Development of a heat pipe–based battery thermal management system for hybrid electric vehicles

Abstract

Enhanced battery pack cooling remains an open thermal management challenge in hybrid electric vehicle applications. A robust cooling system should maintain the battery pack core temperature within a prescribed operating range to improve system performance, durability, and reliability while minimizing power consumption. This paper proposes a smart battery thermal management system utilizing heat pipes as a thermal bus to efficiently remove heat. The system couples a standard air conditioning system with traditional ambient air ventilation. The two loops can run independently or in tandem to achieve the desired control. A nonlinear model predictive controller was developed to maintain the battery core temperature within a designated range using the compressor and fan speeds as the control inputs. A mathematical battery thermal model was developed to estimate the core and surface temperatures. The system performance and power requirements were evaluated for various driving cycles and ambient conditions. Numerical results showed that the proposed cooling system can regulate the battery core temperature within the desired temperature range (maximum tracking error of 2.1°C) while compensating for ambient temperature conditions using a suitable cooling strategy. The simulation results showed the ability to remove up to 1135 kJ of heat. The simulation also presents the power consumed by system components under varying modes and ambient conditions.

Critical review towards thermal management systems of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicle with its electronic control unit and assessment tools

“…Further, this heat pipe may externally be coupled to a heat exchanger for heating or cooling as required. 51 A layout of heat pipe based passive cooling adopted for Li-ion batteries is presented in Figure 6. And a comparison of different liquid-based thermal management systems has been carried out and the results are presented in Table 2.…”

Research on electric vehicle thermal management system with coupled temperature regulation between crew cabin and power battery pack

“…In this paper, the same top-down modeling approach as Holjevac et al 20 is used to model the different subsystems to the entire vehicle system. Consistent with what Huang et al 21 does, the performance of the system is evaluated under different environmental conditions by adjusting the compressor speed.…”

A critical review on renewable battery thermal management system using heat pipes

“…By regulating the core temperature in the battery pack, Huang et al [ 157 ] conducted a numerical analysis on Li-ion batteries employed in HEVs to increase the battery life and durability. Different mathematical models’ controller is used to predict the battery temperature while minimizing power consumption.…”

“…The proposed HPTMS can withstand and work satisfactorily up to a maximum charge rate of 8C. The use of air forced convection system may be effective for each cell but may not be suitable for pack or module [ 79 ] Prismatic Battery cell Inlet ambient temperature, flow rate of fluid, charging load Core temperature of battery pack, surface temperature, Maximum temperature Water The battery pack's suggested cooling framework is better suited to regulating the temperature of the battery core within the limit and the cooling modes used in this study are easily adoptable for different ambient temperatures [ 157 ] Prismatic battery cell Coolant inlet temperature, power input, and coolant discharge rate Local Temperature distribution in battery, Peak battery temperature Sintered copper with water The battery surface's temperature distribution contours distinctly demonstrate improved homogeneity [ 152 ] Prismatic battery Transient condition, State of charge, Current density Temperature, Volume fraction of liquid in heat pipe, thermal runaway propagation Water It is impossible to regulate the thermal runaway in a single battery using an HP cooling system, but the propagation of thermal runaway in an adjacent battery can be easily controlled [ 158 ] Prismatic battery cell Transient 1-D, 3-D Numerical simulation, with different discharge current Maximum surface temperature, Temperature difference Ammoniac In comparison to forced convection, a higher amount of HT is made possible by rising the surface area of contact between the HPs and the battery cell [ 159 ] Prismatic battery cell Fixed Heat Load, Variable Heat Load without uncertainty, and Variable Heat Load with uncertainty Battery Temperature, Weight of LHP, Variance of Temperature Ammonia With variable heat load and uncertainty, battery performance can be improved drastically, and battery longevity also increases [ 82 ] Prismatic battery module …”