How to Cool Lithium Ion Batteries: Optimising Cell Design using a Thermally Coupled Model

Abstract

Cooling electrical tabs of the cell instead of the lithium ion cell surfaces has shown to provide better thermal uniformity within the cell, but its ability to remove heat is limited by the heat transfer bottleneck between tab and electrode stack. A two-dimensional electro-thermal model was validated with custom made cells with different tab sizes and position and used to study how heat transfer for tab cooling could be increased. We show for the first time that the heat transfer bottleneck can be opened up with a single modification, increasing the thickness of the tabs, without affecting the electrode stack. A virtual large-capacity automotive cell (based upon the LG Chem E63 cell) was modelled to demonstrate that optimised tab cooling can be as effective in removing heat as surface cooling, while maintaining the benefit of better thermal, current and state-of-charge homogeneity. These findings will enable cell manufacturers to optimise cell design to allow wider introduction of tab cooling. This would enable the benefits of tab cooling, including higher useable capacity, higher power, and a longer lifetime to be possible in a wider range of applications.

The importance of design in lithium ion battery recycling – a critical review

“…In addition, cell designs may be modified so that the current density (and hence heat) distribution is more even at the high currents and opposing, larger tabs are often utilised for high power cells in, for example, hybrid electric vehicles. 50,51 As mentioned briefly above, another vital aspect of lithium ion battery design is safety. Resistive heating during charging and discharging, as well as thermal run away and over-charging, can damage the cell and lead to fires.…”

Chemical Trends in the Lattice Thermal Conductivity of Li(Ni, Mn, Co)O2 (NMC) Battery Cathodes

“…12 The thermal conductivities of battery components are also important parameters in modelling studies aiming to optimise battery design, for example, by improving surface and tab cooling. 13,14 There is a relatively small body of literature on thermal transport in NMC electrode materials, with reported values ranging from 0.14 − 40 W m −1 K −1 . [15][16][17][18] There has not yet however been a systematic study of the NMC system, nor of the expected anisotropy in the thermal transport of the layered materials used in LIB electrodes.…”

A Comprehensive Review of Lithium-ion Cell Temperature Estimation Techniques Applicable to Health-Conscious Fast Charging and Smart Battery Management Systems

“…The heat generation models reported in the literature can be broadly classified from two different aspects; based on modelling strategy and based on the source of heat generation. Heat generation models based on modelling strategy can be classified into three groups, physics-based electro-chemical model [17][18][19][20], equivalent circuit models (ECM) [21][22][23], black-box models [24][25][26]. Whereas, based on the source of heat generation these models can be grouped as a concentrated model, distributed model [27] and heterogeneous model [21,28].…”