Optimization of Thermal Management System with Water and Phase Change Material Cooling for Li-Ion Battery Pack

Abstract

The cooling structure of a battery pack and coupled liquid cooling and phase change material (PCM) were designed in a thermal management system to enhance the cooling performance and extend the service life of lithium-ion battery packs. Numerical simulations were conducted based on the finite volume method. This study focuses on factors such as the layout of the terminal, flow rate of the coolant, different sections of the cooling pipe, position of the cooling pipe, and coupled liquid cooling, and investigates their influences on the operating temperature. The results show that a reasonable terminal layout can reduce heat generation inside the batteries. The appropriate flow rate and position of the cooling pipe effectively reduced the maximum temperature and minimized energy consumption. Then, the PCM was placed between the adjacent batteries near the outlet to enhance the uniformity of the battery pack. The temperature difference was reduced to near 5 K. This study provides a clear direction for improving the cooling performance and extending the service life of battery packs.

Recent Progress and Prospects in Liquid Cooling Thermal Management System for Lithium-Ion Batteries

“…In the future thermal management system, the system coupled with liquid cooling and PCM seems to be a better way, because PCM does not need additional energy consumption, and the liquid cooling system can cool the PCM to avoid the PCM completely melting and failing. With the addition of PCM, the problem of uneven temperature distribution in liquid cooling systems can be improved, and the energy consumption of the system can also be reduced [167]. The system combining PCM and liquid cooling also offers the advantages of compactness, longer service life, and lower maintenance cost [168].…”

A novel multilayer composite structure based battery thermal management system

“…As a renewable energy storage system, lithium-ion batteries not only have the technical characteristics of fast response and bi-directional regulation, but also the technical advantages of high environmental adaptability, small size and short construction cycle. They are currently one of the most widely used energy storage technologies (Li Q et al, 2021;Fan et al, 2022;. However, in recent years, safety incidents caused by thermal runaway of lithium-ion batteries have attracted widespread public attention.…”