Experimental performances of a battery thermal management system using a phase change material

Li-ion batteries are leading candidates for mobility because electric vehicles (EV) are an environmentally friendly mean of transport. With age, Li-ion cells show a more resistive behavior leading to extra heat generation. Another kind of problem called thermal runway arises when the cell is too hot, what happens in case of overcharge or short circuit. In order to evaluate the effect of these defects at the whole battery scale, an air-cooled battery module was built and tested, using electrical heaters instead of real cells for safety reasons. A battery thermal management system based on a phase change material is developed in that study. This passive system is coupled with an active liquid cooling system in order to initialize the battery temperature at the melting of the PCM. This initialization, or PCM solidification, can be performed during a charge for example, in other words when the energy from the network is available. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.