Battery module with thermal interface material between cells and cold plate

Abstract

In an embodiment, a battery module is provided with a cooling tube configured to carry liquid coolant for cooling a set of battery cells inside the battery module. A portion of the cooling tube being arranged beneath the set of battery cells and includes an integrated turbulator component configured to transition a flow of the liquid coolant from a laminar flow to a turbulent flow. In an example, the integrated turbulator component may be formed by integrating a turbulent component into a tube (e.g., a straight tube), and then bending the tube to produce the cooling tube portion.

1 . A battery module, comprising:
 a set of battery cells;   a cold plate; and   a thermal interface material thermally and structurally coupling an end of each of the set of battery cells to the cold plate, wherein the thermal interface material is configured to maintain the spatial positioning of the ends of the set of battery cells on the cold plate.   
     
     
         2 . The battery module of  claim 1 , wherein the thermal interface material is configured to maintain the spatial positioning of the ends of the set of battery cells on the cold plate by resisting compression in response to a weight of the set of battery cells. 
     
     
         3 . The battery module of  claim 1 , wherein the thermal interface material comprises a mixture of thermally-conductive, electrically insulative paste and a set of solid electrically insulative objects. 
     
     
         4 . The battery module of  claim 3 , wherein the set of solid electrically insulative objects comprise glass. 
     
     
         5 . The battery module of  claim 4 , wherein the set of solid electrically insulative objects comprise glass spheres. 
     
     
         6 . The battery module of  claim 3 , wherein the set of solid electrically insulative objects are spherical. 
     
     
         7 . The battery module of  claim 3 , wherein the thermally-conductive, electrically insulative paste is configured to compress in response to a weight of the set of battery cells and the set of solid electrically insulative objects is configured to maintain the spatial positioning of the ends of the set of battery cells on the cold plate by resisting compression in response to the weight of the set of battery cells. 
     
     
         8 . The battery module of  claim 1 , wherein the thermal interface material comprises a layer of insulation foil.