CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

The present application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2019-0146148, filed Nov. 14, 2019, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference.

BACKGROUND

Field

The present disclosure generally relates to a duct for a vehicle battery system. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a structure of an inlet duct, to which air is introduced from a vehicle interior to cool a battery system.

Description of the Related Art

Electric or hybrid vehicles are required to be equipped with a battery system including a high voltage battery. Since the battery system is relatively large in volume and requires watertightness, various attempts have been made to secure a mounting position and space, and in some cases, the battery system may be installed below a second-row seat (a rear seat) of a vehicle.

The battery system described above includes a battery module assembly (BMA) constituting the high voltage battery, a power relay assembly (PRA), a battery management system (BMS), and a cooling device cooling the BMA.

The foregoing is intended merely to aid in the understanding of the background of the present disclosure, and is not intended to mean that the present disclosure falls within the purview of the related art that is already known to those skilled in the art.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, the present disclosure has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the related art, and the present disclosure is intended to propose an inlet duct for a vehicle battery system, wherein although the inlet duct is open toward a vehicle interior such that air of the vehicle interior is introduced to cool the battery system, the inlet duct effectively blocks foreign materials from being introduced to the inside of the battery system and noise leakage toward the vehicle interior from the inside of the battery system to be significantly reduced.

In order to achieve the above object, according to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided an inlet duct for a vehicle battery system, the inlet duct including an inlet part having an inlet hole open toward a vehicle interior, outlet parts divided from the inlet part and having outlet holes so as to supply air introduced to the inlet hole to the battery system via two separated paths, and a grill provided in the inlet part by having multiple ribs forming a grid to cover the inlet hole.

The inlet hole of the inlet part may be provided to be open from a lower side of a middle of a rear seat of a vehicle toward a front thereof, and a lower side of each of the outlet parts may be provided to communicate with an upper surface of the battery system.

The two divided outlet parts may be spaced apart from each other to avoid interference with a battery frame fixing the battery system to a vehicle body.

Multiple fixing brackets may be provided to fix the inlet duct to the battery system.

The fixing brackets may include an outlet part fixing bracket fixing an upper side of each of the two outlet parts of the inlet duct to the battery frame, and an inlet part fixing bracket fixing a lower side of the inlet part to the battery frame.

A flange member having a lower surface parallel with an upper surface of the battery system may be combined with an end part of each of the outlet parts such that the outlet part is brought into close contact with a duct hole, which is provided at an upper side of the battery system, from an upper side of the duct hole, and the outlet part and the duct hole are in a sealed state by surface contact therebetween.

A protrusion part may be provided at the duct hole provided at the upper side of the battery system by protruding upward therefrom such that the protrusion part is combined with each of the outlet parts by having sealing while communicating with the outlet part, and an expanded part may be provided at the outlet part, the expanded part being configured to seal an inner side of the protrusion part by surrounding an outer side of the protrusion part.

An end part of a front of the grill may slant along an extension line of a front section of a seat cushion of a rear seat located at the upper side of the battery system.

Each of the ribs forming the grid of the grill may have a cross-sectional shape of a parallel part parallel to a streamline of air flowing through the inlet part and a sloping part inclined to the parallel part connected to each other.

A plurality of partition walls may be provided in the inlet duct, each of the partition walls blocking a section of a portion of each flow path of air reaching the outlet hole from the inlet hole.

The partition walls may have a middle partition wall provided at a position prior to being divided to the two outlet parts from the inlet part and a side partition wall provided at each of the outlet parts of portions divided to the two outlet parts from the inlet part.

The side partition wall may slant to a streamline of air flowing to the outlet part from the inlet part.

The two side partition walls of the opposite outlet parts may slant in directions of the two side partition walls gradually getting closer to each other along a flow of air flowing to the outlet parts from the inlet part.

The partition wall may be provided by a recessed part recessed inward from each of an upper side and a lower side of the inlet duct.

The recessed part, which constitutes the partition wall, may be recessed along the same direction as each up and down demolding direction of a mold when the inlet duct is formed by a plastic blowing method.

The present disclosure is intended to propose the inlet duct for a vehicle battery system, wherein although the inlet duct is open toward a vehicle interior such that air of the vehicle interior is introduced to cool the battery system, the inlet duct effectively blocks foreign materials from being introduced to the inside of the battery system and noise leakage toward the vehicle interior from the inside of the battery system to be significantly reduced.

In addition, the reduction in the indoor noise leakage as described above is achieved without using a separate sound absorbing material, thereby reducing the material cost of the battery system.

