Investigation of heat transfer, melting and solidification of phase change material in battery thermal management system based on blades height

Abstract

This paper deals with the Battery thermal management system (BTMS) of a battery pack with three cylindrical batteries using the passive method. For this purpose, the area around the batteries is filled with PCM. This analysis is performed in two-dimensional mode, transient and by cutting in the longitudinal direction of the batteries. There are a number of blades on the batteries. By changing the height of the blades installed on the batteries in the range of 1 to 4 cm, the BTMS is examined. For numerical solution, the Finite element (FEM) is used to solve the equations. The results of this study showed that the values of the average heat transfer coefficient (HETC) from the battery to the PCM as well as the temperature of the batteries were strongly dependent on time and both parameters increased with increasing time. Using a shorter blade instead of a long blade creates a higher average HETC in batteries, so using a 1 cm blade instead of a 4 cm blade more than doubles the average HETC. The battery in the middle of the other two batteries requires more thermal management than the other two batteries due to the higher temperature. Increasing the height of the blades has also reduced the average temperature of the battery pack, and all three batteries have a lower maximum temperature. Also at high times, especially 50 min after the start of the battery life, the use of battery blades has created more molten PCM around the batteries.