Design and Optimization of Battery Housing in Electric Cars
Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Product development (MPPDE), MSc
Publicerad
2020
Författare
Bala, Abhishek
Chaitanya Kamaraju, Meher
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
In the current market scenario, there is fierce competition in the automotive market
as the market trend shifted towards the development of e-mobility and autonomous
cars. The integration of advanced technology and battery modules increases the
weight and cost of the battery pack which serves the background of the project.
There is a need to reduce the weight and cost of the battery pack to achieve a
long-range of the vehicle.
By investigating the opportunities in the battery pack, the scope was limited to
battery housing components such as cross beams and bottom plates. In this thesis
work, the product development approach was followed to redesign and optimize the
existing battery housing of Volvo Cars in terms of weight reduction and material
cost reduction with equivalent crash safety performance.
Various concepts on bottom plates and cross beams were generated from idea generation
activities and using methods such as topology and topography optimization.
Promising concepts were selected based on the parameters such as weight, material
cost, manufacturing feasibility, and crash safety parameters (intrusion and bending)
in the Kesselring matrix. The final concept has been obtained as a result of refinement
and the simulations driven approach and has an opportunity to fulfill the
requirements.
The final concept achieved 65.4% material cost reduction. There is also a possibility
of merging many bottom plates in the existing concept into a few or single bottom
plate with the help of the final concept. The extra weight of 6.3% and 28% intrusion
loss of the final concept in comparison to the existing concept can be reduced if the
final concept is redesigned. Hence, the steel material is found to be an opportunity
for e-mobility to be affordable, cheaper, and sustainable in terms of environmental
aspects.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
design, simulation, optimization, topology, topography, weight, cost, , safety, product development, crash safety, battery pack, battery housing, battery elecric vehicles