Investigation on the battery thermal management and thermal safety of battery-powered ship with flame-retardant composite phase change materials

Abstract

Pure battery-powered ships have attracted much attention because of its unique advantages of zero-emission. However, the problems of adaptability to extreme working conditions and thermal safety risks restrict the development of battery-powered ships. In this study, a novel flexible flame-retardant composite phase change materials (CPCM) with paraffin (PA)/EVA grafted on maleic anhydride (EVA-g-MAH)/expanded graphite (EG)/ammonium polyphosphate (APP)/triphenyl phosphate (TPP)/Na2SiO3 has been proposed and utilized in battery module. Among them, the sample ATPCM2 with APP/TPP/Na2SiO3 ratio of 5/10/10 achieved the optimal thermal properties and flame-retardant effect. The designed multifunctional CPCM harmonizes the competition between flame retardancy, mechanical properties and phase change latent heat by the synergistic effect. Besides, the ATPCM2-Module shows a good temperature control performance during charge-discharge cycles, such as the maximum temperature of battery module can be still controlled below 50 °C at 2C discharge rate and the corresponding temperature difference was effectively maintained within 4.1 °C. This is owing to the constructed stable three-dimensional heat conductive skeleton formed by synergistic flame retardancy effect, which could improve the dissipation heat capacity and thermal safety. With these prominent performances, the designed flexible CPCM with desired flame-retardant and thermal management performance can provide insights into the passive thermal management and thermal safety improvement of both battery-powered ships and high-power battery module under extreme conditions.