Shortcut computation for the thermal management of a large air-cooled battery pack

Thermal management is crucial to maintain the performance of large battery packs in electric vehicles. To this end, we present herein a shortcut computational method to rapidly estimate the flow and temperature profiles in a parallel airflow-cooled large battery pack with wedge-shaped plenums for airflow distribution. The method couples a flow resistance network model with a transient heat transfer model to calculate the temperature distribution in a battery pack as influenced by the airflows within and among battery modules in the pack. The effects of the plate angle of the plenums, the minimal plenum width and the battery unit spacing on the airflow and temperature distributions are presented. Additionally, an example of collective parameter adjustment for acceptable temperature uniformity of a battery pack subjected to total volume constraint is given. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.