Design and analysis of a battery pack enclosure for Formula SAE

This thesis documents the design and analysis of the enclosure for the high voltage battery pack which powers the Model Year 2017 MIT Formula SAE racecar. The battery pack is custom designed and built with six modules of 144 Samsung INR18650-25R lithium-ion cells each. Each component of the enclosure is analyzed to ensure structural integrity and optimized to reduce mass of the battery pack. The enclosure is able to secure the modules during sudden accelerations or decelerations from crash scenarios, allows for air flow to cool the cells, and allows for convenient serviceability of the modules. The final mass of the enclosure, at 8.5 kg, results in an overall battery pack mass of 59.5 kg, 76% of the mass of the Model Year 2016 battery pack. All components of the enclosure have been manufactured, and the assembly process with the modules and high voltage electronics has been tested and verified.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2017

Author dc:creator

• Merrow, Henry (Henry W.)

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Amos Winter.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112555

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/112555