Study on effect of diverse air inlet arrangement on thermal management of cylindrical lithium‐ion cells

Abstract

Lithium-ion cells are preferred in the electrical powertrain due to high-power density, compactness, and modularity. In real driving conditions, the cells undergo discharge rates as high as 4 C resulting in high heat generation affecting the performance. To obtain the maximum performance the pack construction and thermal management of cells are crucial parameters. In our work, air-cooled technique with diverse air inlet and staggered scheme with a two-channel partition approach for thermal management of the cylindrical lithium-ion cells are studied in computational fluid dynamics. The simulation model is validated with experimental results. The obtained results demonstrate that the cells in the dual-directional air inlet arrangement had low maximum temperature difference among and within the cells and required least fan work. This arrangement required least fan work to generate optimal air inlet velocity of 2 m/s for 1, 2, and 3 C and 4 m/s for 4 C discharge rates. There is a reduction of 50% and 33% fan work for 3 and 4 C discharge rates, which are the majority operating points. Also, it shows that the temperature uniformity within the cells has improved.

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

“…However, it had a negligible effect in reducing maximum temperatures. The idea of alternating inlet airflow arrangements was also researched by Sharma et al [14], with the conclusion that dual-direction airflow provided great benefits to thermal uniformity and required a lower power consumption compared to unidirectional airflow. The airflow velocity was also optimised to be 2 ms −1 for 1, 2 and 3C discharge rates and 4 ms −1 for 4C.…”

Design and optimization of a novel reverse layered air‐cooling battery management system using U and Z type flow patterns

“…However, the strategy increases the control difficulty and may cause unexpected thermal runaway. Sharma et al 37 investigated different types of fan arrangements for the layered axial air‐cooling staggered battery pack. They depicted that the reverse layered airflow provides low‐temperature difference with less fan work.…”