THE EFFECT OF USING PHASE CHANGE MATERIALS AND EXAMINING THE ASPECT RATIO IN AN AIR-COOLED SYSTEM OF A PLATE BATTERY CONNECTED TO A SOLAR SYSTEM

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in the electronics industry to store electrical energy. One of the challenges with these batteries is that they heat up during operation, which can damage the battery. For this reason, this paper simulates the cooling process of a plate-type (BTP) lithium-ion battery pack. To control the temperature of the battery (T-B), a laminar air flow and a phase change material (PCM) are used. The PCM is placed in a heat sink around the battery. This evaluation is performed temporarily for four different dimensions of the PCM pack. The hot outlet of this system is used to provide the thermal energy required for a small residential building (THE) at a mild temperature. The BTP was also simulated using COMSOL. The results show that the use of larger heat sinks can increase the maximum (MAX) and average (AVE) temperature of the battery. The minimum T-B occurs at different times for the smaller PCM heat sinks. Also, when using a heatsink with a larger PCM volume, it takes longer for the PCM to fully solidify. A BTP with 5 or 50 battery cells can provide up to 3% or 30% of the THE required for the building.