Performance Evaluation of Battery Thermal Management System in Electric Vehicle using Induction Heater (Part 1: Parallel System)

The fast evolving Electric vehicles (EVs) have become popular due to their zero-emission, fuel economy and better technology. However, the performance and life of batteries are very sensitive to temperature, it is important to maintain the proper temperature range. The battery thermal management system (BTMS) plays an important role in the performance of EVs. In this context, this study is conducted to evaluate the thermal performance of a battery with a parallel system using an induction heater. The GT-Suite software is used for simulation and evaluation. Mixture of water and ethylene glycol 50:50 is used as a working fluid and controlled by pump and valves. The heating rate of battery was analyzed by changing the capacity of induction heater 2, 4 and 6[Formula: see text]kW and the flow rate of fluid was 2, 3, 5, 7, 10 and 27 LPM. The simulation work predicts that the battery heating rate increases with the increase in fluid flow. The study concluded that the battery heating rate is maximum with a flow rate of 27 LPM which is the highest amount of LPM, indicating that the rise in flow rate causes the increase in heating rate of the system which is also affected by induction heater capacity.

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Induction Heater Based Battery Thermal Management System for Electric Vehicles

Energies ◽

10.3390/en13215711 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 13 (21) ◽

pp. 5711

Author(s):

Waseem Raza ◽

Gwang Soo Ko ◽

Youn Cheol Park

Keyword(s):

Heat Transfer ◽

Thermal Management ◽

Electric Vehicles ◽

Management System ◽

Lithium Ion ◽

Cold Climate ◽

Induction Heater ◽

Battery Thermal Management ◽

Thermal Management System ◽

Battery Thermal Management System

The life and efficiency of electric vehicle batteries are susceptible to temperature. The impact of cold climate dramatically decreases battery life, while at the same time increasing internal impedance. Thus, a battery thermal management system (BTMS) is vital to heat and maintain temperature range if the electric vehicle’s batteries are operating in a cold climate. This paper presents an induction heater-based battery thermal management system that aims to ensure thermal safety and prolong the life cycle of Lithium-ion batteries (Li-Bs). This study used a standard simulation tool known as GT-Suite to simulate the behavior of the proposed BTMS. For the heat transfer, an indirect liquid heating method with variations in flow rate was considered between Lithium-ion batteries. The battery and cabin heating rate was analyzed using the induction heater powers of 2, 4, and 6 kW at ambient temperatures of −20, −10, and 0 °C. A water and ethylene glycol mixture with a ratio of 50:50 was considered as an operating fluid. The findings reveal that the thermal performance of the proposed system is generally increased by increasing the flow rate and affected by the induction heater capacity. It is evident that at −20 °C with 27 LPM and 6 kW heater capacity, the maximum heat transfer rate is 0.0661 °C/s, whereas the lowest is 0.0295 °C/s with 2 kW heater capacity. Furthermore, the proposed BTMS could be a practical approach and help to design the thermal system for electric vehicles in the future.

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