Researches of composite phase change material cooling/resistance wire preheating coupling system of a designed 18650-type battery module

Nowadays, the battery thermal management system based on composite phase change materials (CPCM) is receiving increasing attention for researches. However, few researches were focused on the problems of molding CPCM battery module, cooling down CPCM after heat accumulation and preheating function of the CPCM thermal management system. In order to address these existent problems, an elongated battery module with CPCM cooling/resistance wire preheating coupling system and fins set on both sides of the shell was designed, and infusion technology was used to produce the coupling system due to the development of a kind of CPCM flowing after heated. Experimental results revealed that with the developed CPCM, the maximum temperature is still controlled below 45 degrees C and temperature difference is restricted within 5 degrees C although the battery module discharged at 5 C high rate in 40 degrees C high environment temperature. Moreover, the fins set on both sides of module can contribute to dissipating heat stored in CPCM efficiently, preventing CPCM from heat saturation. The CPCM cooling/resistance wire preheating coupling system not only prevents temperature from rising too high, but also preheats the batteries quickly in cold temperature. The inner center temperature of the batteries can be raised up 40 degrees C within 300 s with the coupling system. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd.