A novel heat pipe assisted separation type battery thermal management system based on phase change material

In this paper, a heat pipe assisted separation type battery thermal management system (BTMS) using porous metal foam saturated with phase change material is developed to balance the temperature in a LiFePO4 battery pack. The produced heat is first transmitted to the heat management module through heat pipes, and then is absorbed by the phase change material. An additional fan is used to enhance heat dissipation when the battery temperature exceeds the setting value. Since the filling of the phase change material and other materials inside the battery pack is not required, the proposed BTMS is safe and easy for maintenance. The performance of the BTMS is experimentally investigated using a Lab-scale battery pack with constant current discharge rates of 1C, 3C, 4C, 5C, as well as different discharge-charge cycles. The results show that the proposed system offers a more suitable temperature and can better reduce the temperature imbalance within the battery pack than other methods. Especially, under the long-time operation conditions, the reliability and performance of the proposed BTMS can be greatly improved. These results are expected to provide insights into the design and optimization of BTMS.