Thermal cooling behaviors of lithium-ion batteries by metal foam with phase change materials

Abstract

Lithium ion (Li-ion) batteries are an integral part of electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles or smartphones because of their high energy and power density. These batteries suffer from a high temperature rise and generate excessive heat during operation. An improvement technique, passive thermal management (e.g. a phase change material), has become an attractive approach in recent years as it is highly efficient, compact and lightweight. Phase Change Materials (PCMs) store thermal heat in the form of sensible and principally latent heat. PCM changes state from solid to liquid or liquid to gas or vice versa at almost constant temperature during latent heat storage. Metal foams have also been proven to be a viable option in enhancing thermal conductivity of PCMs. High porosity, good thermophysical properties and mechanical strength are salient features of metal foams.In this paper, a simple rectangular electronics passive cooling device was implemented for Li-Ion Battery. A PCM material with metal foam was numerically investigated. Numerical simulations were carried out using the Ansys-Fluent code. Results in terms temperatures, melting time and max reached temperature were reported.