Experimental Investigation on the Feasibility of Heat Pipe-Based Thermal Management System to Prevent Thermal Runaway Propagation

Thermal management system (TMS) plays an essential part in improving the safety and durability of the battery pack. Prior studies mainly focused on controlling the maximum temperature and temperature difference of the battery pack. Little attention has been paid to the influence of the TMS on thermal runaway (TR) prevention of battery packs. In this paper, a heat pipe-based thermal management system (HPTMS) is designed and investigated to illustrate both the capabilities of temperature controlling and TR propagation preventing. Good thermal performance could be achieved under discharge and charge cycles of both 2 C rate and 3 C rate while the equivalent heat dissipation coefficient of the HPTMS is calculated above 70 W/(m2·K). In the TR propagation test triggered by overcharge, the surface temperature of the battery adjacent to the overcharged cell can be controlled below 215 °C, the onset temperature of TR obtained by the adiabatic TR test of a single cell. Therefore, TR propagation is prevented due to the high heat dissipation of the HPTMS. To conclude, the proposed HPTMS is an effective solution for the battery pack to maintain the operating temperature and improve the safety level under abuse conditions.

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Battery Thermal Management System Design: Role of Influence of Nanofluids, Flow Directions, and Channels

Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage ◽

10.1115/1.4045325 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 17 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Sanjay Srinivaas ◽

Wei Li ◽

Akhil Garg ◽

Xiongbin Peng ◽

Liang Gao

Keyword(s):

Pressure Drop ◽

Thermal Management ◽

Temperature Rise ◽

Management System ◽

Battery Pack ◽

Maximum Temperature ◽

Temperature Deviation ◽

Battery Thermal Management ◽

Thermal Management System ◽

Battery Thermal Management System

Abstract Lithium-ion batteries are currently being produced and used in large quantities in the automobile sector as a clean alternative to fossil fuels. The thermal behavior of the battery pack is a very important criterion, which is not only essential for safety but also has an equally important role in the capacity and life cycle of the batteries. The liquid battery thermal management system is a very efficient type of thermal management system, and mini-channel-based liquid cooling systems are one of the most popular type of the battery thermal management system and have been researched extensively. This paper mainly intends to study the effects of tapering, the addition of grooves to the channel, the use of different nanofluids, and the flow direction of coolant on the thermal performance of the battery pack using a three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model. The results suggest that converging channels can be used to control the temperature rise, while diverging channels can be used to control the temperature deviation. The addition of grooves and the use of nanofluids were beneficial in reducing the temperature rise. The final setups were able to reduce the maximum temperature rise by 2.267 K with a substantial pressure drop increase and by 1.513 K with an increase in pressure drop of only 19.92%.

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Performance of an Environmentally Friendly Alternative Fluid in a Loop Heat Pipe-Based Battery Thermal Management System

Energies ◽

10.3390/en14227738 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 14 (22) ◽

pp. 7738

Author(s):

Marco Bernagozzi ◽

Nicolas Miché ◽

Anastasios Georgoulas ◽

Cedric Rouaud ◽

Marco Marengo

Keyword(s):

Environmental Impact ◽

Heat Pipe ◽

Thermal Management ◽

Thermal Performance ◽

Management System ◽

Maximum Temperature ◽

Loop Heat Pipe ◽

Fast Charge ◽

Thermal Management System ◽

Thermal Medium

The present investigation aims to devise a thermal management system (TMS) for electric vehicles able to improve on limitations like charging time and all-electric range, together with the safety and environmental impact of the chosen thermal medium. A research gap is identified, as focus is often on addressing system thermal performance without considering that the thermal medium must not only provide suitable performances, but also must not add risks to both passengers and the environment. Thus, this work proposes an innovative cooling system including graphite sheets and a Loop Heat Pipe, filled with Novec™ 649 as working fluid, due to its exceptional environmental properties (GWP = 1 − ODP = 0) and safety features (non-flammable, non-toxic, dielectric). A three-cell module experimental demonstrator was built to compare temperatures when the proposed TMS is run with Novec™ 649 and ethanol. Results of testing over a bespoke fast charge driving cycle show that Novec™ 649 gave a faster start-up and a slightly higher maximum temperature (0.7 °C), meaning that the gains in safety and lower environmental impact brought by Novec™ 649 came without lowering the thermal performance. Finally, the TMS was tested under three different fast charge conditions (1C, 2C, 3C), obtaining maximum temperatures of 28.4 °C, 36.3 °C and 46.4 °C, respectively.

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Multi objective optimization of structural parameters of air-cooled system for lithium battery pack based on surrogate model

Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage ◽

10.1115/1.4051098 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-24

Author(s):

Nengsheng Bao ◽

Wei Li ◽

Ma Chong ◽

Fan Yuchen ◽

Li Tuyan

Keyword(s):

Electric Vehicle ◽

Thermal Management ◽

Management System ◽

Lithium Battery ◽

Optimization Method ◽

Battery Pack ◽

Maximum Temperature ◽

Multi Objective Optimization ◽

Multi Objective ◽

Thermal Management System

Abstract The new energy electric vehicle, which takes clean electric energy as the main driving force, has no pollutants and exhaust emissions during its operation. And has a higher energy utilization ratio than the fuel locomotive. Therefore, electric vehicles have been widely developed in recent years. The maximum temperature and temperature consistency of battery pack in electric vehicle have great influence on the life and safety of battery. In this paper, the thermal management system of lithium battery pack was taken as the research object. The temperature distribution and uniformity of battery pack under different heat dissipation conditions were analyzed based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The multi-objective optimization method of battery pack thermal management system was carried out by combining sur-rogate model with fast non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II). The maximum temperature of the battery pack obtained from candidate point 1 is 310.72K, which is 4.99K lower than the initial model temperature, and the temperature standard deviation is 0.76K, with a reduction rate of 51.9%. Experiment results showed that maximum difference between the optimized and experimental value of the maximum temperature is 0.8K, and the error was within 1K. Therefore, the multi-objective optimization method proposed in this paper has high accuracy.

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Numerical analysis of heat-pipe-based battery thermal management system for prismatic lithium-ion batteries

Journal of Thermal Science and Engineering Applications ◽

10.1115/1.4053119 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-16

Author(s):

Jianping Cheng ◽

Shenlong Shuai ◽

Renchen Zhao ◽

Zhiguo Tang

Keyword(s):

Heat Pipe ◽

Thermal Management ◽

Management System ◽

Discharge Rate ◽

Maximum Temperature ◽

Battery Thermal Management ◽

Thermal Management System ◽

Battery Thermal Management System ◽

Battery Module ◽

Heating Medium

Abstract An effective battery thermal management system (BTMS) is essential for controlling both the maximum temperature and the temperature uniformity of a battery module. In this study, a novel and lightweight BTMS for prismatic batteries based on a heat pipe is proposed. A numerical model is created to study the influence of heat transfer designs and other factors on the thermal performance of the BTMS, and the simulation results are checked experimentally. The results show that when the condensation section of the heat pipe is cooled by liquid, the maximum temperature of the battery (Tmax) is reduced by 18.1% compared with air cooling. Decreasing the coolant temperature can reduce T_max, but can also lead to an undesirable temperature nonuniformity. The T_max and the maximum temperature difference (ΔTmax) in a battery module both increase rapidly as the discharge rate rises. The Tmax and ΔTmax are lower than 40 °C and 5 °C respectively when the discharge rate of the battery is lower than 2C. Under preheating conditions in cold weather, increasing the temperature of the heating medium can improve the temperature of the batteries, but at the same time it can make the battery module's temperature more nonuniform, and also add to cost. The temperature of the heating medium should therefore be selected with care. It could be concluded that the above results can provide perspectives in designing and optimizing battery thermal management system.

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A Framework of Optimal Design of Thermal Management System for Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Using Multi-Objectives Optimization

Journal of Electrochemical Energy Conversion and Storage ◽

10.1115/1.4048010 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 18 (2) ◽

Author(s):

Xiangping Liao ◽

Chong Ma ◽

Xiongbin Peng ◽

Yuwu Li ◽

Lianfeng Duan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Energy Consumption ◽

Optimal Design ◽

Thermal Management ◽

Management System ◽

Battery Pack ◽

Maximum Temperature ◽

Multi Objective Optimization ◽

Battery Thermal Management ◽

Thermal Management System ◽

Battery Thermal Management System

Abstract Battery thermal management system is critical to prevent the battery pack from such safety issues as overheating, thermal runaway, and spontaneous combustion. Many research works have been done to improve the thermal performance of the thermal management system by reducing the maximum temperature of the battery pack. However, the temperature difference and energy consumption were not discussed in most of the researches. This paper proposed a framework of optimal design of the battery thermal management system using surrogate model and multi-objective optimization methodology. The accuracy of this method was then validated through two cases. The proposed framework aims to find a way to design a battery pack with at least two types of the following objectives: the smallest maximum temperature, smallest temperature deviation, and the lowest energy consumption. The framework can be divided into five steps: the structural design of the battery thermal management system; the fluid–solid coupled heat transfer modeling using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method; the design of experiments and selection of surrogate models; the multi-objective optimization algorithm based on Pareto optimal solution; and the experimental verification. The optimized designs showed significant improvement by decreasing both the temperature rise and the energy consumption.

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