Experimental Investigation of a Battery Thermal Management Device Based on a Composite Phase Change Material Coupled with a Double Helix Liquid Cooling Plate

Abstract

Phase change materials (PCMs) are considered the most promising cooling technology due to their high latent heat, good reversibility, and low cost. However, in practical applications, PCMs encounter problems such as a sharp temperature increase after full melting and low thermal conductivity. To solve these problems, a new double helix-type liquid cooling plate is developed and coupled with a hydrated salt composite PCM (CPCM) for battery pack cooling. The modified CPCM has a high latent heat (249 J/g), suitable phase change temperature (35 °C), improved thermal conductivity to 1.86 W/(m·K), and reduced subcooling to 1.9 °C. The design of the liquid cooling plate structure can make the average water temperature on both sides of each cell approximate, thereby ensuring the temperature uniformity for the battery pack. A battery module system test rig is constructed and the heat dissipation effect for the battery module is compared with four cooling methods. The results reveal that the CPCM/liquid coupled cooling method is the most effective for cooling the battery pack. At a low coolant flow rate of 0.5 L/min, the maximum temperature difference for the coupled battery module is retained at 1.88 °C, and the average temperature is found to increase by only 9.6 °C. In addition, different coolant flow rates and control strategies of the coupled heat sink system are tested and compared. An optimal strategy is selected for the cyclic charge/discharge test of the coupled cooling module. The system is found to maintain good cooling performance and temperature uniformity after four charge/discharge cycles, and the highest temperature peak for the battery pack is only 40.3 °C, which is within the normal operating temperature range.

A Critical Analysis of Helical and Linear Channel Liquid Cooling Designs for Lithium-Ion Battery Packs

“…All the combinations tested provided maximum temperatures within the goal of 298 K < Tmax < 313 K, however, the thermal uniformity still could not be reduced down to ΔT < 5 K for the HCD, although Case 2 did get the closest to reaching this goal, with a value for Tmax = 311.104 K and ΔT = 10.224 K. Figure 17 shows the final temperature contours for the HCD. In terms of experimental validation, a double helix cooling plate with PCM cooling for 18,650 cylindrical cells was investigated by Yu et al [7], achieving maximum temperatures varying between 310 K < Tmax < 313 K, where the HCD in this study achieves a similar result of 311.104 K. The CFD simulations conducted in the literature on helical duct liquid cooling structures similar to the HCD also seem to have issues with regulating temperature difference. Dong et al [22] achieved ΔT = 7.01 K after the use of optimisation algorithms for the double helix structure, and Zhou et al [34] achieved ΔT = 6.7 K for the half-helical duct structure, both falling outside the optimal range of ΔT < 5 K.…”

“…PCM cooling relies on the absorption and release of thermal energy when the coolant material changes phase. PCMs have been explored in recent research such as that of Li et al [7] where porous cellulose nanofibril (CNF)/silver nanowire (AgNW) hybrid supporting materials were used to increase the phonon propagation of the cellulosic material lattice and improve the thermal transmission ability of the hybrid carriers.…”

“…Figures 19 and 20 show the maximum temperatures reached and the temperature difference in the lithium-ion cells, respectively, over the same 5C 720 s discharge. The LCD clearly provides a superior cooling performance compared to the HCD in both metrics, where Tmax = 309.308 K and ΔT = 1.484 K at 720 s, compared to that of Tmax = 311.104 K and ΔT = 10.224 K reached by the cells in the HCD, a reduction of 1.796 K in maximum temperature and 8.740 K in temperature differ- In terms of experimental validation, a double helix cooling plate with PCM cooling for 18,650 cylindrical cells was investigated by Yu et al [7], achieving maximum temperatures varying between 310 K < T max < 313 K, where the HCD in this study achieves a similar result of 311.104 K. The CFD simulations conducted in the literature on helical duct liquid cooling structures similar to the HCD also seem to have issues with regulating temperature difference. Dong et al [22] achieved ∆T = 7.01 K after the use of optimisation algorithms for the double helix structure, and Zhou et al [34] achieved ∆T = 6.7 K for the half-helical duct structure, both falling outside the optimal range of ∆T < 5 K.…”

Review on the Lithium-Ion Battery Thermal Management System Based on Composite Phase Change Materials: Progress and Outlook

“…A battery thermal management system (BTMS) is a system designed to monitor and control the operational status of a battery pack to ensure the safety of energy storage devices . During the use of LIBs, the thermal management system ensures that the battery operates within the optimal temperature range and is an indispensable component of the battery design. − Battery thermal management systems can be divided into active BTMS and passive BTMS . The active BTMS removes the heat from the battery through the heat exchange medium, such as air, liquid, etc., to achieve the purpose of cooling the battery.…”

Role of four-phonon processes in thermal conductivity of two-dimensional materials and thermal-transport enhancement arising from interconnected nanofiller networks in polymer/nanofiller composites

“…Nanomaterials, such as graphitic nanoplatelets, boron-nitride nanosheets and carbon nanotubes, have been widely studied for enhancement of the thermal conductivity of polymers. High thermal conductivity polymer composites and phase-change materials play an important role in a wide range of thermal management applications such as electronics cooling, 7–9 water desalination, 10–12 solar energy harvesting, 13–15 automotive applications, 16–18 battery thermal management 19–21 and corrosion resistant heat-exchangers for off-shore applications. 22,23 Polymers offer unique advantages such as lightweight, low cost, corrosion resistance, ease of moldability, and lower energy consumption involved in their production compared to metals.…”