Thermal performance of a novel confined flow Li-ion battery module

Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) are clean energy vehicles in comparison with a traditional internal combustion engine. Li-ion batteries are a viable option for EVs and HEVs due to their advantages of high specific energy and energy density. At high discharge rate, there is a significant increase in battery temperature and non-uniform cell temperature. This work presents a numerical study of the transient behavior of a novel confined flow battery module dissipating the heat at very high discharge rate around 6.94 C and 11.11 C. The conventional open flow battery modules are modified considering the controlled/ guided flow stream around the cell for reducing the local heat spots and unevenness in the cell temperatures. The results provide insights and comparisons into a cell-to-cell heat interaction based on three-dimensional transient thermal response and thermal regimes developed in a conventional open flow module and confined flow module. During battery discharging condition, the proposed battery module exhibit lower surface temperature as well as near uniform cell temperature as compared to open flow module.