Electrified vehicle battery combination electrical/ fluid connector
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsThomas J. COUPAR, Michael David BEENEY, Philip Michael GONZALES, Liam E. WEST, Sangyeon KIM
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An electrified vehicle system is presented. The electrified vehicle system has a traction battery incorporating a plurality of electrically connected array modules submerged in a cooling fluid. A sensing component, coupled with at least one array module and immersed in the cooling fluid, is configured to detect a voltage drop when the fluid's contamination level reaches a threshold, thereby increasing electrical conductivity. This sensed voltage drop is communicated to a traction battery monitoring system, enabling proactive management of cooling fluid integrity.
Claims20
An electrified vehicle system comprising:
- a traction battery;
- a plurality of electrically connected array modules within the traction battery, submerged in a cooling fluid;
- and
- a sensing component, coupled with at least one of the electrically connected array modules and in contact with the cooling fluid, configured to detect a voltage drop across the sensing component when a contamination level in the cooling fluid reaches a threshold that increases electrical conductivity of the cooling fluid, and report a voltage drop across the sensing component to a traction battery monitoring system.
An electrified vehicle system comprising:
- a traction battery;
- at least one array within the traction battery, immersed in a cooling fluid;
- and
- a sensing component within the cooling fluid configured to detect a change in dielectric properties of the cooling fluid when a contamination level in the cooling fluid reaches a threshold that alters dielectric strength of the cooling fluid, measure the change in dielectric properties resulting from voltage flow of the at least one array through the cooling fluid, and communicate the measured change in dielectric properties to a traction battery monitoring system.
A battery module comprising:
- a housing;
- a plurality of arrays within the housing;
- an immersion cooling fluid within the housing, in contact with a positive terminal and a negative terminal of the plurality of arrays;
- a contamination detection circuit coupled with at least one of the plurality of arrays and in contact with the immersion cooling fluid, the contamination detection circuit configured to detect a current flow between the positive terminal and the negative terminal through the immersion cooling fluid when a contamination level in the immersion cooling fluid reaches a threshold that completes an electrical path;
- and
- a battery module monitoring system configured to receive data indicative of the current flow from the contamination detection circuit due to a contamination level of the immersion cooling fluid, and to disable one of the plurality of arrays based on the contamination level having reached the threshold.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.