Design of electric and remote operating vehicles battery carrier by using small aluminum closed-cell foam blocks shielded by aluminum tubes

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new battery carrier design for electric and remote operating vehicles using small aluminum foam blocks to improve energy absorption and heat transfer.

Contribution

The novel design uses small aluminum foam blocks instead of large sheets to enhance performance in limited spaces.

Findings

The ACCFBs-based carrier transfers heat 22.5 times faster than traditional foam sheet carriers.

The EV battery carrier can support 25 times the battery weight with a working strength of 0.516 MPa.

Cooling times for both ROVs and EVs carriers decrease significantly with increased air velocity.

Abstract

Aluminum closed-cell foam blocks (ACCFBs) are small blocks of foam shielded with small aluminum (Al) tubes developed to enhance the energy absorption of Al foam in limited volumes, such as one cubic inch. It is designed to overcome the problems of the high cost of production, maintenance, and heat insulation properties of foam sheets. Al blocks ideas quoted from human and animal bone parts, and it is designed to absorb energy laterally. This work presents the designs of remote operating vehicles (ROVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) battery carriers, constructed from a cube block of ACCFBs and two Al sheets. The carrier design is based on the properties of Al foam blocks. It is designed to withstand temperatures up to 120 °C. The carrier idea relies on replacing large sheets of Al foam with small, distributed blocks. It has good energy absorption, and at the same time, it helps solve the problems of harness design for crossing wires in narrow areas, such as in ROVs. The results show that the ROVs battery carrier made from the Al sandwich panel (AFS) needs 900 s to transfer 120 °C from the upper sheet to the lower sheet, while the carrier made from ACCFBs with the same volume needs 40 s only. It can also bear a load of up to 0.8 kN and has a working strength δworking: 1.093 MPa. The EVs battery carrier can bear a load of 117 kN (about 25 times the battery weight) at yield strength (0.45 MPa), and it has a δworking: 0.516 MPa. The calculated total time of cooling for the conduction and forced convection for both the ROVs and EVs carriers at a cooling temperature of 25 °C and at air velocity 1 m/s were 4:31 min and 32:25 min, and at 2 m/s were 3:15 min and 20:41 min, respectively, at a summer working temperature of 40 °C.

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