Analysis of Battery Thermal Management System for Electric Vehicles using 1-Tetradecanol Phase Change Material

Abstract

In a world where great efforts are being made to reduce carbon emissions and pollution, electric vehicles are becoming more appealing. Vehicles based on internal combustion engines are slowly being phased out and electric or hybrid vehicles are replacing them. Batteries being the primary power source of these vehicles, an effective battery thermal management system is required to ensure safe operation conditions and durability in all environments. The application of 1-Tetradecanol as a Phase Change Material (PCM) in a Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) is studied, for its use in an electric vehicle that uses Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) battery. In the present work, a computational model is developed using a professional modelling software, ANSYS Fluent to investigate the thermal performance of 1-Tetradecanol PCM during its melting process within a cylindrical enclosure. The thermal behaviour of the system under the influence of proposed BTMS is studied. However, pure PCM based passive thermal management systems are not perfect due to their inherent low conductivity, which may be improved by incorporating conductivity enhancing materials. It was evident from the results that, it has the potential to be a better alternative to conventional battery thermal management systems and can be a lightweight and cost effective PCM passive thermal management system to limit the temperature of EV batteries to acceptable operating ranges.