Novel hybrid thermal management for Li-ion batteries with nanofluid cooling in the presence of alternating magnetic field: An experimental study

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries' dependability, efficiency, and security significantly rely on thermal management systems. This paper aims to design a novel battery thermal management system consisting of metal foam-paraffin PCM composite, nanofluid cooling, and heat sink, which all were subjected to a magnetic field. The battery surrogate was utilized to experimentally simulate the battery heat generation, where the occurrence of the thermal runaway was considered as the most crucial criterion for battery performance. The combined effect of various conditions on the paraffin wax melting process and maximum battery temperature was also investigated. Furthermore, the battery's temperature uniformity was also measured in the presence and absence of porous media. Compared to the base case, the maximum temperature of the battery in the best scenario was reduced by about 7.5 °C, while the working time of the system is increased by 179% at Re = 1250. Likewise, this improvement on battery cooling was 151% when the Reynolds number was 890. Further, the temperature difference of the proposed hybrid battery thermal management system (BTMS) was mainly below 4 °C. The experimental results revealed that the proposed hybrid BTMS has a striking cooling effect on eliminating the generated battery's heat and transferring it to the surrounding environment.