Research on the collision safety of battery packs with interlaced battery cell arrangement

Ensuring collision safety performance is imperative in battery pack layout design. Conventional battery pack configurations face challenges due to a single-load transfer path issue and disregard the inherent deformability of battery cells. To tackle these challenges and facilitate load dispersion for a wider distribution of collision energy absorption among battery cells, this study suggests a battery cell layout inspired by a biomimetic honeycomb structure. The research model utilizes a uniform battery model and directly encapsulates the batteries within the battery pack, aligning with current packaging trends and enabling interleaved arrangements. Through side pillar collision simulations, the study compared and analyzed aspects such as deformation intrusion of the battery pack, acceleration of deformation in the affected region, impact load transmission, and battery failure scenarios. The findings indicate that the interleaved arrangement offers additional load transmission paths, reducing battery pack deformation intrusion by over 3.8% and effectively optimizing the majority of vulnerable battery cells, leading to a decrease in battery cell damage by over 7.3%. This effect is particularly notable in high-energy impact areas where numerous battery cells surpass failure thresholds. Furthermore, analyses of impacts at various positions and angles demonstrate that the interleaved arrangement of battery packs significantly enhances collision safety performance, mitigating battery damage during collisions and providing valuable insights into battery pack layout design.