Advanced lightweight of battery tray for electric vehicles (ALBATROSS Project)
Topic(s) : Material science
Co-authors :
Paula RODRÍGUEZ (SPAIN), Alba PEÑA (SPAIN), Soraya PINTOS (SPAIN), Laura MERA , Luis CARRALAbstract :
Electrification of vehicles is seen as key to achieving global legislative requirements for CO2 emissions reductions. Zero emissions within cities and higher quality and higher performance electrified vehicles is also making them more attractive. However, several issues currently limit further exploitation. Specifically, concerns of drivers regarding battery range, cost, the long-term reliability of batteries and excessive charging times.
ALBATROSS project will be based on the further development of a BMW i3 electric vehicle (EV). Work will be based on a modular concept equally applicable to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) for all passenger car applications, that is scalable to delivery vans, heavy duty vehicles or busses. The overarching aim of ALBATROSS is to create advanced battery pack designs and achieve a 20% weight reduction of the battery system equating to 56kg weight reduction for i3 battery system to 222kg (currently 278kg), through a combination of: (1) Light-weighting approaches, (2) Reduction of batteries required due to increased peak energy density allowing for reduction in built-in reserve/redundancy and increased battery lifetimes and (3) removal of auxiliary components such as secondary e-motor pump.
For this purpose, a new design in composite material have been done to lightweight the battery tray of BMW i3. Nowadays, the battery case of electric vehicles is manufactured completely with metal parts assembly by welding process. The innovation in ALBATROSS project in order to achieve this main objective is to change certain metal components for composite materials. In the use case of the battery tray top cover of the battery tray was modify. In the case of the top cover a completely redesign of the component has been done to manufacturing the entire top cover in composite material.
A comparison between two composite material have been done in order to compare behaviour of thermosetting and thermoplastic material. Thermoplastic material selected for top cover component was a comingled nonwoven fabric made with recycled carbon fibres with polyamide 6 (PA6) resin. Top cover component mechanical requirements are not too high, for that reason a short fibre composite can be use. In the other hand, thermsetting material selected for this comparison was an epoxy high strength carbon woven prepreg. In this work, redesign, and parametrization of both composite materials have been collected and compared in order to analyse difference in processability and properties.
ALBATROSS project will be based on the further development of a BMW i3 electric vehicle (EV). Work will be based on a modular concept equally applicable to Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) for all passenger car applications, that is scalable to delivery vans, heavy duty vehicles or busses. The overarching aim of ALBATROSS is to create advanced battery pack designs and achieve a 20% weight reduction of the battery system equating to 56kg weight reduction for i3 battery system to 222kg (currently 278kg), through a combination of: (1) Light-weighting approaches, (2) Reduction of batteries required due to increased peak energy density allowing for reduction in built-in reserve/redundancy and increased battery lifetimes and (3) removal of auxiliary components such as secondary e-motor pump.
For this purpose, a new design in composite material have been done to lightweight the battery tray of BMW i3. Nowadays, the battery case of electric vehicles is manufactured completely with metal parts assembly by welding process. The innovation in ALBATROSS project in order to achieve this main objective is to change certain metal components for composite materials. In the use case of the battery tray top cover of the battery tray was modify. In the case of the top cover a completely redesign of the component has been done to manufacturing the entire top cover in composite material.
A comparison between two composite material have been done in order to compare behaviour of thermosetting and thermoplastic material. Thermoplastic material selected for top cover component was a comingled nonwoven fabric made with recycled carbon fibres with polyamide 6 (PA6) resin. Top cover component mechanical requirements are not too high, for that reason a short fibre composite can be use. In the other hand, thermsetting material selected for this comparison was an epoxy high strength carbon woven prepreg. In this work, redesign, and parametrization of both composite materials have been collected and compared in order to analyse difference in processability and properties.