Upgrade strategy of commercial liquid-cooled battery thermal management system using electric insulating flexible composite phase change materials

This paper proposes a hybrid cooling system which combines a commercial bottom liquid cooling system and a novel dielectric flexible composite phase change material (FCPCM). This hybrid cooling system ensures the safety and high performance of Lithium-ion battery under abuse conditions, such as a high-rate discharge of 6C and a high ambient temperature of 40 degrees C. The cooling performances of different thermal management modes are compared to demonstrate the superiority of the hybrid cooling system. The results indicated that the single bottom liquid cooling system induced a large temperature difference over 7 degrees C, while the temperature difference decreased to 3.2 degrees C with the addition of FCPCM. Then, operating conditions such as inlet temperature, inlet flow rate, discharge rate, and ambient temperature on the cooling performance are investigated. Under a high ambient temperature of 38 degrees C, a charge-discharge cycle test is conducted to rank the effectiveness of the hybrid cooling system during long-term operation. The temperature and temperature difference of the battery pack were below 45 degrees C and 4 degrees C, respectively, in four charge-discharge cycles.

Automated summary

This study introduces a hybrid cooling system combining a commercial liquid cooling system and a novel phase change material, ensuring the safety and high performance of Lithium-ion batteries under harsh conditions. Experimental results show that the hybrid cooling system outperforms the standalone liquid cooling system in cooling efficiency under high temperature and high-rate discharge scenarios.