Effect of air inlet and outlet cross sections on the cooling system of cylindrical lithium battery with segmental arrangement utilized in electric vehicles

Abstract

This paper examines a three-dimensional analysis of the temperature of a battery pack (BYK) with 16 lithium-ion cylindrical batteries. Battery cells (BYC) placed in four rows in a segmental configuration in the BYK are cooled by a laminar airflow. The air inlet and outlet are located at the top and bottom of the pack, respectively. The effect of inlet and outlet dimensions on BYK temperature and air temperature (T-Air) is examined in this research. COMSOL Multiphysics software is used to simulate the BYK, and the FEM is employed to solve the equations. The results demonstrate that the impact of the inlet on the temperature of the batteries (T-BT) is much more than the outlet, which is due to the change in air velocity (V-Air) in the pack. An increment in the inlet causes the maximum (MXT) (1.56°) and average temperature (AVT) of the BYK (3.01°) to decrease. The dimensions of the inlet affect the AVT of the battery from the initial time. Larger air outlets slightly enhance the MXT and AVT of the BYK. Enhancing the inlet reduces the outlet T-Air. The BYCs located in the middle of the BYK need more cooling since they have a MXT.