Crashworthiness Analysis of Electric Vehicle With Energy-Absorbing Battery Modules

Abstract

As a clean energy technology, the development of electric vehicles (EVs) is challenged by lightweight design, battery safety, and range. In this study, our simulations indicate that using a flexible structure of battery module has the potential to overcome the limitations in battery-powered EVs, contributing to a new design. Specifically, we focus on optimizing the structure of vehicle battery packs, aiming to improve the crashworthiness of EVs through frontal crash simulations. In addition, by considering battery packs as energy-absorption components, it is found that occupant compartment acceleration (OCA) is greatly reduced at an optimal working pressure of 4 MPa for battery module.