A passive thermal management system of Li-ion batteries using PCM composites: Experimental and numerical investigations

Abstract

This paper is dedicated to the design of an optimal thermal management system using a PCM-Metal Foam composite at the scale of a Li-ion batteries cells. To study the ability of a PCM and a PCM- Metal foam composite to absorb the heat generated by a Li-ion cell, a mathematical and numerical model was developed. The modeling is based on the data collected from characterizing experiments conducted with a new experimental test bench developed in the CERTES lab. In order to characterize the thermal behavior of Li-ion cell, the developed two-dimensional numerical model integrates the Brinkmann-Forchheimer-extended Darcy equation, the enthalpy-porosity method and two-temperature energy equations. The numerical study was made by coupling Matlab and COMSOL Multiphysics. The results showed that the addition of an aluminum foam allows a more efficient thermal management of the cell. The optimization study showed that an underestimation of the thickness (mass of PCM required) leads to extreme temperatures. It was also found that the addition of an extra volume of PCM does not have a great influence on the cell surface temperature.