Thermal runaway behaviour and heat generation optimization of the marine battery cabinet based on module thermal analysis

Abstract

Currently, the application of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles has become common in recent years. Considering the adjustment and transformation of the future energy structure, the use of electric ships is increasing; however, the problem of heat production from the battery cabinet of electric ships must be solved. Therefore, in this study, the multi-scale and multi-domain solution method was used to analyse the heat production and heat transfer of a module-level battery to calibrate the basic calculation model in this study. A double-layer cooling arrangement was proposed to optimise the heat production of the model, which controlled the heat production rate of the battery module to be within 0.00497 K/s. Based on the thermal runaway (TR) module, a three-layer marine battery cabinet was visually analysed for the first time, and the influence of TR on the upper and lower layers and the thermal spread behaviour of the battery pack in the middle layer were studied. The results indicated that the temperature change in the battery in the first layer was more significant than that in the third layer. Furthermore, the proposed double-layer cooling scheme controlled the temperature of the battery in direct contact with the heat source to within 324.4 K. The findings of this study provide insights into the TR behaviour of a marine battery cabinet and its influence on heat generation as well as guidance for the thermal management of electric marine battery cabinets.