Experimental study on a novel battery cooling system containing dual flow medium

Abstract

The refrigerant cooling scheme can effectively deal with the problem of battery cooling but with a poor economy. A novel battery thermal management (BTMS) called dual flow medium system (DFMS) is proposed in this paper, which is more economical than the refrigerant cooling scheme. The DFMS contains the refrigerant cooling system (RCS) and the coolant cooling system (CCS). The alternate cooling mode and the simultaneous cooling mode of the DFMS were studied under different coolant flow rates, the control range of the batteries' average temperature, and ambient temperature. The results show that the alternate cooling mode makes power consumption saved by 49.15% maximumly when the ambient temperature is 18.3°C and the compressor start-stop interval time is prolonged. The simultaneous cooling mode can prolong the compressor operating time by 16.3% and save a little energy under an appropriate coolant flow rate. The DFMS provides a novel option for the design of BTMS, and the research on the operating modes of the DFMS lays a good foundation for its further development.