US-20260128443-A1 - BATTERY ASSEMBLY, IN PARTICULAR FOR USE IN AN ELECTRICAL PROPULSION VTOL AIRCRAFT

US20260128443A1US 20260128443 A1US20260128443 A1US 20260128443A1US-20260128443-A1

Abstract

The present invention relates to a battery assembly ( 42 ), in particular for use in an electrical propulsion VTOL aircraft, comprising a base plate assembly ( 44 ), at least one battery stack assembly ( 20 ), each comprising a plurality of battery cells ( 12 ) stacked on top of the base plate assembly ( 20 ) along a stacking direction (S) thus forming a battery cell stack ( 10 ) and electrically connected in parallel or in series, and a housing ( 22 ) surrounding the battery cells ( 12 ) on all four sides, wherein each battery stack assembly ( 20 ) comprises at least one barrier plate member ( 16 ) inserted between neighboring battery cells ( 12 ) and connected to the housing ( 22 ) in order to form at least two separate sealed modules ( 14 ) of battery cells ( 12 ) within the corresponding battery stack assembly ( 20 ).

Inventors

Laurent EECKELEERS
Dan Mueller
Karthick Sudarsan SRINIVASAN

Assignees

Archer Aviation Inc.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20251222
Priority Date: 20230621

Claims (15)

1 . Battery assembly, in particular for use in an electrical propulsion VTOL aircraft, comprising: a base plate assembly; at least one battery stack assembly, each battery stack assembly comprising: a plurality of battery cells stacked on top of the base plate assembly along a stacking direction thus forming a battery cell stack and electrically connected in parallel or in series; and a housing surrounding the battery cells on all four sides; wherein each battery stack assembly comprises at least one barrier plate member inserted between neighboring battery cells and connected to the housing in order to form at least two separate sealed modules of at least one battery cell each within the corresponding battery stack assembly.
2 . Battery assembly according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the battery stack assemblies comprises a top compression plate and/or a bottom compression plate compressing the cell stack along the stacking direction.
3 . Battery assembly according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the battery stack assemblies further comprises a cooling arrangement extending inside and/or outside the housing and through and/or into each battery cell module, preferably in the form of a succession of connected cooling plates for the individual battery cell modules or in the form of a continuous cooling plate across the battery stack.
4 . Battery assembly according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the battery stack assemblies further comprises an electronics arrangement extending inside the housing and into each battery cell module, wherein the electronics arrangement preferably comprises at least one of a temperature sensor and a voltage sensor, for example one temperature sensor per battery cell module and/or one voltage sensor per battery cell.
5 . Battery assembly according to claim 1 , wherein for each battery cell module, the housing of the battery stack assembly comprises a through-hole provided with an overpressure vent, wherein the through-holes are preferably all positioned on the same side of the housing.
6 . Battery assembly according to claim 5 , wherein at least one of the battery cell stacks further comprising a venting duct external to the housing connecting at least two of the through holes and comprising an outlet opening.
7 . Battery assembly according to claim 1 , comprising a plurality of substantially identical battery stack assemblies with their stacking directions arranged in parallel.
8 . Battery assembly according to claim 6 , further comprising a venting manifold connecting the outlet openings of the plurality of battery stack assemblies.
9 . Battery assembly according to claim 7 , further comprising a top structure assembly for mechanically coupling the plurality of battery stack assemblies, wherein preferably the top structure assembly is provided with top mounting points for mounting the battery assembly to a superordinate structure.
10 . Battery assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the base plate assembly comprises a structural cover for supporting the at least one battery stack assembly and an inner space, wherein in the inner space electronics components for managing the battery assembly are housed, in particular at least one cell supervision circuit, at least one current sensor module, at least one power controller and/or one pyrofuse; and/or wherein the base plate assembly, in particular the structural cover, comprises bottom mounting points for mounting the battery assembly to a superordinate structure and/or to a neighboring battery assembly.
11 . Battery assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one barrier plate member is formed with a mechanical strength which is sufficient to at least carry the mass of all components of the battery cell module positioned above it, preferably of all battery cell modules positioned above it, and/or wherein the at least one barrier plate member is provided with incombustible and/or heat insulating material on its surfaces.
12 . Battery assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one battery stack assembly comprises in total 54 battery cells, and/or wherein each battery cell module of the at least one battery stack assembly comprises 6 battery cells or a single battery cell.
13 . Electrical propulsion VTOL aircraft, comprising a fuselage, at least one pair of wings, at least one electrical propulsion motor and at least one battery assembly according to claim 1 .
14 . Electrical propulsion VTOL aircraft according to claim 13 , wherein a plurality of battery assemblies are provided and positioned in a symmetrical manner in lateral sidewalls of the fuselage.
15 . Method for assembling a battery assembly according to claim 1 , which for each of the battery stack assemblies comprises the following steps: a) stacking the plurality of battery cells on top of each other with at least one barrier plate member inserted at a desired position between a pair of neighboring battery cells; b) compressing the resulting battery cell stack along the stacking direction; c) installing the housing around the battery cell stack by fixing the housing to the barrier plate members and optionally upper and/or lower compression plates; wherein the housing preferably comprises four individual side walls or a single side wall and a U-shaped wall member.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/EP2024/067382, filed Jun. 21, 2024, which claims priority to European Patent Application No. 23180595.3, filed Jun. 21, 2023, both of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. The present invention relates to a battery assembly, in particular for use in an electrical propulsion VTOL aircraft, an electrical propulsion VTOL aircraft comprising at least one such battery assembly, and a method for assembling such a battery assembly. For certain novel use cases, such as for example electrical propulsion aircraft, in particular with vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) capabilities, new requirements have been posed on the battery assemblies or modules serving as power sources for the corresponding devices. In particular, while on the one hand high capacities and maximum output characteristics are desired, on the other hand, such battery assemblies have to be absolutely safe and reliable during their operation. In particular, potential thermal runaway events have to be confined into smallest possible volumes in such battery assemblies in order to avoid catastrophic failures thereof. Even compared to current high-performance battery assemblies, which have for example been installed in electric vehicles, thermal runaway events during flight operation of electrical propulsion aircraft are potentially catastrophic if not contained in an adequate manner, since in order to evacuate passengers, the aircraft would first have to continue its flight and the pilot would have to identify a safe landing spot and perform an emergency landing, which requires a certain time. Typical battery assemblies that have been proposed for such use cases comprise one or more battery cell stacks, which in turn consist of a plurality of battery cells, which are individually wired and managed. Such battery assemblies have to fulfill certain requirements concerning their mechanical properties and it is furthermore desired to minimize heat conduction both within the battery assembly as well as from the inside to their surroundings in order to fulfil performance requirements and allow safe and reliable handling and integration of such battery modules into corresponding aircraft. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide improved battery assemblies, in particular for use in electrical propulsion VTOL aircraft, which exhibit suitable behavior in the case of thermal runaway events as well as improved mechanical and thermal properties. For this purpose, the battery assembly according to the present invention comprises a base plate assembly, at least one battery stack assembly, each battery stack assembly comprising a plurality of battery cells stacked on top of the base plate assembly along a stacking direction thus forming a battery cell stack and electrically connected in parallel or in series, and a housing surrounding the battery cells on all four sides, wherein each battery stack assembly comprises at least one barrier plate member inserted between neighboring battery cells and fixed to the housing in order to form at least two separate sealed modules of at least one battery cell each within the corresponding battery stack assembly. Thus, by introducing and inserting barrier plate members inside battery stack assemblies which are themselves each surrounded by a housing, sealed modules of a smaller number of battery cells or even a single battery cell are formed, such that in cases of thermal runaway events the negative effects of these events can be contained within the corresponding sealed modules without spreading into the remaining parts of the respective battery stack assembly. Or in other words, potential thermal runaway events can be contained and a propagation to the adjacent modules can be prevented. In addition, according to the present invention, not only do the barrier plate members serve as thermal isolation means between the different sealed modules of the at least one battery stack assembly, but by fixing them to the housing of the battery stack assembly, they also contribute to the mechanical stiffness and rigidity of the overall battery assembly and are therefore also referred to structural thermal barriers. Thus, the barrier plate members may not only lead to a thermal isolation of potential thermal runaway events but rather also to a mechanical isolation thereof by providing a mechanical stiffener to the stack, since even in case the battery cells within a certain sealed module of a battery stack assembly should incinerate and thus lose their mechanical integrity, the corresponding barrier plate member limiting said sealed module on its upper side will maintain its structural integrity and support the cells of adjacent modules such that it can still be able to tightly support the sealed battery cell module above the module in which the thermal runaway even has occurred. It