Liquid Cold Plates & Liquid Cooling Systems in electric Vehicle (Part 2)

DESIGN OF THERMAL BATTERY & INVERTER COOLING

Conventional passenger car cooling has focused on the combustion engine, which has distinct thermal requirements and demands for system design. Electric battery vehicles require a totally different system design and have entirely new cooling requirements. 

To fully utilize new technologies and rebuild systems from the ground up while preserving automotive safety regulations and standard functionality that drivers are used to, engineers must be creative and forward-thinking.

Vehicles that run on combustion must have an engine system that can thermally regulate the extremely high exhaust temperatures that result from combustion. The problem of handling extremely high temperatures is removed when batteries are used instead of combustion, but new design challenges are introduced, such as controlling electric conversion energy within the mutually beneficial relationship between batteries and inverters.

Electric Vehicle Inverter Cut Out view

In order to meet the increasing demands of eMobility customers, integrated liquid systems have been shown to be the most appropriate solution for new battery and inverter thermal challenges. Within a single central thermal system, liquid systems provide the most effective cooling and design flexibility to satisfy the needs of the inverters and batteries. Making use of one 

optimized loop allows for weight and space savings in addition to the best possible performance for each system component. and price.

Read Also : Liquid Cold Plates & Liquid Cooling Systems in electric Vehicle (Part 1)

Typical components of fully optimized liquid systems are: 

• Cold Plates made to meet the needs of the heat source for hot spot cooling or maximum surface area contact. It is imperative to guarantee that these cold plates are rigorously tested and made to be incredibly durable, dependable, and leak-free. 
• The use of mounting hardware and thermal interface materials to guarantee minimum heat loss during the transfer of heat from the heat source to the cooling system for optimal heat dissipation.
• Radiators and heat exchangers made to dissipate heat as rapidly as possible in small spaces. 
• Hardware such as connectors, hoses, pumps, reservoirs, and other items that guarantee dependability, sturdiness, and simplicity of system maintenance.
• Additional integrated technologies, such as heat pipes, highly engineered materials, fans, blowers, and sophisticated heat sink fins, to enhance performance and decrease system weight or size.

  

  Drive Unit In EV

The biggest challenge in developing liquid systems for the engine compartment of electric vehicles is managing and reconciling the inherent differences in cooling requirements for batteries and inverters by a single cooling loop, in addition to the standard SWAP-C challenges of size, weight, performance, and cost. The design of the cold plate holds the key to overcoming these challenges.