Patent Publication Number: US-2015086828-A1

Title: Battery power system

Description:
BACKGROUND 
     1. Technical Field 
     The present disclosure relates to battery power systems, and particularly to a battery power system comprised of a number of battery modules. 
     2. Description of Related Art 
     Battery power systems, especially for battery power systems used in vehicles, include a number of battery modules, each of which includes a number of battery cells. In use, the battery power system generates a lot of heat. If the heat can not be efficiently and timely dissipated, a quality, stability, and security of the battery power system may be degraded. At present, a heat dissipating structure of the battery power system is complicated and has a low heat dissipating efficiency. 
     Therefore, what is needed is a battery power system addressing the limitations described. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING 
       The components of the drawing are not necessarily drawn to scale, the emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the embodiments of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 1  is an isometric view of a battery power system, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. 
         FIG. 2  is an exploded view of the battery power system of  FIG. 1 . 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION 
       FIGS. 1 and 2  show a battery power system  100  of an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure. The battery power system  100  includes a housing  10 , a number of battery modules  20  received in the housing  10 , and a number of heat dissipating units  30  received in the housing  10 . 
     The housing  10  is substantially rectangular-shaped. The housing  11  includes a bottom plate  11 , a top plate  12 , two opposite first side plates  13 , and two opposite second side plates  14 . The bottom plate  11  and the top plate  12  are substantially parallel to each other. The first side plates  13  and the second side plates  14  are connected between the bottom plate  11  and the top plate  12 . The first side plates  13  are substantially parallel to each other, the second side plates  14  are substantially parallel to each other, and the first side plates  13  are perpendicularly connected the second side plates  14 . The bottom plate  11 , the top plate  12 , the first side plates  13 , and the second side plates  14  cooperatively define a receiving space  15 . One of the first side plates  13  defines a number of through holes  131  communicating with the receiving space  15 . 
     The battery modules  20  are stacked and received in the receiving space  15 . In this embodiment, the number of the battery modules  20  is two. Alternatively, the number of the battery modules  20  can be changed according to needs, and a size of the housing  10  can be accordingly changed. Each battery module  20  includes a number of battery cells  21  and a heat conductive sheet  22  positioned at a side of the cells  21 , in this embodiment, the cells  21  are arranged in a matrix. The cells  21  are substantially cylindrical-shaped. Each cell  21  includes a positive end  211  and an opposite negative end  212 . In this embodiment, the cell  21  is a lithium battery or other suitable rechargeable batteries. The heat conductive sheet  22  is positioned at the positive end of each cell  21 . The heat conductive sheet  22  is made from a material(s) with high heat conductivity, such as copper and aluminum. The battery module  20  further includes an electrically insulative and heat conductive adhesive layer  23 . The heat conductive sheet  22  is fixed to the positive end of each cell  21  by the adhesive layer  23 . In this embodiment, the adhesive layer  23  is made from heat conductive silica gel. The adhesive layer  23  can conduct heat from the cells to the heat conductive sheet  22  and electrically insulate the cells  21  from the heat conductive sheet  22 . 
     Each battery module  20  includes a positive terminal  24  and a negative terminal  25 . The positive terminal  24  is electrically connected to the positive ends  211  of the cells  21 , and the negative terminal  25  is electrically connected to the negative ends  212  of the cells  21 . The positive terminal  24  and negative terminal  25  extend out of the housing  10  through the through holes  131 . 
     The battery modules  20  are stacked in such a manner that the positive ends thereof face each other. Therefore, a space between the heat conductive sheets  22  forms a heat dissipating channel. 
     Each heat dissipating unit  30  includes a heat exchanging member  31  and a number of heat pipes  32  connected to the heat exchanging member  31 . The heat exchanging member  31  contains a cooling liquid (not shown) therein. The heat exchanging member  31  can infuse the cooling liquid into the heat pipes  32  and recycle the cooling liquid from the heat pipes  32 , thus heat can be carried by flowing cooling liquid between the heat exchanging member  31  and the heat pipes  32 . The cooling liquid can circularly flow between the heat exchanging member  31  and the heat pipes  32  by a pump (not shown) positioned in the exchanging member  31  or capillary structures (not shown) formed in the heat pipes  32 . 
     The exchanging member  31  is positioned at a side of the stack of the battery modules  20  away from a side with the positive terminals  24  and the negative terminals  25  and is fixed on the first side plate  13  away from the positive terminals  24  and the negative terminals  25 . The heat pipes  32  are positioned between the battery modules  20  and are in contact with the heat conductive sheets  22 . The heat pipes  32  extend along a curve path in the space between the battery modules  20  for evenly dissipating heat from the battery modules  32 . 
     In this embodiment, the heat conductive sheet  22  and the adhesive  23  are positioned at the positive end of each cell  21 . It is understood that a similar heat conductive sheet and adhesive layer can be formed at the negative end of each cell  21 . In the situation that both of the positive side and negative side of the battery module  20  have the heat conductive sheet  22 , the heat pipes  32  can extend to the negative ends of the cells  21 . The battery modules  20  can be stack with the negative end of each cell of one battery module  20  opposite to the positive end of each cell of the other battery module  20 , or the negative sides opposite to each other. 
     In this embodiment, the number of the battery modules  20  is two, it is understood that the number of the battery modules  20  can be changed according to different requirement. 
     It is believed that the present embodiments and their advantages will be understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the examples hereinbefore described merely being exemplary embodiments of the disclosure.