JP2003267063A - Fuel cell protecting structure at front part of automobile - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To protect a fuel cell arranged in a space in front of a dash panel at the front end of a vehicle room. <P>SOLUTION: The fuel cell 11 is arranged in the space 5 in front of the dash panel 3 provided at the front end of the vehicle room 1. A load on a radiator 13 during front-side collision of a vehicle is conveyed to a structure 17 and the structure 17 is rotated around a rotating center shaft 21. The structure 17 being rotated abuts on a strut tower 7 toward the outside in the cross direction of the vehicle, thus protecting the fuel cell 11 and preventing damage thereto. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a fuel cell protection structure for a front portion of a vehicle in which a fuel cell is arranged in a space in front of a dash panel at a front end of a vehicle compartment.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As a conventional vehicle equipped with a fuel cell, an example in which a fuel cell is arranged in a space in front of a passenger compartment has been disclosed (see, for example, FIG. 5 of JP 2001-253248 A).

[0003]

In the above-mentioned conventional structure, no particular consideration is given to the structure for protecting the fuel cell in the case of a frontal collision of the vehicle. Is desired.

Therefore, the present invention aims to protect a fuel cell arranged in a space in front of a vehicle compartment.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the invention of claim 1 arranges a fuel cell in a space in front of a dash panel provided at a front end of a vehicle compartment, and at the front side of the fuel cell in the vehicle. The structure is placed in this structure, and when a load from the vehicle front side to the rear side is input,
It is configured to rotate in a substantially horizontal direction and contact the strut tower toward the outer side in the vehicle width direction.

According to a second aspect of the invention, in the configuration of the first aspect of the invention, a radiator is arranged on the vehicle front side of the structure,
The load is input to the structure through the radiator.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the structure of the second aspect of the invention, the center of rotation of the structure is located outside the radiator in the vehicle width direction, and a load is input from the radiator. The part is located on the vehicle front side and the vehicle width direction inner side with respect to the rotation center.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the structure according to any one of the first to third aspects, the structure is a housing for housing a high-power component.

[0009]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when a load is applied from the front side of the vehicle to the rear side of the vehicle, the structure rotates in a substantially horizontal direction and is directed outward in the vehicle width direction with respect to the strut tower. Since they abut, the load input to the fuel cell arranged rearward of the vehicle with respect to the structure is avoided, and damage to the fuel cell can be prevented.

According to the second aspect of the invention, when the radiator receives an input of a load from the front side of the vehicle toward the rear side, the input load is transmitted to the structure, and the structure rotates in a substantially horizontal direction, Since the strut tower abuts outward in the vehicle width direction, input of a load to the fuel cell arranged rearward of the vehicle with respect to the structure is avoided, and damage to the fuel cell can be prevented.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the structure reliably receives the load input from the radiator, rotates about the center of rotation, and contacts the strut tower.

According to the invention of claim 4, as a structure,
By using a housing that houses high-power components, it is not necessary to provide a dedicated structure for protecting the fuel cell, and the number of parts can be reduced compared to when using a dedicated structure. The space in front of the panel can be effectively used.

[0013]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a fuel cell protection structure for a front portion of an automobile according to a first embodiment of the present invention, and a direction indicated by an arrow F in the drawing is a front side of a vehicle body. A space 5 is formed in front of the dash panel 3 provided at the front end of the vehicle compartment 1, and in the vicinity of the dash panel 3 in the space 5,
At appropriate positions between the left and right strut towers 7 and 9,
A fuel cell 11 is arranged.

A radiator 13 is arranged in front of the fuel cell 11 and at the front end of the vehicle. This radiator 1
The reference numeral 3 radiates the cooling water for cooling the heating element such as the fuel cell 11 and has a fan 15 behind it.

In the space 5 between the lower strut tower 7 and the fuel cell 11 in FIG. 1 and the radiator 13,
A strong structure 17 is arranged. The structure 17 is shown in FIG.
In addition to having a predetermined height in the vehicle up-down direction orthogonal to the plane of the drawing, the long side portions 17a and 17b and the short side portion 1 are seen in a plan view.
It has a rectangular parallelepiped shape having 7c and 17d, and is attached to the vehicle body 19 in a state inclined with respect to the vehicle front-rear direction.

One of the long sides 17a and 17b is located at a position facing the fuel cell 11, and the other side of the long side 17a is rotatable with respect to the rotation center axis 21. A bracket 23 is provided. Rotation center axis 21
Is located outside the radiator 13 in the vehicle width direction, and has a lower end fixed to a front side member 25 serving as a skeleton of the vehicle body 19.

Of the short sides 17c and 1d, one short side 17c on the vehicle front side is at a position facing the fan 15, and the other short side 17d on the rear side is opposite to the strut tower 7. It's in the right position.

The front corner portion 17e between the long side portion 17a provided with the bracket 23 and the short side portion 17c facing the fan 15 is located behind the radiator 13 in the vehicle and on the rotation center shaft 21. It is located in front of the vehicle.

Next, the operation will be described. When the vehicle collides with the front surface, as shown in FIG. 2, the radiator 13 receives the collision load and retreats to start contact with the front corner portion 17e of the structure 17. At this time, the left and right front side members 25,
The front end of 27 becomes the deformed portions 25a and 27a that are compressed and deformed. A straight line L extending vertically in FIG. 2 indicates a virtual collision surface.

When the radiator 13 is further retracted after coming into contact with the front corner portion 17e, the fixed portion of the structure 17 to the vehicle body 19 is destroyed, and the structure 17 is clockwise in FIG. To rotate. By this rotation, in the structure 17, the rear corner portion 17f diagonally opposed to the front corner portion 17e comes into contact with the strut tower 7 toward the outer side in the vehicle width direction.

At this point, the collision load inputted to the radiator 13 is transmitted to the strut tower 7 through the structure 17. Therefore, the collision load is not directly transmitted to the fuel cell 11, damage to the fuel cell 11 is avoided, and the fuel cell 11 can be protected.

Although the structure 17 in the above-mentioned embodiment may be provided exclusively for protecting the fuel cell 11, for example, a DC / DC converter, a controller,
It may be a housing that houses high-electric components such as fuses.
By using the structure 17 as a housing for storing high-power components,
It is not necessary to provide a dedicated structure for protecting the fuel cell 11, and the number of parts can be reduced as compared with the case of using the dedicated structure, and the space 5 in front of the dash panel 3 can be reduced.
Can be effectively used.

Further, the center of rotation of the structure 17 does not have to be one previously arranged like the center of rotation axis 21 shown in FIG. It is possible to realize a virtual center of rotation when it receives a collision load.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a fuel cell protection structure for a front portion of an automobile according to a second embodiment of the present invention. This embodiment is different from the first embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in that the strut tower 9 and the fuel cell 11 on the upper side in the figure.
The strong structure 29 is arranged between the heat sink 13 and the heat sink 13.

The above-mentioned structure 29 is attached to the vehicle body 19 in a state of being bilaterally symmetric in the vehicle width direction with the structure 17 arranged on the lower side in FIG. And this structure 2
Also in the case of 9, the bracket 31 is provided on the side surface corresponding to the long side portion 29a, and the lower end of the rotation center shaft 33 that allows the bracket 31 to rotate is fixed to the front side member 27.

In the case of the second embodiment, as shown in FIG. 4, when the radiator 13 retreats during a frontal collision, the structure 29 is contacted with the front corner portion 29e of the structure 29. It rotates counterclockwise in FIG. 4 about the rotation center axis 33,
The rear corner portion 29f contacts the strut tower 9 toward the outer side in the vehicle width direction.

Therefore, according to the above-described second embodiment, since the structures 17 and 29 are provided on the left and right sides, respectively, it is possible to deal with offset collisions on either the left or right side, and front collisions of various modes are possible. On the other hand, the fuel cell 11 can be protected.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a fuel cell protection structure for a front portion of an automobile according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory view of the fuel cell protection structure of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a plan view showing a fuel cell protection structure for a vehicle front portion according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory diagram of the fuel cell protection structure of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 car compartment 3 dash panel 5 spaces 7,9 Strut tower 11 Fuel cell 13 radiator 17,29 structure 17e Front corner (portion receiving load from radiator) 21 rotation center axis

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A fuel cell is arranged in a space in front of a dash panel provided at a front end of a vehicle compartment, and a structure is arranged on a vehicle front side of the fuel cell. The structure is arranged from a vehicle front side to a rear side. A fuel cell protection structure for a front part of a vehicle, which rotates substantially horizontally when a load is applied to the strut tower and abuts the strut tower toward the outer side in the vehicle width direction. 2. The front part of the automobile according to claim 1, wherein a radiator is arranged on a vehicle front side of the structure, and the load is input to the structure via the radiator. Fuel cell protection structure. 3. The structure has a rotation center located outside of the radiator in the vehicle width direction, and a portion receiving a load from the radiator in front of the vehicle with respect to the rotation center. The fuel cell protection structure for a vehicle front portion according to claim 2, wherein the fuel cell protection structure is located on the inner side in the width direction. 4. The fuel cell protection structure for a front portion of an automobile according to claim 1, wherein the structure is a housing that houses high-power components.