Numerical investigation on thermal behaviour of 5 x 5 cell configured battery pack using phase change material and fin structure layout

Lithium-ion battery, the indispensable part of electric vehicles or hybrid electric vehicles because of their high energy capacity and power density but usually suffer from a high temperature rise due to heat generation within a battery. This heat generation is mainly a function of the state of charge and charge/discharge rate. A passive technique like phase change material cooling has receiving a wide recognition due to its high latent heat, compact nature, and lightweight without consuming any external power. In this article, the thermal performance of the battery module containing 5 x 5 lithium-ion battery arranged in series and parallel is evaluated using phase change material. Initially, the performance of a battery module is examined with and without PCM at different discharge rate. It was found that more heat is accumulated at the interior portion of the battery pack due to mutual heating and low heat dissipation ability of PCM at a higher discharge rate. To improve such interior heat dissipation, different fin structure layout like Type I, Type II, Type III and Type IV are proposed and analysed using maximum temperature and average temperature distribution in a PCM based battery pack. It reveals that fin structure layout of Type III minimizes heat accumulation at the interior with adequate melting time among all. Furthermore, charge and discharge characteristics are investigated at different rate using rest time, convection effect and fin structure. The results indicated that use of rest time and increasing convection effect not only reduces maximum temperature but also recover melting fraction of PCM. Results also illustrate that the thermal performance of PCM based battery pack slightly get affected with the use of fin structure at lower convection, but decreases the maximum temperature by 8.17% at higher convection. Heat source a function of the state of charge and charge/discharge rate are given using Ansys-Fluent code and results are reported in the form of maximum temperature, average temperature and melting fraction.

Automated summary

This study evaluates the thermal performance of lithium-ion battery modules using phase change material cooling and proposes different fin structure layouts to minimize internal heat accumulation. By investigating rest time, convection effect, and fin structure, it is possible to reduce maximum temperature, recover melting fraction, and optimize the thermal performance of the battery pack.