Numerical Investigation of Thermal Management of a Large Format Pouch Battery Using Combination of CPCM and Liquid Cooling

Abstract

As electric vehicles (EVs) gain market dominance, ensuring safety during the battery usage is crucial. This paper presents a new thermal management approach to address the battery heat accumulation challenge through a novel combination of composite phase change material (CPCM) with liquid cooling systems. An optimised hybrid cooling model is developed to evaluate the proposed battery thermal management system (BTMS) under high-temperature and high-power conditions. Benchmark studies are conducted to assess the impact of inlet position, inlet flow rate, and flow channel distribution on the cooling performance to achieve a uniform temperature distribution within the battery. The optimised BTMS, consisting of a five-cell battery pack, demonstrates a maximum temperature of 41.15 °C and a temperature difference of 4.89 °C in a operating condition at 36 °C with a discharge rate of 3 C. The BTMS outperforms the initial model, reducing the maximum temperature by 1.5%, temperature difference by 5%, and liquid fraction by 13%, with a slight (1.3%) increase in weight. The cooling performance is most efficient at a liquid flow rate of 0.1 m/s, minimising energy consumption. The proposed BTMS with CPCM-3 is also sufficient enough to keep the battery pack under a thermal runaway event. Overall, the theoretical simulation highlights the BTMS’s ability to effectively control battery temperatures and temperature differences, ensuring safe operation during high-temperature and high-power conditions in practical EV usage.

A Method for Assessing the Technical Condition of Traction Batteries Using the Metalog Family of Probability Distributions

“…Appropriate temperature management of individual battery cells contributes to extending the time of their correct operation and increases the safe use of the entire electric vehicle. Due to the important role of TMS, scientists are still developing the components for its construction and algorithms for their effective control [55,56]. Due to the complex structure of automotive battery packs, their diagnostics must involve checking the correct operation of each component, mechanical and electrical connections, and the control of these components [57].…”