Energy Conversion and Management 79 (2014) 9–17

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Energy Conversion and Management

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Battery thermal management by boiling heat-transfer

R.W. van Gils a,⇑, D. Danilov b,c, P.H.L. Notten b,c, M.F.M. Speetjens d, H. Nijmeijer a
a
Dynamics and Control, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
b
Energy Materials and Devices, Dept. of Chemical Engineering and Chemistry, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
c
Energy Materials and Devices, Dept. of Electrical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
d
Energy Technology, Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this study, the ability of a boiling process to thermally condition (homogenisation and cooling) batter-
Received 5 April 2013 ies is investigated. Thereto, a series of experiments are performed and discussed. Subjects that are treated
Accepted 5 December 2013 are the dielectric property of the proposed cooling fluid, its cooling capability compared to that of air, the
ability of the boiling fluid to thermally homogenise a battery and the influence of pressure variation on
the boiling process. It turns out that the proposed cooling fluid conducts no electricity, has good cooling
Keywords: characteristics compared to those of air and, when boiling, is able to thermally homogenise the battery.
Boiling heat-transfer
Furthermore, pressure variation seems to offer a good method to regulate the boiling process.
Battery
Pool boiling
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Thermal homogenisation
Experiments
Numerical simulation

1. Introduction Comparable thermal issues in high-end electronics are faced

The development of electric vehicles (EVs) has undergone major
breakthroughs over the last decade. Further improvement of EVs can
be found in increased battery performance and more efficient en-
ergy schemes. Because the battery-pack durability and life also
affect the cost and reliability of the vehicle, any parameter that
affects this battery lifetime must be optimised. Temperature (range
and uniformity) has a strong influence on the battery (pack) lifetime
and thus on the overall performance of EVs [1,2]. With respect to
temperature, the battery can be better conditioned compared to cur-
rent EVs, where batteries are often passively cooled. Operation at
elevated temperatures can seriously accelerate battery deteriora-
tion [3]. On the other hand, operation at lowered temperatures can
seriously decrease the efficiency of the battery [4]. Hence maintain-
ing a narrow temperature window can greatly benefit battery per-
formance and lifetime.
Another important parameter affecting the battery lifetime is
the temperature uniformity of the battery. If the cells and modules
in the pack are at different temperatures, each module will be
(dis)charged slightly differently during each cycle. After several
cycles, modules in the pack will become unbalanced, degrading
the packs performance [5]. Hence, especially in consideration of cy-
cle life of the battery pack, a thermal management (homogenisa-
tion and cooling) scheme is indispensable [6].
⇑ Corresponding author. Address: P.O. Box 513, 5600MB Eindhoven, The
Netherlands. Tel.: +31 (0)40 247 2811; fax: +31 (0)40 246 1418.
E-mail address: r.w.v.gils@tue.nl (R.W. van Gils).
with advanced thermal management schemes based on boiling
heat-transfer [7–9]. That is, thermal homogenisation as well as
cooling is attained very effectively by heat exchange of the device
with a boiling medium. Boiling heat-transfer namely affords cool-
ing capacities substantially beyond that of conventional methods.
It furthermore, allows for thermal homogenisation very effectively
as it, irrespective of heat fluxes, happens at a fixed temperature for
a given pressure [10,11]. As such, boiling heat-transfer thermal
management can also solve problems that are currently arising
in Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner batteries [12].
Pool boiling may serve as physical representation for heat-
transfer applications based on boiling heat-transfer. In thermal
management schemes based on pool boiling, it is of importance
to keep the system in the desired boiling mode. This is explained
in more detail in Section 2. Due to fluctuating and uncertain
heat-transfer demands this is a challenging task. Therefore, the
boiling process in these thermal management schemes must be
regulated. Controllers that achieve this are to be developed using
theoretical models describing the dynamics of these systems.
However, to date, theoretical studies for pool boiling applica-
tions are scarce. Many publications on boiling experiments can
be found on the other hand (see e.g. [13–15] for an extensive
review). The boiling process is influenced by numerous variables,
such as fluid-heater combination, surface roughness and system
pressure. Consequently, experimental results can only be used in
a very limited range of boiling applications. Theoretical investiga-
tion of pool-boiling systems may be found in [16–19]. Application

0196-8904/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2013.12.006
10 R.W. van Gils et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 79 (2014) 9–17

of phase-change heat-transfer for thermal conditioning of battery

packs in EVs can be found in [20,21,11].
Aim of the present study is the experimental investigation of
the ability of pool boiling for thermal conditioning of batteries in
EVs. First exploratory experiments are carried out to investigate:

 The electric interaction between battery and cooling fluid, i.e.

the boiling liquid.
 The cooling capacity of the proposed cooling fluid.
 The ability of the boiling process to thermally homogenise
batteries.
 The controllability of the boiling process.

In order to treat the first item, the dielectric property of the

cooling fluid is investigated as no interaction between battery
and fluid is desired. Items 2 and 3 are investigated using charge–
discharge experiments. Finally, the influence of pressure variation
on the boiling process is investigated to discuss the controllability
of the boiling process. In this way, the principle of thermal homog-
enisation via the boiling process in a pool-boiling system is ad-
dressed for application in EVs.
This paper is organised as follows. In Section 2 additional back-
ground information with respect to pool boiling is given. Section 3
treats the experimental setups. In Section 4 the dielectric property
of the proposed cooling fluid and its cooling capability are consid-
ered. Furthermore, the battery is pulse-charged–discharged to in-
duce boiling and the thermal homogenisation of the battery is
examined. The experimental results are compared to the evolution
of a thermal battery model and the influence of the boiling process
on the heat-transfer coefficient from battery to liquid is discussed
in this section. Finally, the ability to actively and rapidly control
the boiling process via regulation of the pressure in the boiling
chamber is considered in this section. The findings are summarised
and conclusions are drawn in Section 5.
2. Boiling as physical mechanism for thermal battery
management
Pool boiling may serve as physical representation for thermal-
conditioning applications based on boiling heat-transfer. Such sys-
tems consist of a heater submerged in a pool of liquid. The to-be-
cooled device supplies heat to the bottom wall of the heater, which
corresponds with a thermally conducting element between the ac-
tual heat source (e.g. the battery) and the coolant above the heater.
The coolant can be chosen to be a dielectric fluid so as to eliminate
the risk of short circuiting, which is essential in the case of batter-
ies. As a result, no additional sealing between electrical circuit and
coolant is required. The liquid extracts heat from the heater and
eventually starts to boil and releases thermal energy through the
escaping vapour. The vapour turns into liquid again in a condenser,
releasing its heat, and flows back towards the boiling liquid.
Convection is the first mode of heat-transfer that occurs when
increasing the heat flux (q) at the heater surface (initially at the
saturation temperature of the cooling fluid) which is represented
by region I in Fig. 1. Further increasing the heat flux results in an
increased heater temperature and at some point (A in Fig. 1) bub-
bles begin to appear randomly on the heater surface. This is the on-
set of partial nucleate-boiling (region II). Continued increase of the
temperature and heat flux causes the merger of the isolated vapour
bubbles into jets of vapour. This transition (point B) marks the
beginning of the fully developed nucleate-boiling regime, corre-
sponding with region III in the figure. In this regime the departed
bubbles leave a tiny dry spot in the liquid on the heater surface,
and upon further increasing the heater temperature, more and
more dry spots are formed. Due to the lower heat-transfer
Fig. 1. Typical boiling curve, showing qualitatively the dependence of the interface
heat flux (q) on the surface superheat (DT), defined as the difference between the
surface temperature and the saturation temperature of the liquid. The various
regions characteristic for boiling processes are indicated ([13]).
coefficient of vapour compared to liquid, this thermally insulates
the heater. At some point (C in Fig. 1) the high heat fluxes can
not be accommodated anymore by nucleate-boiling and the sys-
tem enters the transition-boiling regime (region IV). The heater is
rapidly covered with more and more vapour. As a result of the
insulating vapour spots on the heater, its temperature rises very
rapidly. Since this increase in temperature is accompanied by a
reduction in heat flux, the transition regime is highly unstable. At
point D in Fig. 1, the heater surface is covered by a global vapour
film and the stable film-boiling regime (region V) is entered. If
the heat supply remains constant, the system temperature will in-
crease to the point where the same heat flux is generated for a so-
lid–gas contact, this is accompanied by a massive increase in
temperature.
In thermal homogenisation schemes, the desired mode of boil-
ing is nucleation boiling, corresponding with region II and III in the
figure. Here the slope of the boiling curve corresponds to heat-
transfer coefficient. Higher heat-transfer coefficients thus indicate
a more violent mode of boiling. Furthermore, the characteristic
time scale of the temperature evolution scales with the inverse
of the heat-transfer coefficient, meaning a more violent mode of
boiling allows for (much) quicker responses to changing heat-
transfer demands, due to the dynamical power requirements in
EVs. Operation temperatures close to point C thus are desired in
thermal management schemes for EV-batteries.
3. Laboratory set-up
The ability of thermal homogenisation of a battery-pack via boil-
ing heat-transfer is investigated by a series of exploratory experi-
ments. In this study, it is examined whether boiling can indeed
thermally homogenise 1 Ah Li-ion batteries (Sony US18500VR,
dimensions: diameter = 18 mm, height = 49 mm) and whether the
boiling process can be influenced via the pressure in the boiling
chamber. The proposed cooling fluid is Novec7000 (3M, USA,
chemical composition: 99.5 weight percentage of C3F7OCH3
 R.W. van Gils et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 79 (2014) 9–17
(1-methoxyheptafluoropropane)), since its boiling point at atmo-
spheric pressure equals 34 °C, which is in the battery safety limits.
Two setups are utilised for the experiments. The first setup (Set-
up 1) is used to:
 Test the dielectric properties of the fluid.
 Perform discharge experiments at atmospheric pressure. These
experiments are done with the battery submerged in the liquid
and in open-air. Results of both experiments give insight into
the cooling capacity of the liquid compared to that of air.
 Perform pulse-charge–discharge (PCD) experiments at atmo-
spheric pressure, with the battery submerged in the liquid.
With these experiments the heat generation by the battery is
maximal. These experiments are used to investigate the ability
of the boiling process to thermally homogenise batteries.
The second setup (Setup 2) is used to investigate the influence
of pressure variation on the boiling process. The primary goal is
determining to what extent the pressure is suitable for regulation
of the system. Although the influence of pressure on a boiling pro-
cess has been discussed in e.g. [10,22], this experiment is per-
formed to specifically investigate whether this principle is
applicable for controlling the thermal conditioning. It is important
that the boiling process can be actively regulated by variation of
the pressure in the boiling chamber, since the boiling process must
be maintained in the nucleate boiling regime (see Fig. 1). Control of
the boiling process must be done rapidly as it has to cope with the
highly dynamic heat production by the battery pack. The (future)
challenge is to regulate the boiling process actively and rapidly
via the pressure under dynamical conditions. This is essential for
the application of pool-boiling considered here. The experiments
discussed here lay the groundwork for more detailed (future)
investigations.
In both setups, the current and voltage are supplied, regulated
and measured by a battery-testing system (MACCOR 2300, USA). Mea-
surements are done with a sampling rate of 1 Hz or when the volt-
age has changed more than 1 mV. The accuracy of the Maccor
system is <1 mV in voltage and <1 mA in current. The battery can
be (dis)charged at a maximum of 5 A. This system also supplies
the current and measures the voltage drop over the thermocouples
in order to measure the temperature on various locations. Thermo-
couples used are Pt100/1516, Grade A thermocouples (METATEMP)
([23]) for both setups their accuracy/stability is increased by taking
a moving average of 50 measurement points.
3.1. Setup 1
In the first setup, the battery is fully submerged in a pool of li-
quid inside a double-walled container. The enclosure between the
double walls can be filled with air, which thermally insulates the
battery and liquid from the ambient, since the air volume is sealed
in this case and motion of air is restricted. They can be also filled
with water at a set temperature (the water temperature is regu-
lated via a ‘Thermo Scientific HAAKE Bath’), in order to pre-heat
the liquid prior to an experiment. The temperature control is pro-
vided with an accuracy of ±0.1 °C), temperature loss along the tube
is not accounted for and is considered small. Temperature mea-
surements are performed at two and three locations for Sensor
configuration 1 and 2, respectively. For Sensor configuration 1,
the temperature of the battery wall is measured externally be-
tween the top and bottom of the battery and the ambient temper-
ature is measured. For Sensor configuration 2, the external
temperature of the positive pole and the negative pole and the
temperature of the liquid are measured. These locations are chosen
since with two battery measurements available, all first order
heterogeneity can be observed and thus provide a viable first
11
determination of homogeneity and/or heterogeneity. Orientation
and dimensions of Setup 1 and the sensor configurations are sche-
matically depicted in Fig. 2.
3.2. Setup 2
The second setup is used to investigate the influence of the
pressure on the boiling process. Thereto, a much smaller container
is used, so that the liquid starts boiling due to the heat produced by
the battery only. Hence, pre-heating as in Setup 1 is unnecessary.
The small boiling chamber is connected to an injection syringe
and a water manometer for pressure measurement. The syringe
enables variation of the boiling chamber volume, which thus indi-
rectly regulates the pressure. Setup 1 and the sensor configurations
are schematically depicted in Fig. 2. Configuration and dimensions
of Setup 2 are schematically depicted in Fig. 3.
4. Experimental analysis
In this section the experiments performed are discussed. Sub-
jects that are treated are the dielectric property of the fluid, its
cooling capability compared to that of air, its ability for thermal
homogenisation and the influence of pressure variation on the
boiling process.
4.1. Electric interaction between battery and cooling liquid
First the dielectric property of the liquid is investigated in order
to rule out possible influences due to electric conduction. The evo-
lution of the voltage and current of the battery, fully submerged in
the liquid, are given in Fig. 4. As can be seen, first the battery is
charged using a constant-current constant-voltage (CCCV) scheme
(Fig. 4(a)) and then it is maintained at rest (open circuit voltage
(OCV)). The close-up of the rest period in Fig. 4(b) exposes hardly
any decay of the voltage over time, indicating that the battery does
not appreciably discharge during open circuit conditions. Hence,
the electric conduction by the fluid will not play a role in the fol-
lowing experiments.
4.2. Battery cooling: air versus single-phase liquid
The 1 Ah battery is discharged at 5 A. Two series of experiments
are done: (i) discharging in open air; (ii) discharging while the bat-
tery is submerged in Novec7000, in order to compare the cooling
capability of the fluid with that of air. These experiments are per-
formed using Setup 1 with Sensor configuration 1. The voltage
curves of the experiment are depicted in Fig. 5(a). Curve (a) shows
the voltage upon discharge while submerged in Novec7000, while
Curve (b) shows that in open-air. The difference in discharge pro-
files is due to the difference in temperature for both experiments,
the corresponding temperature evolutions are depicted in Fig. 5(b).
Here Curve (a) corresponds to the experiment where the battery is
submerged in Novec7000, while Curve (b) corresponds to that in
open-air. Curve (c) gives the constant temperature of the ambient
during the experiments. Due to the elevated temperatures during
the discharge in open-air, the battery becomes more efficient.
However, undesired side-reactions that deteriorate the battery will
increase as well due to these elevated temperatures.
These results reveal that when discharged in air, the battery
temperature (Curve (b)) rises to temperature levels above the boil-
ing point of Novec7000 (34 °C). During the experiments in No-
vec7000, the battery is fully submerged in a pool of liquid,
however. Due to the vertical position of the (main part of the)
fluid-heater interface, the temperature differences along this
interface result in fluid flows as a consequence of natural convec-
12 R.W. van Gils et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 79 (2014) 9–17

Fig. 2. Schematic representation of Setup 1.

Fig. 3. Schematic representation of Setup 2.

 R.W. van Gils et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 79 (2014) 9–17 13

Fig. 4. Evolution of the current and voltage upon battery charging (panel a) and while at rest (panel b). During both experiments the battery is submerged in Novec7000.

Fig. 5. Voltage curves of the discharge experiment (panel a). Temperature evolution of the battery and the ambient for a 5 A discharge in air and Novec7000 (panel b).

tion. As a result, the fluid is drained away from the battery before it
can start boiling. This has been observed clearly during these
experiments. Consequently, the temperature of the battery (Curve
(a)) does not rise more than 5 °C. Hence, the favourable cooling
characteristics compared to that of air are solely the result of nat-
ural convection. In the following section, boiling is induced by
pulse-charge–discharge (PCD) of the battery, as it produces more
heat and over a larger period of time.

4.3. Full battery conditioning: boiling heat-transfer

During the PCD procedure the battery is discharged at 5 A for

90 s and then charged at the same current for the same period of
time, see Fig. 6 for the corresponding current (Curve (a)) and volt-
age (Curve (b)) curve. Therefore, using PCD, the battery can heat up
the liquid longer, compared to only discharging the battery. As a
result, the liquid can be heated sufficiently for boiling to occur.
Fig. 6. Voltage curve of the PCD experiments.
Aim is to determine the ability of the boiling process to thermally
homogenise the battery. Therefore, the battery temperature is
measured at two locations (Sensor configuration 2 in Setup 1). to boil. The PCD experiments have been done while the container
The enclosure of Setup 1 is filled with water at a set tempera- walls are maintained at 20 °C, 25 °C, 30 °C, 32 °C and 33 °C. The
ture in order to bring the liquid temperature closer to its boiling results of the experiments with the walls fixed at 20 °C and 33 °C
point. The battery can then locally heat up the liquid and bring it are presented in Fig. 7.
14 R.W. van Gils et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 79 (2014) 9–17
Experiments with the walls fixed at 20 °C, 25 °C and 30 °C dem-
onstrate that as long as the liquid does not start boiling (at 34 °C),
the evolution of the temperature in all three measurement points
of Sensor configuration 2 (Fig. 2) is, relative to the wall tempera-
ture, approximately the same. This evolution is represented with
the walls fixed at 20 °C in Fig. 7(a). An offset between the temper-
ature at the bottom of the battery (negative pole) (Curve (b)) and
that of the top of the battery (positive pole) (Curve (a)) of approx-
imately 0:7  C can be observed. When the battery orientation is
standard, the positive pole is its upper side. In this case, the top
is warmer than the bottom of the battery. With the battery turned
upside down the positive pole (bottom) is approximately 0:2  C
warmer than the negative pole (top). Since for this orientation
the bottom of the battery is warmer than its top, an unstable strat-
ification of the liquid surrounding the battery occurs, which results
in vertical convection. As a result, the temperature difference be-
tween the battery poles diminishes. The temperature difference
observed in Fig. 7(a) thus is not solely the result of natural convec-
tion (for both experiments vertical streamlines can be observed)
but is probably the combined result of convection and a nonuni-
form temperature distribution inside the battery.
For the experiments with the container walls fixed at a temper-
ature larger than about 31 °C the liquid starts to boil at the battery
poles. Fig. 7(b) represents the temperature evolution in the sensor
points for the walls fixed at 33 °C and reveals that the top and bot-
tom temperature of the battery (Curve (a) and (b), respectively) be-
come nearly indistinguishable, demonstrating that the boiling
process indeed thermally homogenises the battery.
The eventual temperature difference of the battery relative to
the bulk temperature, i.e. the liquid temperature (Curve (c) in
Fig. 7, equals approximately 1.1 °C for the walls fixed at 32 °C
and approximately 0.8 °C for the walls fixed at 33 °C. In the non-
boiling regime this amounts to 1.3 °C for the bottom and 2.0 °C
for the top of the battery, for all experiments done. Since, the
PCD procedure is equal for all experiments, it can be assumed that
the heat flux from battery to liquid Q is constant for all experi-
ments. Assuming convective heat-transfer, i.e.
Q ¼ hðT bat  T bulk Þ;
this means that a smaller temperature difference implies a relative
larger heat-transfer coefficient h, which signifies a higher degree of
boiling. The heat-transfer coefficient is given by the slope of the
boiling curve, see Fig. 1 (also see, for example [13]). That is, the tem-
Fig. 7. Temperature evolution of the battery and the liquid (close to the container wall) for a 5 A PCD in Novec7000. The temperature of the walls of the container are fixed at
20 °C (panel a) and 33 °C (panel b).
perature difference T bat  T bulk can be considered a measure for the
intensity of the boiling process, where lower temperature differ-
ences correspond to a more violent mode of boiling. This means that
the liquid starts to boil more intensively during the experiments
with the walls fixed at 33 °C compared to 32 °C, which is also ob-
served during these experiments.
The heat-transfer coefficient is determined using a thermal bat-
tery model. Such models can form the basis for designing control
laws as discussed in the introduction of this study. The tempera-
ture evolution of the battery for the PCD experiments is deter-
mined via simulations and compared to the experimental results
of the previous section. The mass, dimensions and specific heat
of the battery are determined and are given by
m ¼ 32:5 g; ðl; dÞ ¼ ð49; 18Þ mm and cp ¼ 0:87 J=ðg KÞ, respectively.
The temperature evolution of the battery can be described by
dT bat 1
¼ ðQ  hAðT bat  T bulk ÞÞ: ð2Þ
dt cp m in
If h and Q in are constant, the exact solution of this differential
equation is given by
T bat ðtÞ ¼ ðT bat ð0Þ  T 1 Þet=s þ T 1 ; ð3Þ
where s ¼ mcp =ðhAÞ is the characteristic time scale of the system
evolution and T 1 ¼ Q in =ðhAÞ is the equilibrium temperature. Note
that this simplified model assumes a uniform internal battery tem-
perature. As can be seen, the characteristic time of the system evo-
lution decreases with increased heat-transfer coefficients (h). This
means that boiling, besides high heat fluxes and thermal homogeni-
sation, offers a third advantage over conventional conditioning
method: the ability of rapid regulation of the temperature.
For the experiments Q in is determined from the Maccor system,
i.e. the energy difference between that charged in the battery and
that discharged from the battery divided by the time of one cycle
and
Q in
h¼ ; ð4Þ
AðT eq eq
bat  T bulk Þ
ð1Þ where superscript ‘eq’ denotes that the battery and liquid are in
thermal equilibrium. The heat-transfer coefficient (h) can then be
determined from the experiments discussed above. The obtained
heat-transfer coefficients are given in Fig. 8 as function of wall
temperature for the experiments done. It can be seen that the
heat-transfer coefficients in the non-boiling regime are approxi-
 R.W. van Gils et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 79 (2014) 9–17
mately the same. When the liquid starts boiling, the heat-transfer
coefficient increases, which indicates a more aggressive mode of
boiling. A doubling of the heat-transfer coefficient can be observed
when going from the non-boiling to the boiling regime, meaning the
reaction-time (s) increases with a factor two as well.
The evolution of the measurements can be compared with those
obtained via simulation of the model. This is shown in Fig. 9(a) and
(b) for the experiment with the walls fixed at 20 °C and at 33 °C,
respectively. The evolution of the experiments with the walls fixed
at 25 °C, 30 °C and 32 °C are given in the Appendix. The model and
experiment transient nearly overlap, meaning the obtained heat-
transfer coefficients can be assumed to be accurate. Note that in
Fig. 9 the average battery temperature is simulated, while the
experimental signals correspond to the top and bottom of the
battery.
4.4. Regulation of the conditioning process
Finally, it is investigated whether boiling can occur when the li-
quid is not heated externally and how the pressure influences the
boiling process. A different experimental setup is used, where the
volume of liquid surrounding the battery is much smaller. There-
fore, the liquid starts boiling due to the heat produced by the bat-
Fig. 8. Heat-transfer coefficient at thermal equilibrium as function of wall
temperature.
Fig. 9. Temperature evolution of the battery and the liquid (close to the container wall) for a 5 A PCD in Novec7000. The temperature of the walls of the container are fixed at
20 °C (panel a) and 33 °C (panel b).
15
tery running a PCD procedure at 5 A. This experiment is carried out
at atmospheric pressure, for an underpressure of 0:05 atm and for
an overpressure of 0:05 atm in the boiling chamber. The tempera-
ture evolutions of these experiments show that the battery tem-
perature in thermal equilibrium relates to the pressure in the
boiling chamber as shown in Fig. 10. The temperature increases
with pressure, as a result of the dependency of the boiling point
of the liquid on the pressure. This demonstrates that the tempera-
ture can indeed be regulated via the pressure.
In order to attain further prove of the principle of manipulating
the boiling process via adaptation of the pressure, a video is made
during an experiment. The primary goal is determining to what ex-
tent the pressure is suitable for regulation of the system. Although
the influence of pressure on the boiling process has been discussed
in e.g. [10,22], this experiment is performed to investigate whether
this principle is also applicable for thermal conditioning. The (fu-
ture) challenge is to regulate the boiling process actively and rap-
idly via the pressure under dynamical conditions. Here the
pressure is momentarily decreased and increased, while the liquid
is boiling and the battery is running a PCD procedure at 4.5 A. This
video can be found at http://youtu.be/8oBIF6lpL_s. It can be seen
quite well that increasing the pressure, instantaneously suppresses
the boiling process, while decreasing the pressure makes the liquid
36
35.5
35
ylabel
34.5
34
33.5
33
0.9 0.95 1 1.05 1.1
xlabel
Fig. 10. Temperature at thermal equilibrium ( liquid boiling point) as function of
pressure.
16 R.W. van Gils et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 79 (2014) 9–17

Fig. 11. Visualisation of the boiling experiments at atmospheric pressure (panel a), at sub-atmospheric pressure (panel b) and at super-atmospheric pressure (panel c).

Fig. 12. Temperature evolution of the battery cell and the liquid (close to the container wall) for a 4.9A PCD in Novec7000. The temperature of the walls of the container are
fixed at 25 °C (panel a), 30 °C (panel b) and 32 °C (panel c). The experimental signals are smoothed out by taking a moving average over 50 data points.

boil more aggressively. For the sake of completeness in Fig. 11 5. Conclusions

some images are shown. Panel a corresponds to the process at
atmospheric pressure, where the liquid boils moderately. Then
the pressure is decreased with 0:05 atm, which instantaneously re-
sults in a very violent mode of boiling, as is can be seen on top of
the battery in Fig. 11(b). Due to the violent boiling process, the
pressure in the boiling chamber rapidly rises to the atmospheric le-
vel and the liquid starts boiling moderately again. Increasing the
pressure now with 0:05 atm prevents the liquid from boiling com-
pletely, as is shown in Fig. 11(c). Note that this process is much
better visible in the video than in the images presented here.
Hence, the boiling process can be regulated actively and rapidly
by variation in pressure. This allows for maintaining the boiling
process in the desired nucleate boiling regime under the dynamic
heat production of the battery pack via regulation of the pressure
within the boiling chamber. This is entirely consistent with
thermodynamic predictions and demonstrates that, besides
temperature, the pressure also admits regulation of the heat-trans-
fer rate.
This paper discusses the ability of thermal conditioning (i.e.
thermal homogenisation and/or cooling) of batteries by a boiling
process. It provides an experimental proof of principle of the ability
of thermal homogenisation of battery packs in EVs using pool-boil-
ing. Several aspects are experimentally investigated. The principal
results and conclusions of our study are:
 The proposed cooling fluid, Novec7000 (3M, USA), does not con-
duct electricity, as a result of which it can be applied directly on
the battery. No additional sealing is required.
 The cooling capacity of the fluid greatly exceeds that of air,
which is logical given the heat-transfer from solid to liquid is
much higher than that from solid to gas. However, this cooling
capacity is achieved even without boiling, meaning submerging
a battery pack into a pool of this liquid improves the thermal
homogenisation even if boiling does not occur.
 R.W. van Gils et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 79 (2014) 9–17
 If the battery is able to get the liquid boiling, the boiling process
is able to thermally homogenise the battery. Temperature dif-
ferences between positive and negative pole of the battery of
approximately 0.7 °C are observed in the non-boiling regime,
while these temperature differences are eliminated when the
liquid around the battery starts boiling.
 The boiling process can be influenced by the pressure in the
boiling chamber. Decreasing the pressure, instantaneously
increases the intensity of the boiling process. This means that
in principle the boiling process can be actively and rapidly con-
trolled by regulation of the pressure in the boiling chamber.
Boiling heat-transfer has several significant advantages in that
it allows for higher heat fluxes, better thermal homogenisation of
the battery and a more rapid response compared to conventional
methods.
Acknowledgment
This research is funded by the High Tech Automotive Systems,
Range Extender Innovations Project (HTAS-REI).
Appendix A
In Fig. 12 the temperature evolution of the battery from the
model-simulation and experiments for container walls fixed at
25 °C, 30 °C and 32 °C are given.
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