Numerical analysis of lithium-ion battery thermal management system using phase change material assisted by liquid cooling method

In this paper, a novel design for hybrid battery thermal management systems (BTMS) is proposed and evaluated from the economic and engineering perspectives. Numerical models are compared with phase change materials (PCM) BTMS. Further, the suggested hybrid cooling system's thermal performance at the pack level is investigated considering cell-to-cell variation. A three-dimensional thermal model is used for the numerical simulation of the battery cooling system. The probability distributions is utilised for the cell-to-cell variations of a 168-cell battery pack. Results shows that for a 53 Ah lithium-ion battery (LIB) under a 5C discharge rate, a hybrid cooling system with two-sided cold plates can reduce the maximum temperature from similar to 64 degrees C to 46.3 degrees C with acceptable system weight and power consumption, which is used for further pack level simulation. It is concluded that the two-sided cold plate hybrid design system can manage the maximum average temperature as well as temperature difference of cells in the desirable range at extreme cases. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

This paper introduces a novel hybrid battery thermal management system design and evaluates its performance through numerical simulations, demonstrating its ability to reduce the maximum temperature of the battery pack effectively under various conditions.