Performance analysis of a battery thermal management system based on phase change materials with micro heat pipe arrays

Abstract

Lithium-ion battery packs generate high-level heat under harsh and rigorous conditions. The inadequate heat dissipation results in high pack temperature above the safe operating range. This study investigates an efficient and cost-effective battery thermal management system based on phase change materials and a micro heat pipe array. The battery is treated as a single domain. A battery pack with six series stacked batteries is analyzed using the Newman-Tiedemann-Gu-Kim model. The thermal performance of a battery thermal management system is analyzed using phase change materials with various melting temperature values, ambient temperature, and convective heat transfer coefficients of micro heat pipe arrays. Results show that the maximum temperature of the cooling system with micro heat pipe arrays and phase change materials is 33.8 °C, which is reduced by 22.3 % and 7.8 % compared to the air-cooled and cooling system with micro heat pipe arrays. At forced convection of 50 W·m−2·K−1, the maximum battery temperature values for the phase change material RT31, RT35, and RT42 are reduced by 11.8 %, 8.9 %, and 5.4 % compared to those at forced convection of 5 W·m−2·K−1. Under short-circuit conditions, the cooling system with micro heat pipe arrays and cooling system with micro heat pipe arrays − phase change materials reduce the maximum battery temperature by 12.4 % and 29.9 % compared to the air-cooled system. Results show that the developed model for the battery thermal management system provides a reference for designing phase change materials with micro heat pipe arrays.