阅读说明：本技术 电池模块以及包括电池模块的电池架和能量存储装置 (Battery module, and battery holder and energy storage device including the same ) 是由 柳载旼 辛殷圭 曹相铉 文祯晤 李润九 于 2020-10-19 设计创作，主要内容包括：根据本发明的实施例的电池模块包括：电池单体；电池模块壳体,该电池模块壳体用于容纳所述电池单体,并且在所述电池单体的两侧上具有内部冷却流动路径；通风开口,该通风开口被设置在所述电池模块壳体的两侧表面上；片构件,该片构件被安装在所述电池模块壳体的两侧表面上,以覆盖通风开口,并且在预定或更高温度下熔化,以打开所述通风开口；和阻挡托架,该阻挡托架位于与所述片构件相距预定距离处,并且被安装在得到电池模块壳体的两侧表面的内壁上。(A battery module according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a battery cell; a battery module case for accommodating the battery cells and having internal cooling flow paths on both sides of the battery cells; ventilation openings provided on both side surfaces of the battery module case; sheet members mounted on both side surfaces of the battery module case to cover the ventilation openings and melted at a predetermined temperature or higher to open the ventilation openings; and a blocking bracket located at a predetermined distance from the sheet member and mounted on an inner wall resulting in both side surfaces of the battery module case.)

1. A battery module, comprising:

a plurality of battery cells;

a battery module case configured to accommodate the plurality of battery cells and having internal cooling channels provided at both sides of the plurality of battery cells;

ventilation openings provided at both side surfaces of the battery module case;

sheet members mounted to both side surfaces of the battery module case to cover the ventilation openings and melted above a predetermined temperature to open the ventilation openings; and

a blocking bracket spaced apart from the sheet member by a predetermined distance and mounted to inner walls at both sides of the battery module case.

2. The battery module according to claim 1, wherein the vent opening is provided in plurality, and the plurality of vent openings are disposed to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance along a longitudinal direction of the battery module case.

3. The battery module according to claim 2, wherein the sheet member is provided to have a predetermined length in the longitudinal direction of the battery module case and has a size for covering all the ventilation openings provided to each side surface of the battery module case.

4. The battery module of claim 1, wherein the ventilation openings are provided in a grid form.

5. The battery module of claim 1, wherein the blocking bracket comprises:

a bracket base mounted to inner walls at both sides of the battery module case; and

a bracket mount configured to extend from the bracket base and spaced apart from the ventilation opening by a predetermined distance.

6. The battery module of claim 5, wherein the bracket pedestal is sized to cover the vent opening.

7. The battery module of claim 5, wherein the tray deck is disposed to face the plurality of battery cells.

8. The battery module according to claim 1, wherein the sheet member is mounted to inner walls at both sides of the battery module case.

9. A battery stand, comprising:

at least one battery module according to claim 1; and

a battery holder housing configured to house the at least one battery module.

10. An energy storage system comprising:

at least one battery holder according to claim 9.

Technical Field

The present disclosure relates to a battery module, and a battery holder and an energy storage system including the same.

This application claims priority from korean patent application No. 10-2019-0136958, filed in korea at 30.10.2019, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.

Background

The secondary battery is highly suitable for various products and exhibits excellent electrical properties, such as high energy density, etc., and thus is commonly used not only for portable devices but also for Electric Vehicles (EV) or Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEV) driven by a power source. Since the secondary battery can greatly reduce the use of fossil fuel and does not generate byproducts during energy consumption, the secondary battery has received attention as a new energy source for improving environmental friendliness and energy efficiency.

The secondary batteries widely used at present include lithium ion batteries, lithium polymer batteries, nickel cadmium batteries, nickel hydrogen batteries, nickel zinc batteries, and the like. The operating voltage of the unit secondary battery cell, i.e., the unit battery cell, is about 2.5V to 4.5V. Therefore, if a higher output voltage is required, a plurality of battery cells may be connected in series to construct a battery pack. In addition, a plurality of battery cells may be connected in parallel to construct a battery pack, depending on the required charge/discharge capacity of the battery pack. Therefore, the number of battery cells included in the battery pack may be variously set according to a required output voltage or a required charge/discharge capacity.

Meanwhile, when a plurality of battery cells are connected in series or in parallel to construct a battery pack, it is general to first construct a battery module including at least one battery cell and then construct the battery pack or a battery holder by using at least one battery module and adding other components.

The conventional battery module may include a water-cooling type or air-cooling type cooling unit for cooling the battery module. Here, the cooling unit of the battery module having the air cooling structure generally includes a cooling air supply unit and a cooling air discharge unit. Meanwhile, when a high temperature condition occurs due to abnormal heat generation of at least one of the battery cells, high temperature gas and flames may be generated inside the battery module.

However, the conventional battery module having the air cooling structure has a problem in that high-temperature gas cannot smoothly escape from the battery module. In this case, thermal runaway of any one battery cell inside the battery module may propagate to an adjacent battery cell inside the battery module, which may cause explosion of the entire battery module, thereby causing great damage.

In addition, when flames are generated inside the conventional battery module having the air cooling structure, if the internal flames leak to the outside, the risk of fire transfer to the surrounding battery module increases.

Therefore, it is required to find a method for rapidly discharging high-temperature gas and preventing internal flame from leaking to the outside when the high-temperature gas and the internal flame are generated in the battery module having the air cooling structure due to abnormal heat generation of at least one battery cell inside the battery module.

Disclosure of Invention

Technical problem

The present disclosure is directed to providing a battery module that may rapidly discharge high-temperature gas to the outside when the high-temperature gas is generated in a battery module case due to abnormal heat generation of at least one battery cell, and to providing a battery rack and an energy storage system including the same.

In addition, the present disclosure is directed to providing a battery module that may prevent internal flame from leaking to the outside when flame is generated in a battery module case due to abnormal heat generation of at least one battery cell, and to providing a battery rack and an energy storage system including the same.

Technical scheme

In one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a battery module including: a plurality of battery cells; a battery module case configured to accommodate the plurality of battery cells and having internal cooling channels provided at both sides of the plurality of battery cells; ventilation openings provided at both side surfaces of the battery module case; sheet members mounted to both side surfaces of the battery module case to cover the ventilation openings and melted above a predetermined temperature to open the ventilation openings; and a blocking bracket spaced apart from the sheet member by a predetermined distance and mounted to inner walls at both sides of the battery module case.

The ventilation openings may be provided in plurality, and the plurality of ventilation openings may be disposed to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance along a longitudinal direction of the battery module case.

The sheet member may be provided to have a predetermined length in the longitudinal direction of the battery module case and to have a size for covering all the ventilation openings provided at each side surface of the battery module case.

The ventilation openings may be arranged in a grid.

The blocking bracket may include: a bracket base mounted to inner walls at both sides of the battery module case; and a bracket base configured to extend from the bracket base and to be spaced apart from the ventilation opening by a predetermined distance.

The tray deck may be sized to cover the ventilation opening.

The tray stage may be disposed to face the plurality of battery cells.

The sheet member may be mounted to inner walls at both sides of the battery module case.

In addition, the present disclosure further provides a battery stand, including: at least one battery module according to the above embodiments; and a battery holder housing configured to accommodate the at least one battery module.

Furthermore, the present disclosure further provides an energy storage system comprising at least one battery rack according to the above embodiments.

Advantageous effects

According to the various embodiments as above, it is possible to provide a battery module that can rapidly discharge high-temperature gas to the outside when the high-temperature gas is generated in a battery module case due to abnormal heat generation of at least one battery cell, and to provide a battery rack and an energy storage system including the same.

In addition, according to the various embodiments as above, it is possible to provide a battery module that can prevent internal flame from leaking to the outside when flame is generated in a battery module case due to abnormal heat generation of at least one battery cell, and to provide a battery rack and an energy storage system including the same.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings illustrate preferred embodiments of the present disclosure, and together with the foregoing disclosure serve to provide a further understanding of the technical features of the present disclosure, and therefore the present disclosure is not to be construed as being limited to the accompanying drawings.

Fig. 1 is a view for illustrating a battery module according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view illustrating the battery module of fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a view for illustrating a main portion of the outside of a battery module case employed at the battery module of fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a view for illustrating a main portion of the inside of a battery module case employed at the battery module of fig. 1.

Fig. 5 and 6 are views for illustrating a state when the battery module of fig. 1 is cooled.

Fig. 7 is a view for illustrating a state when high-temperature gas and internal flames are generated due to abnormal conditions of the battery module of fig. 1.

Fig. 8 is a view for illustrating a battery module according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9 is a view for illustrating a battery holder according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

Fig. 10 is a view for illustrating an energy storage system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The present disclosure will become more apparent by describing in detail embodiments thereof with reference to the attached drawings. It is to be understood that the embodiments disclosed herein are merely illustrative for better understanding of the present disclosure, and that the present disclosure may be modified in various ways. Additionally, the figures are not drawn to scale and the dimensions of some of the elements may be exaggerated for ease of understanding the present disclosure.

Fig. 1 is a view for illustrating a battery module according to an embodiment of the present disclosure, fig. 2 is a sectional view illustrating the battery module of fig. 1, fig. 3 is a view for illustrating a main portion of an outer side of a battery module case employed at the battery module of fig. 1, and fig. 4 is a view for illustrating a main portion of an inner side of a battery module case employed at the battery module of fig. 1.

Referring to fig. 1 to 4, the battery module 10 may include a battery cell 100, a battery module case 200, a cooling air supply unit 300, a cooling air discharge unit 400, a vent opening 500, a sheet member 600, and a blocking bracket 700.

The battery cell 100 is a secondary battery, and may be provided as a pouch type secondary battery, a square type secondary battery, or a cylindrical type secondary battery. Hereinafter, in this embodiment, the battery cell 100 will be described as a pouch-type secondary battery.

The battery cell 100 may be provided in plurality. A plurality of battery cells 100 may be disposed to be stacked one on another to be electrically connected to one another.

The battery module case 200 may accommodate a plurality of battery cells 100. For this, the battery module case 200 may have an accommodating space for accommodating the plurality of battery cells 100.

The battery module housing 200 may include internal cooling channels 250.

The internal cooling channel 250 may be disposed at both sides of the plurality of battery cells 100 inside the battery module case 200. The interior cooling passage 250 may be placed in communication with a cooling air supply unit 300 and a cooling air discharge unit 400, which are provided to be air-cooled and described later.

The cooling air supply unit 300 is disposed at one side of the battery module case 200, particularly, at the front side of the battery module case 200, and may provide cooling air toward the internal cooling passage 250.

The cooling air supply unit 300 may include a cooling supply fan unit such that cooling air is smoothly supplied toward the internal cooling passage 250 in the battery module case 200.

The cooling air discharge unit 400 is disposed at the other side of the battery module case 200, particularly, at the rear side of the battery module case 200, and may discharge the cooling air inside the internal cooling passage 250 to the outside of the battery module case 200.

The cooling air discharge unit 400 may include a cooling discharge fan unit such that cooling air is smoothly discharged from the internal cooling passage 250 of the battery module case 200.

The cooling air discharge unit 400 may be disposed diagonally with respect to the cooling air supply unit 300 in the front-rear direction of the battery module case 200. Therefore, the cooling air can flow through the entire inside of the battery module case 200 more smoothly.

The ventilation openings 500 face the internal cooling channel 250 of the battery module case 200, and may be provided at both side surfaces of the battery module case 200. The ventilation openings 500 may be provided in plurality, and the plurality of ventilation openings 500 may be disposed to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined distance along the longitudinal direction of the battery module case 200.

Here, the plurality of ventilation openings 500 may be provided in a grid form. This is to prevent flame leakage when an internal flame is generated inside the battery module case 200.

The sheet members 600 are provided in pairs, and the pair of sheet members 600 may be mounted at both side surfaces of the battery module case 200 to cover the ventilation openings 500. Specifically, the pair of sheet members 600 may be mounted to the inner walls at both sides of the battery module case 200.

The pair of sheet members 600 are disposed to have a predetermined length in the longitudinal direction of the battery module case 200, and may cover all the ventilation openings 500 provided at each side surface of the battery module case 200.

The pair of sheet members 600 may be melted above a predetermined temperature to open the ventilation opening 500. Specifically, the pair of sheet members 600 may seal the at least one vent opening 500 or the plurality of vent openings 500 in this embodiment below a predetermined temperature and may melt above the predetermined temperature to at least partially open the at least one vent opening 500 of the plurality of vent openings 500.

To this end, the pair of sheet members 600 may be made of a film or a foam material sensitive to a high temperature above a predetermined temperature. The pair of sheet members 600 may be melted at a high temperature above a predetermined temperature.

The blocking bracket 700 is spaced apart from the sheet member 600 by a predetermined distance, and may be mounted to inner walls at both sides of the battery module case 200. The blocking bracket 700 may be provided in plurality.

Each of the plurality of blocking brackets 700 may include a bracket base 710 and a bracket pedestal 730.

The bracket base 710 may be mounted to inner walls at both sides of the battery module case 200. The bracket base 710 may be fixed to the battery module case 200 by welding or screwing at inner walls at both sides of the battery module case 200.

The tray base 730 extends from the tray base, and may be disposed to be spaced apart from the ventilation opening 500 and the sheet member 600 by a predetermined distance. The bracket base 730 may be provided to have a size for covering the ventilation opening 500.

The bracket stand 730 is disposed in the internal cooling channel 250 inside the battery module case 200, and may be disposed to face the plurality of battery cells 100 and the sheet member 600, respectively.

Hereinafter, the cooling state and the high temperature condition of the battery module 10 according to this embodiment will be described in more detail.

Fig. 5 and 6 are diagrams for illustrating a state when the battery module of fig. 1 is cooled.

Referring to fig. 5 and 6, when cooling the battery module 10, the cooling air supply unit 300 may introduce cooling air for cooling the battery cells 100 into the battery module case 200 from the outside of the battery module case 200.

Thereafter, the cooling air introduced into the battery module case 200 may cool the battery cells 100 while flowing through the internal cooling channels 250 of the battery module case 200. In this case, cooling air may flow through the space between the blocking bracket 700 and the sheet member 600 and the space between the battery cell 100 and the blocking bracket 700 on the internal cooling passage 250. Thereafter, the cooling air, which has cooled the battery cells 100, may escape from the battery module case 200 through the cooling air discharge unit 400.

Fig. 7 is a view for illustrating a state when high-temperature gas and internal flames are generated due to abnormal conditions of the battery module of fig. 1.

Referring to fig. 7, in the battery module 10, abnormal heat generation may occur in at least one battery cell 100 among a plurality of battery cells 100. If such abnormal heat generation continues, a high temperature situation may occur inside the battery module case 200, and high-temperature gas G and flames F may be generated inside the battery module case 200.

In this embodiment, when high-temperature gas G and flame F are generated inside the battery module case 200 due to such a high-temperature condition, the sheet member 600 is melted, so that the plurality of ventilation openings 500 are exposed from the battery module case 200.

Therefore, since the high-temperature gas G can be rapidly discharged toward the plurality of ventilation openings 500, it is possible to effectively prevent a problem in advance that this may cause the explosion of the entire battery module 10.

Meanwhile, if the flame F leaks out of the ventilation opening 500, damage may be caused at the outside of the battery module 10 due to the leaked flame F.

In this embodiment, since the blocking bracket 700 is disposed between the battery cell 100 and the ventilation opening 500, it is possible to effectively prevent the flame F from leaking out of the ventilation opening 500 by means of the blocking bracket 700. Therefore, in this embodiment, the blocking bracket 700 may effectively prevent external leakage of the internal flame F, which may occur inside the battery module case 200.

Fig. 8 is a view for illustrating a battery module according to another embodiment of the present disclosure.

Since the battery module 20 of this embodiment is similar to the battery module 10 of the previous embodiment, features that are substantially the same as or similar to those of the previous embodiment will not be described again, and features different from the previous embodiment will be described in detail hereinafter.

Referring to fig. 8, the battery module case 200 of the battery module 20 may include a plurality of vent openings 550. The same sheet member 600 for covering the ventilation openings 550 as in the previous embodiment may be mounted to the inner wall of the battery module case 200.

In this embodiment, the ventilation openings 550 may be provided in an approximately square shape with openings of a predetermined size, rather than being provided in a grid form as in the previous embodiment. Therefore, in this embodiment, in the same case as the gas discharge in the previous embodiment, if the sheet member 600 melts, the ventilation openings 550 may be opened to have a larger opening area so that gas may escape more quickly.

Fig. 9 is a view for illustrating a battery holder according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 9, the battery holder 1 may include a plurality of the battery modules 10, 20 of the previous embodiments and a battery holder case 50 for receiving the plurality of battery modules 10, 20.

Since the battery holder 1 of this embodiment includes the battery modules 10, 20 of the previous embodiment, the battery holder 1 may have all the advantages of the battery modules 10, 20 of the previous embodiment.

Fig. 10 is a diagram for illustrating an energy storage system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Referring to fig. 10, an energy storage system E may be used as an energy source for home or industry. The energy storage system E may comprise at least one battery rack 1 of the previous embodiment or a plurality of battery racks 1 of this embodiment and a battery rack container C for accommodating a plurality of battery racks 1.

Since the energy storage system E of this embodiment includes the battery holder 1 of the previous embodiment, the energy storage system E can have all the advantages of the battery holder 1 of the previous embodiment.

According to the various embodiments as described above, it is possible to provide the battery modules 10, 20 and to provide the battery rack 1 and the energy storage system E including the battery modules 10, 20, which can rapidly discharge high-temperature gas to the outside when the high-temperature gas is generated in the battery module case 200 due to abnormal heat generation of at least one battery cell 100.

In addition, according to the various embodiments as above, it is possible to provide the battery modules 10, 20 and to provide the battery rack 1 and the energy storage system E including the battery modules 10, 20, which can prevent the internal flame from leaking to the outside when the flame is generated in the battery module case 200 due to the abnormal heat generation of at least one battery cell 100.

Although the embodiments of the present disclosure have been shown and described, it is to be understood that the present disclosure is not limited to the specific embodiments described, and that various changes and modifications can be made by one skilled in the art within the scope of the present disclosure, and that these modifications should not be individually understood from the technical idea and viewpoints of the present disclosure.