A novel battery thermal management system using nano-enhanced phase change materials

The production of alternative clean energy vehicles provides a sustainable solution to the transportation sector. An efficient battery cooling system is necessary for safer usage of electric cars during their life cycle. The current work presents a novel modified battery module configuration employing two-layer nanoparticle enhanced phase change materials (nePCM). The design suggests m x n x p arrangement where m denotes the number of Li-ion 18,650 cells, n and p refer to the number of primary containers (filled with nePCM1) and secondary containers (filled with nePCM2). Each Li-ion cell was allowed to discharge at 3C condition for two different configurations: 7 x 7 x 1 and 7 x 1 x 1. The study involves a cooling performance comparison of proposed battery thermal management systems (BTMS) at an ambient temperature ranging from 30 degrees C to 40 degrees C with external natural convection conditions. The transient development of heat in batteries and the melting behavior of nePCMs shows better cooling performance for the 7 x 7 x 1 case. BTMS based on 7 x 7 x 1 configuration maintains the cell temperature below 46 degrees C with combined nePCM and external natural convection cooling even at the hot ambient temperature of 40 degrees C. (C) 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The study introduces a novel modified battery module configuration using two-layer nanoparticle enhanced phase change materials, which shows better cooling performance for Li-ion cells in electric vehicles. The arrangement of m x n x p maintains cell temperature below 46 degrees C even at a hot ambient temperature of 40 degrees C, indicating the potential of the proposed system for efficient battery thermal management.