Experimental investigation and simulation of temperature distributions in a 16Ah-LiMnNiCoO2 battery during rapid discharge rates

It is very important to have quantitative data regarding the temperature distributions of lithium-ion batteries at different discharge rates in order to design thermal management systems and also for battery thermal modellers. In this paper, the surface temperature distributions on a superior lithium polymer battery (SLPB) with lithium manganese nickel cobalt oxide (LiMnNiCoO2) cathode material (16 Ah capacity) at C/8, C/4, C/2, 1C, 2C, and 3C discharge rates are presented. Additionally, a battery thermal model is developed for this battery using a neural network approach with the Bayesian Regularization method and the simulated results are compared with experimental results in terms of temperature and voltage profiles at C/8, C/4, C/2, 1C, 2C, and 3C discharge rates. Thermal images, which were also captured during experiments with an IR camera at various discharge rates, and are reported in the paper. The results of this study show that the increased discharge rates between C/8 and 3C results in increased surface temperature distributions on the principal surface of the battery and decreased discharge capacity.