Warmup device of vehicular storage battery
AssigneeToyota Jidosha Kabushiki Kaisha
InventorTaiki Nakano
Life of this patent
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Abstract
At least one inverter is heated by causing an inverter heat generation control unit to pass a predetermined current through the inverter for a predetermined time, and heating of the at least one inverter causes a high-voltage battery (storage battery) to warm up via a cooling circuit. Accordingly, control for warmup of the high-voltage battery (storage battery) is simply performed by passing the predetermined current through the inverter for a predetermined time. This inverter heat generation control can also be applied to a vehicle not including a step-up converter.
Claims8
A control device for a vehicular storage battery comprising:
- an inverter configured to control a drive current supplied from a storage battery to an electric motor;
- a cooling circuit configured to cool the storage battery and the inverter by circulating a refrigerant;
- and
- an inverter heat generation control unit configured to cause the inverter, which outputs AC power to the electric motor, to emit heat by passing a predetermined direct current through the inverter for a predetermined time and to warm up the storage battery with the heat emitted by the inverter and transferred to the cooling circuit,
- wherein a value of the predetermined direct current is calculated every preset time to generate an amount of discharged heat required for warmup of the storage battery and is varied based on a change in a temperature of the storage battery.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.