Influence of temperature and volume fraction on the thermophysical properties of CuO-R134a nano refrigerant and its application in battery thermal management system

Abstract

The battery temperature is one of the important factor that affects the performance of the battery and lifetime. To overcome these issues, the need and usage of an effective battery thermal management system (BTMS) is increased in recent years. The results of BTMS with conventional heat transfer fluids appears in many articles but the very few researchers developed and studied the performance of refrigerant based BTMS. In this research, a novel BTMS is developed and detailed study is conducted to analyze the impact of CuO based refrigerant (R134a) on its performance. Different quantity of CuO nanoparticles mixed with base refrigerant (R134a) and used as a heat transfer fluid. Initially, five different volume proportions (i.e. ɸ – 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05%) of CuO-R134a nano refrigerants are prepared and the thermophysical properties are studied. The test results reveal that the peak thermal conductivity and viscosity of about 1.28 W/mK and 0.00047 Pa-S is obtained for refrigerant with 0.05 vol.% CuO nanoparticle at 325 K and 300 K respectively. The average cell temperature of about 51 °C, 37 °C, 33 °C and 32 °C is observed for battery without cooling system, BTMS with R134a, 0.01% and 0.05% CuO/R134a respectively. From the results of this study, it can be suggested that the CuO- R134a nano refrigerant will be a promising cooling medium in the battery cooling system.