Investigation on battery thermal management system combining phase changed material and liquid cooling considering non-uniform heat generation of battery

Abstract

In order to keep the working temperature of lithium-ion battery in desired range under harsh conditions, a novel coupled thermal management with phase changed material (PCM) and liquid pipe was proposed and numerically investigated for prismatic LiFePO4 battery pack. The verified non-uniform heat generation model of the battery was employed to simulate the real temperature distribution on battery surface. The effects of coolant velocity, pipe position and ambient temperature on cooling performance of coupled system were analyzed. Cycle test under harsh conditions was conducted to evaluate the thermal performance of the system. Simulation results showed that the coupled system exhibited good cooling performance even at ambient temperature of 45 °C, which suppressed the maximum temperature and temperature difference of battery pack to 47.6 °C and 4.5 °C, respectively. In addition, the system removed the heat stored in PCM and improved the liquid fraction of PCM effectively, especially in the area close to the electrode tabs. In cycles, properly reducing the coolant velocity during charge was feasible in saving power consumption of liquid cooling while keeping the cooling capacity. These results might be helpful for the application of PCM and liquid cooling in battery thermal management system for better cooling performance and lower power consumption under harsh conditions.