Cooling of a battery pack of a car, working on renewable energy

Abstract

The aim of the work is to choose a method of a solar car battery cooling. The student engineering team of Peter the Great Petersburg Polytechnic University designs the car. The analysis of the electrical circuit of the battery is carried out, the heat release is estimated due to three factors. According to the conditions of reliable operation of the battery, it is necessary to maintain its temperature range below 45°C, which requires cooling. The paper analyzes the possibilities of liquid, air-cooling, compares the free and forced methods of convective heat transfer. For the normal operating mode of the electric vehicle, environmental temperature at the level up to 38°C, a criterion thermal engineering calculation of the forced air-cooling of the corridor assembly of 405 battery cells providing the required heat dissipation is performed. It is shown that relatively high values of the heat transfer coefficient are provided under turbulent flow conditions characterized by Reynolds criteria above 103. On the basis of an analysis of the steady-state stationary heat-removal regime, it was concluded that an air flow provides a temperature gradient, sufficient for cooling the lithium-ion battery of a Solar Car «Polytech Solar».