through an air cooling heat exchanger directly to the battery, so cooling air is blown to the built-in battery while reducing heat loss, Features that can cool all batteries efficiently and uniformly can be realized.

  In particular, the power supply device for a vehicle according to claim 5 of the present invention supplies the refrigerant from the refrigeration cycle for cooling the vehicle to the heat exchanger for cooling the air. Therefore, the refrigeration cycle for cooling the vehicle is used together with the cooling mechanism for the battery. Manufacturing costs can be reduced.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. However, the following embodiment exemplifies a power supply device for a vehicle for embodying the technical idea of the present invention, and the present invention does not specify the power supply device as follows.

  Further, in this specification, in order to facilitate understanding of the scope of claims, numbers corresponding to the members shown in the examples are indicated in the “claims” and “means for solving problems” sections. It is added to the members. However, the members shown in the claims are not limited to the members in the embodiments.

  The vehicle power supply device shown in FIG. 1 includes a plurality of batteries 1, a battery case 2 containing the batteries 1, and a cooling mechanism that forcibly blows air to cool the batteries 1 in the battery case 2. 3. The cooling mechanism 3 includes an air cooling heat exchanger 4 that cools the air blown to the battery 1 by the heat of vaporization of the refrigerant, a refrigeration cycle 5 that supplies the refrigerant to the air cooling heat exchanger 4, and heat for air cooling. An air blower 6 for passing air through the exchanger 4 and blowing air to the battery 1 is provided.

  The refrigeration cycle 5 includes a compressor 7 that pressurizes the vaporized refrigerant, a condenser 8 that cools and liquefies the refrigerant pressurized by the compressor 7, and the condenser 8 and the air cooling heat exchanger 4. And an expansion valve 9 connected therebetween. The expansion valve 9 adiabatically expands the refrigerant liquefied by pressurization and cooling inside the air cooling heat exchanger 4 to forcibly cool the air cooling heat exchanger 4 with the heat of vaporization of the refrigerant. The expansion valve 9 adjusts the opening so that the temperature on the discharge side of the air cooling heat exchanger 4 is set to the set temperature, and completely supplies the refrigerant supplied inside the air cooling heat exchanger 4. Vaporize and discharge.

  The above refrigeration cycle 5 forcibly cools the air cooling heat exchanger 4 as follows. The compressor 7 pressurizes the refrigerant vaporized by the air cooling heat exchanger 4 and supplies it to the condenser 8. The condenser 8 cools and liquefies the refrigerant with a heat exchanger. Since the condenser 8 is forcibly cooled by the outside air, the outside air is forcibly blown by the fan 10. The refrigerant liquefied by the condenser 8 passes through the expansion valve 9 and is supplied to the air cooling heat exchanger 4. The expansion valve 9 adiabatically expands the liquefied refrigerant inside the air cooling heat exchanger 4. The adiabatic expansion refrigerant is vaporized by taking the heat of vaporization from the surroundings inside the air cooling heat exchanger 4. For this reason, the air cooling heat exchanger 4 is cooled to a low temperature by the heat of vaporization of the refrigerant. The refrigerant evaporated and discharged inside the air cooling heat exchanger 4 is circulated again to the condenser 8 by the compressor 7.

  The power supply device of FIG. 1 supplies the refrigerant to the air cooling heat exchanger 4 in the refrigeration cycle 5 for vehicle cooling. In the refrigeration cycle 5 in this figure, an air cooling heat exchanger 4 that cools the battery 1 and an evaporator 13 that cools the interior of the vehicle are connected to the discharge side of the condenser 8 via on-off valves 11 and 12, respectively. ing. Opening and closing of the on-off valves 11 and 12 is controlled by the control circuit 14. The control circuit 14 opens the on-off valve 11 connected to the air cooling heat exchanger 4 when the battery 1 is cooled, and opens the on-off valve 12 connected to the evaporator 13 when the inside of the vehicle is cooled. . When the on-off valves 11 and 12 are opened, the refrigerant is supplied to the air cooling heat exchanger 4 and the evaporator 13 to be cooled. The compressor 7 is driven by a motor 15. The motor 15 is driven by electric power supplied from the battery 1 via the DC / AC converter 16. The control circuit 14 controls the rotational speed of the motor 15 by controlling the DC / AC converter 16. The control circuit 14 increases the rotational speed of the motor 15 when the compressor 7 needs to supply a large amount of refrigerant. For example, when the amount of cooling heat in the vehicle is increased or the amount of cooling heat of the battery 1 is increased, the control circuit 14 controls the DC / AC converter 16 to increase the rotation speed of the motor 15. Conversely, when the cooling heat amount is small or the cooling heat amount of the battery 1 is small, the rotation speed of the motor 15 is slowed down. The compressor 7 can also be driven by the engine 17. A compressor driven by the engine is connected to a crank pulley of the engine through an electromagnetic clutch, a pulley, and a belt, although not shown. Control the on / off of the electromagnetic clutch with the control circuit to control the rotation of the compressor.

  2 to 5 show a structure in which the battery 1 and the air cooling heat exchanger 4 are arranged in the battery case 2. In the battery case 2 shown in these drawings, the battery 1 and the air cooling heat exchanger 4 are disposed between the top plate 22 on the upper surface and the bottom plate 21 on the lower surface. The air cooling heat exchanger 4 is disposed below the battery 1, in other words, above the air cooling heat exchanger 4.

  The battery case 2 in this figure includes a bottom plate 21 and a top plate 22, and a battery holder 20 that places the battery 1 in a fixed position. Further, the battery case 2 is closed around the side plate 23 as indicated by a chain line in FIG. The bottom plate 21 has a hollow inside and is provided with an air supply duct 24 inside. The top plate 22 also has a hollow interior and is provided with an air discharge duct 25 inside. The bottom plate 21 is connected to an internal supply duct 24 and opens at the right end in FIG. The opening at the end is connected to the discharge side of the blower 6 as shown in FIG. 1, and supplies air supplied from the blower 6 to the heat exchanger 4 for cooling air from the bottom plate 21. The bottom plate 21 has an upper surface opened to supply air from the supply duct 24 to the air cooling heat exchanger 4 disposed above, and the air cooling heat exchanger 4 is disposed in the opening. Yes. The top plate 22 is connected to an internal exhaust duct and opens at the right end. The opening is connected to the suction side of the blower 6 as shown in FIG. Moreover, the top plate 22 has an open bottom surface. The opening on the lower surface of the top plate 22 is connected to the air duct 26 of the battery holder 20. In the battery case 2 having this structure, the air discharged from the blower 6 is supplied from the supply duct 24 of the bottom plate 21 to the air cooling heat exchanger 4, and the air cooled by the air cooling heat exchanger 4 is supplied to the battery holder 20. And the battery 1 is connected to the battery holder 20, passed through the exhaust duct of the top plate 22 from the battery holder 20, and circulated through the blower 6.

  The battery holder 20 is provided with a storage chamber 27 for storing a plurality of batteries 1 arranged in parallel in two upper and lower stages. The lower storage chamber 27 has a cross-sectional shape that is an inverted U-shaped groove and opens downward. The lower storage chamber 27 is provided with an air duct 26 between the upper inner surface and the battery surface. The upper storage chamber 27 has a cylindrical shape whose inner shape is larger than the outer shape of the battery 1, and an air duct 26 that allows air to pass between the battery 1 and the storage battery 1. The upper end of the lower storage chamber 27 and the lower end of the upper storage chamber 27 are connected by a slit-shaped air duct 26. Further, the upper end portion of the upper storage chamber 27 is also connected to the opening on the lower surface of the top plate 22 by a slit-like air duct 26. The battery holder 20 having this shape blows the air cooled by the air-cooling heat exchanger 4 from the lower storage chamber 27 to the upper storage chamber 27 to cool the upper and lower batteries 1. The upper storage chamber 27 is provided with a narrow air duct 26 around the entire circumference of the battery 1 stored therein. The lower storage chamber 27 is provided with a narrow air duct 26 in the upper half of the battery 1. The narrow air duct 26 has a high air flow rate, and the air effectively cools the battery 1. As shown in the figure, the structure in which the entire circumference of the upper battery 1 is cooled with air flowing at high speed and the half circumference of the lower battery 1 is cooled with air flowing at high speed can cool the upper and lower batteries 1 to a uniform temperature. There are features. This is because the battery 1 in the lower storage chamber 27 is effectively cooled by low-temperature air, and the battery 1 in the upper storage chamber 27 cools a large area with air that flows at high speed.

  In order to form an air duct 26 having a certain gap between the battery 1 and the storage chamber 27, a protrusion (not shown) is provided in a ring shape on the surface of the battery 1. An air duct 26 having a certain gap is provided between the battery 1 and the storage chamber 27 by contacting the protrusions with the inner surface of the storage chamber 27. However, a protrusion may be provided on the inner surface of the storage chamber, and the protrusion may be in contact with the surface of the battery to provide a certain gap between the battery and the storage chamber.

  In the illustrated power supply apparatus, the battery 1 is a cylindrical battery, but the battery 1 may be a square battery. The battery 1 is housed in a battery holder 20 in a state where a plurality of unit cells are connected in series in a straight line to form a battery module. The battery module is, for example, a structure in which 5 to 6 secondary batteries are linearly connected in series. However, the power supply module can also be composed of one secondary battery. Although not shown, the power supply module is housed in a posture parallel to the battery holder by connecting the cylindrical batteries in a straight line via a dish-like connecting body made of a metal plate to make the entire shape an elongated cylindrical shape. The dish-like connecting body is spot-welded to the electrode of the secondary battery, and connects the opposing secondary batteries in a straight line in series.

  However, the power supply device of the present invention does not specify the structure in which the battery 1 is housed in the battery case 2 in the form shown in the figure. In the battery case, all the batteries can be stored on the same surface, that is, arranged in one row, or can be stored in a structure in which three or more layers are stacked.

  The air cooling heat exchanger 4 is disposed under the battery 1 in the battery case 2. Air is passed through the air cooling heat exchanger 4 from below to cool it. The air cooled by the air cooling heat exchanger 4 is forcibly blown to the battery 1 disposed above to cool the battery 1. In the air cooling heat exchanger 4, a plurality of metal plates 19 are passed through a conduit 18 through which a refrigerant passes. The metal plate 19 is arranged in a vertical posture, and air passing between the metal plates 19 is blown to the upper battery 1. In the air-cooling heat exchanger 4 shown in the figure, a plurality of metal plates 19 are arranged at regular intervals in a parallel and vertical posture with the battery 1. The air passes between the metal plates 19 and is cooled by the metal plates 19. The metal plate 19 is cooled by the refrigerant passing through the conduit 18.

  The air cooling heat exchanger 4 can eliminate the uneven temperature of the battery 1 by adjusting the number and interval of the metal plates 19 connected to the conduit 18. For example, in the arrangement shown in the figure, when the battery temperature in the central part is higher than the battery temperature in the both side parts, the distance between the metal plates 19 to be blown to the battery 1 in the central part is narrowed to increase the number of sheets. The interval between the metal plates 19 to be blown to the battery 1 is increased to reduce the number of sheets. The metal plates 19 having a large number of sheets and narrow intervals have a high cooling effect on the passing air, and cool the passing air to a lower temperature. On the contrary, the metal plate 19 with a small number of sheets and a wide interval has a small cooling capacity for the passing air, and the temperature of the passing air becomes high. For this reason, the battery 1 in the central portion is effectively cooled by air at a lower temperature than the batteries 1 on both sides, and becomes equal to the temperature of the battery 1 on both sides. Moreover, when the local part of the battery 1 becomes high temperature, the number of the metal plates 19 is increased in the air passage region for cooling the high temperature part. Many metal plates 19 cool the air to a lower temperature. For this reason, the cooling efficiency of the battery 1 is high, and the high temperature part can be cooled to a low temperature to make the temperature uniform.

  Although not shown, the plurality of conduits 18 penetrating the metal plate 19 of the air cooling heat exchanger 4 are connected in parallel to each other, or connected in parallel and in series, and connected to the refrigeration cycle 5. That is, the conduit 18 has one end connected to the suction side of the compressor 7 and the other end connected to the condenser 8 via the expansion valve 9 and the on-off valve 11, and the liquefied refrigerant is supplied from the condenser 8 and supplied. The refrigerant is vaporized inside the conduit 18 and the vaporized refrigerant is sucked into the compressor 7.

  The conduit 18 of the air cooling heat exchanger 4 is made of a copper pipe, and the metal plate 19 is made of an aluminum plate. However, in the air-cooling heat exchanger, the conduit can be made of an aluminum pipe and the metal plate can be made of a copper plate. Further, in the heat exchanger for air cooling, the conduit can be made of an aluminum pipe and the metal plate can be made of an aluminum plate. This air cooling heat exchanger is excellent in recyclability and has an advantage that it can be effectively reused. Furthermore, the air-cooling heat exchanger can be made of a copper pipe and a metal plate made of a copper pipe. This air-cooling heat exchanger has features of excellent heat conduction and efficient heat exchange. Further, either or both of the conduit and the metal plate can be made of a metal other than aluminum or copper.

  The battery case 2 is assembled by connecting the top plate 22, the bottom plate 21 and the side plate 23, and houses the battery 1 and the air cooling heat exchanger 4 inside.

It is a schematic block diagram of the power supply device for vehicles concerning one Example of the present invention. It is a disassembled perspective view which shows an example of a battery case. It is a perspective view of the battery case shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a side view of the battery case shown in FIG. 3. FIG. 4 is a front view of the battery case shown in FIG. 3.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Battery 2 ... Battery case 3 ... Cooling mechanism 4 ... Heat exchanger for air cooling 5 ... Refrigeration cycle 6 ... Blower 7 ... Compressor 8 ... Condenser 9 ... Expansion valve 10 ... Fan 11 ... On-off valve 12 ... On-off valve 13 ... Evaporator 14 ... Control circuit 15 ... Motor 16 ... DC / AC converter 17 ... Engine 18 ... Conduit 19 ... Metal plate 20 ... Battery holder 21 ... Bottom plate 22 ... Top plate 23 ... Side plate 24 ... Supply duct 25 ... Exhaust duct 26 ... Air duct 27 ... Storage room

Claims (5)

Multiple batteries (1), a battery case (2) that houses the batteries (1), and a cooling mechanism (3) that cools the batteries (1) in the battery case (2) by forcibly blowing air A power supply device comprising:
The cooling mechanism (3) is an air-cooling heat exchanger (4) that cools the air sent to the battery (1) with the heat of vaporization of the refrigerant, and a refrigeration supplying the refrigerant to the air-cooling heat exchanger (4). A cycle (5) and a blower (6) for passing air through the air cooling heat exchanger (4) and blowing air to the battery (1),
An air cooling heat exchanger (4) is disposed in the battery case (2) and under the battery (1), and air passing from the bottom to the air cooling heat exchanger (4) A power supply device for a vehicle configured to cool the battery (1) by forcibly blowing air to the battery (1).   The air-cooling heat exchanger (4) has a conduit (18) that allows refrigerant to pass through the plurality of metal plates (19), the metal plate (19) is arranged in a vertical posture, and the metal plate ( 19. The power supply device for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein air passing between the two is blown to the upper battery (1).   The power supply device for a vehicle according to claim 1, wherein the bottom plate (21) of the battery case (2) is an air supply duct (24) and the top plate (22) is an air discharge duct (25).   The refrigeration cycle (5) includes a compressor (7) that pressurizes the refrigerant, a condenser (8) that cools and liquefies the refrigerant pressurized by the compressor (7), and the condenser (8) and air cooling An expansion valve (9) connected to the heat exchanger (4) for cooling, and supplies the refrigerant that has passed through the expansion valve (9) to the air cooling heat exchanger (4) for air cooling. The power supply device for vehicles according to claim 1, wherein the compressor (7) sucks the refrigerant vaporized in the heat exchanger (4) and pumps it to the condenser (8). The power supply device for vehicles described in Claim 1 which supplies a refrigerant | coolant to the heat exchanger (4) for air cooling from the refrigerating cycle (5) for vehicle cooling.

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