Experimental study of a passive thermal management system for three types of battery using copper foam saturated with phase change materials

Battery thermal management (BTM) technology is vital for the development of new energy vehicle because the lithium batteries exhibit a more resistive behavior leading to extra heat generation with age. The CF/PCM (copper foam/phase change material) coupled thermal management system for different types of lithium ion batteries such as 26650, 42110 and square (105 mm x 28 mm x 71 mm) were selected comparatively to research in detail, especially at a relatively high discharge rate. To evaluate the effect of the battery generating heat close to the actual operating conditions, the thermal management system in an insulated environment were investigated at discharge rate of 5C, in comparison with a natural convection environment. Furthermore, the results show that the effect of the temperature control based PCM is improved when compared to air-based BTM under an insulated environment. Moreover, the maximum temperature of 26650, 42110 and square batteries of CF/PCM coupled with BTM can be controlled below 44.37 C-circle, 51.45 C-circle and 50.69 C-circle for a longer time than those of the pure PCM based case and air-based case under the same conditions, respectively. The passive system was coupled with copper foam as a skeleton net structure to improve the strength of the PCM during its melting. More importantly, a CF/PCM (copper foam/phase change material) battery thermal management system was designed and tested experimentally.