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Laptop batteries can overheat easily, and in extreme cases melt down and destroy the laptop.
Lithium Polymer batteries (found in most laptops) can be made in nearly any shape. A Li-Po battery, perforated with a grid of holes, would have a much greater surface area and release heat a lot faster then
a normal battery.
The bottom of the laptop would have matching holes, to allow air circulation via a convection current. The warm air would rise out of the laptop, and be replaced by cooler air.
The battery could be slightly thicker or wider to compensate for the loss of battery material.
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How would this affect energy capacity? |
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umm... so by making the metal thinner... okay I don't get it, sounds like air has a greater heat conductivity than the metals in the battery which doesn't sound right. |
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Air doesn't have better heat conductivity, but it is
convective. The idea is to either force air through or allow
natural convection to cool the battery better than it can a
monolithic block, which should work. |
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Perhaps the hole bits could be combined into zinc-air batteries, to offset the bulkiness. [+] |
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I like it - a naturally air-cooled powerplant, similar in philosophy to the Volkswagen air cooled engine which has been going since 1936. In fact it might be worth considering having the battery shape take on a more "finned" appearance to emulate the cooling fins on such engines. |
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The interior surface would only be useful if air were forced through it. Having a large surface exposed to air that has nowhere to go really won't help much. Using a fan may help when things are working properly, but I'm not sure it would help when things are going bad. To what extent is thermal runaway a result of an entire battery being overheated by excessive current flow, and to what extent is it a result of a small area of the battery having a defect which causes it to generate excessive heat which in turn makes the defect worse, causing it to generate more heat, etc. until the portion of the battery that's in thermal runaway expands to encompass much of the cell? |
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Yes, there is - I've seen a silent cooling "fan" for a PC case built on this principle. |
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IMHO, heatsinking the entire battery would be more useful. |
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I changed the description a bit to clarify. |
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21 Quest- I was thinking of holes about 3 mm in diameter, every 3/4 of a centimeter or so. The battery's length would only need to be increased by a centimeter or so. |
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FlyingToaster- I'm not quite sure what you mean... |
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