Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization

https://doi.org/10.1007/s00158-018-1901-y

INDUSTRIAL APPLICATION

Design optimization of battery pack enclosure for electric vehicle

Li Shui 1 & Fangyuan Chen 1 & Akhil Garg 1,2 & Xiongbin Peng 1,2 & Nengsheng Bao 1 & Jian Zhang 1,2,3

Received: 25 September 2017 / Revised: 19 December 2017 / Accepted: 2 January 2018

# Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2018

Abstract
Lithium-ion Battery pack which is comprised of assembly of battery modules is the main source of power transmission for electric
vehicles. During the actual operation of electric vehicle, the battery packs and its enclosure is subjected to harsh environmental
conditions such as the external vibrations and shocks due to varying road slopes. This will result in stresses and deformations of
different degrees. The vehicle safety heavily depends on on the safety of battery pack which in turn is dependent on its mechanical
features, such as the ability to resist deformation and vibration shocks. In addition, lighter weight vehicle is preferred because it can
increase the range of vehicle and the life cycle of a battery pack. In this study, a design optimization methodology is proposed to
optimize the features of mechanical design (e.g. minimization of mass, maximization of minimum natural frequency and minimi-
zation of maximum deformation) of the battery pack enclosure. The proposed methodology is comprised of four phases. In the first
phase, finite element models for maximum deformation (based on static analysis), minimum natural frequency (based on modal
analysis) and the mass are developed by using the combination of four methods (i.e. central composite design (CCD) and response
surface methodology (RSM), CCD and artificial neural network (ANN), Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) and RSM, LHS and
ANN). In the second phase, the best combination of methodology (CCD and ANN) is then selected for experimental design and the
empirical models are formulated for three features of mechanical design. In the third phase, the models based on CCD and ANN for
the maximum deformation, minimum natural frequency and mass are further optimized by using non-dominated sorted genetic
algorithm (NSGA II). In the fourth phase, the optimum combination of inputs obtained by using NSGA II is used for the
manufacturing of battery pack enclosure. Conclusions are made and research recommendations are proposed for the future work.

Keywords Battery packs . Mechanical design . Electric vehicle . Design optimization . CCD and ANN

1 Introduction policy supports from Chinese governments, the growth rate

of EV industry and the annual production rate of electric vehi-
The investment in promoting the Electric Vehicles (EVs) in- cles have increased significantly over years. This justifies the
dustry has been the main focus of the government to reduce recent shift from internal combustion engine (ICE) operated
China’s dependency on other countries to import crude oil and vehicles to the battery operated electric vehicles (BEVs)
to curb CO2 emissions so as to minimize the environmental (Huo et al. 2012; Du and Ouyang 2017). The reason behind
burdens (He and Chen 2013). With extensive financial and such a shift lies in the development of energy storage system,
such as the battery pack which is the main power source for
driving the transmission system in BEVs (Sun et al. 2016).
* Akhil Garg
Battery pack comprises battery modules which in turn consist
akhil@stu.edu.cn
of thousands of cells in series or in parallel.
* Jian Zhang
Recently, the development of battery packs for designing
jianzhang@stu.edu.cn
vehicles and reinforcing the road safety has been carefully
1
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Shantou University, reviewed. (Garg et al. 2016; Aneke and Wang 2016;
Shantou, Guangdong, China Ramadesigan 2017). Greater emphasis has been paid to the
2
Intelligent Manufacturing Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education, R & D cell electrodes materials and design, thermal design of
Shantou University, Shantou, China battery packs, new charging configurations, charging infra-
3
Shantou Institute for Light Industrial Equipment Research, structure and battery modelling methods for estimating the
Shantou, Guangdong, China battery state, such as state of charge (SOC) and state of health

(SOH) (Garg et al. 2016). The existing research aims at
preventing some unforeseen events such as short circuit, ther-
mal runway, etc., which may compromise the safety of
drivers, vehicles and roads. Among the whole gamut of de-
velopments in technology and design, research on developing
the battery modelling methods and models for accurately es-
timating the battery state under all operating conditions has
drawn great attention (Abada et al. 2016). The accuracy of
these battery models mainly relies on appropriate measure-
ment of its parameters such as the voltage, the current and
the temperature (Berecibar et al. 2016; Cannarella and
Arnold 2014). These models range from complex differential
equations to the simpler equivalent circuits, which requires
extensive computations to relate these parameters to SOC or
SOH. In addition, the accuracy of these models in estimating
the state of battery decreases or gets worse when the battery is
aging or under other extreme conditions (Lu et al. 2013). This
is because the models are developed under controlled charge-
discharge conditions, which is only ideal and effective for the
laboratory testing. Recently, researchers have published sev-
eral review studies to classify various methods. Their disad-
vantages and advantages are based on the inputs and the given
operating conditions (Wang et al. 2014; Cuma and Koroglu
2015; Tie and Tan 2013; Dubarry et al. 2017).
As shown by relevant literature, the major enemy of the
battery and battery packs is the temperature (Arora et al.
2016). It is very difficult to regulate and monitor the temper-
ature of battery pack in real time. Therefore, any increase in
temperature over its value of critical limit can lead to fire.
During the operation of electric vehicle, the battery pack
may experience resonance amplitudes due to vibrations that
may lead to short circuit of its internal components and then
cause failure. One route for preventing such mishap in battery
packs is its appropriate mechanical design with higher
strength and vibration resistance. Literature study conducted
by (Jaguemont et al. 2016) and (Chen et al. 2017) stated that
the vibration isolation of the battery pack can be achieved by
designing the new structure of battery pack/mounting frame,
selecting appropriate materials and placing battery pack in the
vehicle. The guidelines for designing battery packs by
compartmentalisation of the battery packs at module level,
integration of the cell spacers, vertical and lateral supports
for vibration isolation were emphasized.
In brief, the research focus was mainly on the battery model-
ling methods for the design of an efficient battery management
system and the mechanical design of battery packs by incorpo-
rating new heating/cooling systems. However, as stated recent-
ly in an article by (Jaguemont et al. 2016; Lu et al. 2016),
experts need to focus on designing battery pack which includes
its components such as battery enclosure and module from the
mechanical point of view. In the actual operating practice, the
battery pack enclosure is subjected to dynamic loading and
random vibrations. The deformation of battery pack enclosure
L. Shui et al.
can cause short circuit and sudden fire/explosion of the battery
pack. In the context of random vibrations, the minimum natural
frequency obtained from the modal analysis is highly important
and should be maximized. The battery pack enclosure must
therefore have higher strength, resistance to the vibrations and
lighter weight. Lighter weight enclosure is preferred because it
can increase the range of vehicle and life cycle of a battery pack
as it consumes less power. In this perspective, to the best of
authors’ knowledge, only few works have been made in this
direction (Reddy et al. 2014; Hooper and Marco 2013; Lang
and Kjell 2015). In comparison with battery pack enclosure,
recently, there have been works done or carried out to evaluate
the electrochemical performance of a battery when it’s subject-
ed to vibrations, shocks or tensile-compression and bending
forces (Hooper and Marco 2015; Brand et al. 2015; Liu et al.
2016; Javani et al. 2014). This suggests that the mechanical
aspects of the battery pack system including the battery cells
is of vital importance and indicates the latest trend to revolu-
tionize the battery manufacturing industry for improving the
safety of vehicles and roads.
To tackle these concerns, it is quite necessary to study the
deformation and vibration behaviour of battery pack enclosure
when it’s subjected to external loadings and vibrations. A
four-phase design optimization methodology is proposed to
solve this problem. The design optimization of battery pack
enclosure considers the performance improvement as its ob-
jectives, such as minimizing the maximum deformation along
the loading direction, maximizing the minimum natural fre-
quency resulting from the vibrations and minimizing its mass.
The findings from the analysis are used to fabricate the opti-
mized battery pack enclosure (product).
2 Statement of research problem
This section will outline the formulation of problems, design
variable and constraints which are considered for the design
optimization of battery pack enclosure. The battery pack en-
closure suitable for application in electric vehicle in our
University is shown in Figs. 1a, b, and c illustrate the design
of battery pack enclosure in ANSYS along with its compo-
nents such as 18,650 Li-ion batteries. The design parameters
set in ANSYS are shown in Table 1. The research objective is
to optimize the design of battery pack enclosure so as to obtain
higher strength (minimization of maximum deformation),
higher vibration resistance (maximization of minimum natural
frequency) and minimum weight. Optimization of design of
battery pack enclosure includes the optimum determination of
wall thickness of battery case (EW), its bottom thickness
(EB), bottom thickness of module (bb), long wall thickness
of battery module (BWL), wide wall thickness of battery mod-
ule (BWW) and the environmental temperature. The complete
formulation of problems is given as follows.
Design optimization of battery pack enclosure for electric vehicle

a Electric vehicle in the facility of our University

b Components of baery pack enclosure

Fig. 1 Design of battery pack enclosure modelled in ANSYS

Design optimization problem for battery pack enclosure is
formulated as follows:
Objective: Minimize (D), Maximize (F) and Minimize
(M)
Design variables: EW, EB, bb, bwl, bww
Loads: Battery module weight of 220 Kg acting vertical-
ly downwards
Constraints: R
where, D, F and M is the maximum deformation, minimum
natural frequency and mass, respectively. Design variables
include wall thickness of battery case (EW), battery case bot-
tom thickness of battery case (EB), bottom thickness of bat-
tery module (bb), long wall thickness of battery module (bwl),
wide wall thickness of battery module (bww) and the environ-
mental temperature. R is the range of design variables used in
this study (Table 2).
Based on weighted optimum combination principles, the
multi-objective optimization problem was converted to a
single-objective optimization problem. The objective function
is listed as follows:
F(x1,x2, x3, x4, x5, x6)= k1D(x1,x2, x3, x4, x5, x6)+ k2M(x1,x2,
x3, x4, x5, x6)+k3f(Tx1,x2, x3, x4, x5, x6).
 L. Shui et al.

c Design variables considered for design of baery pack enclosure

Fig. 1 continued.

2.1 Table of parameter electric vehicle, the natural frequency of battery pack matches
the vehicle body frequency. Meanwhile, resonance phenome-
non will occur, generating damages to components in the en-
closure. To avoid any resonant phenomenon between the bat-
Parameter Variable of weight
tery pack and the vehicle body, the weight of maximum fre-
EW x1
quency k3 was considered as 0.1 for the safety of battery pack.
EB x2
Based on the considerations for light weight and structural
bb x3
strength, the selected material is aluminum alloy (light weight)
T x4
for battery pack enclosure. Its specific parameters are listed in
bwl x5
bww x6
Table 1 Design parameters for battery pack enclosure in ANSYS
The weights of maximum deformation, minimum mass and
Parameters Values
maximum natural frequency were set as k1, k2 and k3 respec-
tively. For the safety design of electric vehicle, the battery Length X 852.48 mm
pack comprising batteries and battery management system Length Y 101.29 mm
must be protected from any external impact. For the strong Length Z 1302 mm
structure of battery pack and enclosure, the maximum defor- Active bodies 115
mation was chosen as the most important function. Therefore, Nodes 17,479
weight k1 was set at 0.5. There are a lot of advantages for Elements 5037
lighter weight vehicles, such as saving costs of materials, re- Mesh metric Skewness
ducing the requirements for motor power, increasing life cycle Solid bodies, surface bodies, line bodies Yes, Yes, Yes
of a battery pack, etc. Therefore, the weight k2 of minimum Analysis type 3-D
mass is set at 0.4. It’s likely that during the actual vibrations of
Design optimization of battery pack enclosure for electric vehicle

the Table 3. For the sake of calculation, the vertical load on the Table 2 Design variables considered for optimization problem
bottom of the battery module is used as the load. X.Y.Z direc- Design variables Abbreviation Range
tions of the 4 lugs are restrained by the cylindrical constraint.
Battery case wall thickness EW 1–5 mm
Battery case bottom thickness EB 1–5 mm
2.2 Initial conditions Module bottom thickness bb 1–5 mm
Long wall thickness of battery module bwl 1–4 mm
Based on the consideration about the light weight and struc-
Wide wall thickness of battery module bww 1–4 mm
tural strength, aluminium alloy is used as the main compo-
Temperature 20–40 °C
nents of the battery case. Its specific parameters are listed in
the following tables:
3 Research methodology
2.3 Properties of material
The methodology used for performing the design optimization
of battery pack enclosure is shown in Figs. 2 and 3. The
proposed methodology is a step-by-step procedure starting
Material Aluminum alloy from the basic design in ANSYS to finite element analysis,
Density (kg/m3) 2.7 × 103 development of empirical models and the multi-objective op-
Young modulus (MPa) 7.1 × 104 timization for the selection of optimum design parameters
Poisson ratio 3.3 × 10−1 (thickness of battery case wall (EW), thickness of battery case
Shear modulus (MPa) 2.67 × 104 bottom (EB), thickness of module bottom (bb), long wall
Bulk modulus (MPa) 6.96 × 104 thickness of battery module (bwl), wide wall thickness of
battery module (bww) and the environmental temperature)
for battery pack enclosure.
2.4 Geometry of main part In the first phase, the enclosure is designed in ANSYS by
using the information collected from various sources incorpo-
rating basic thermal design as mentioned in literature (Hang
et al. 2011) and also suitable to be placed on electric vehicle in
Geometry Unit (m) our facility. The finite element analysis for determining the
Length of pack 1.302 mass, maximum deformation and the minimum natural fre-
Width of pack 0.852 quency is performed on ANSYS on the battery pack enclosure
Height of pack 0.102 in an initially fixed set of design variable values. Mass is
Length of module 0.340 clearly dependent on the design parameters, such as thickness
Width of module 0.220 of module case and enclosure, which is calculated within
Height of module 0.070 ANSYS. To consider the uncertainties of using the design
optimization methods, the combination of four methods (cen-
When the electric vehicle runs, the gravity of battery is tral composite design (CCD) and response surface methodol-
implied as the force in the vertical direction of the bottom of ogy (RSM), CCD and artificial neural network (ANN), Latin
the module, the total weight of battery and BMS is approxi- hypercube sampling (LHS) and RSM, LHS and ANN) is used
mately 220 kg, the value of the safety factor is set as 3.0. The (Table 3). Further details on mechanism and implementation
X.Y.Z directions of holes of the 4 lifting lugs are restrained by of CCD, RSM, ANN and LHS can be found in the references
the cylindrical constraint. (Yang et al. 2009; Wang et al. 2017; Mazidi et al. 2014; Zhao
et al. 2013).
2.5 Parameter setting

Table 3 Methods proposed for design of battery pack enclosure

Parameter Objective Constraint Design of experimental methods Mathematical model

Total deformation maximum No Objective Values <=
0.0015 m Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) ANN
Total deformation reported frequency No Objective Values CCD RSM
> = 70 Hz Latin hypercube sampling (LHS) RSM
Geometry mass Minimize CCD ANN
 L. Shui et al.

value of minimum natural frequency) so as to ensure the ro-

Fig. 2 Load and constraint of battery pack
In the second phase, the best design methodology among
the four methods is chosen based on the worst scenario (i.e.
maximum value of maximum deformation and minimum
Fig. 3 Procedure for generation
of optimum design for battery
pack enclosure
Battery module
bustness of using the design optimization method. The best
combination is then applied to generate 100 data points cor-
responding to the maximum deformation, minimum natural
frequency and mass based on the given range of six design
variables/inputs. 100 data points comprised of six inputs as the
design variables and three outputs/objectives as maximum
deformation, minimum natural frequencies and mass are then
fed into ANN architecture for the formulation of models. The
settings for ANN are chosen based on preliminary trial-and-
error analysis.
In the third phase, the multi-objective optimization of the
formulated models is performed on the formulated ANN
models by using the popular variant of genetic algorithm
such as NSGA II (Garg et al. 2017a). The initial population
used is 20 data points which are sorted based on the ascend-
ing order of minimum value of maximum deformation,
maximum value of the minimum natural frequency and
the minimum value of mass. The pareto front is used to
select the optimum solutions of design variables that
Battery pack
enclosure

Application

Roadmap for Design Optimization

Finite element analysis Models

Design of Battery development
Defining the material
pack enclosure
properties, design Best combination
variables and forces (worst scenario)
Collection of data
applied. for generation of
from sources for
design to be fit to 100 points based
Four methods (CCD on finite element
be used in
+ANN, LHS +ANN, analysis
electric vehicle
LHS + RSM,
available in our
CCD+RSM) for finite Models
lab.
element analysis for development for
evaluation of Mass, maximum
Design of battery
maximum deformation and
pack enclosure in
deformation and minimum natural
ANSYS
minimum natural frequencies
frequencies of based on 100
enclosure. points

Multi-Objective Optimization for Optimum Mechanical Design

Optimization of models using Genetic algorithms with initial population as first 20 designs
from LHS generated points (in ascending order of minimum deformation and maximum
natural frequency).
Selection of the best design based on pareto front analysis.
Manufacturing of the selected design. Validation of design on compression and shaker
machines.
Design optimization of battery pack enclosure for electric vehicle
minimize the maximum deformation, maximize the mini-
mum natural frequencies and minimize the mass simulta-
neously. The selected design is finally validated and
manufactured in our facility.
4 Results and discussions
The results of the first phase of deformation analysis of the
battery pack enclosure shows that the surface in the middle
part of the enclosure is subjected to the large stresses resulting
in the maximum deformation ranging from 0.0015 m mm to
0.0016 m (Fig. 4). This is because the load at the centre of
battery pack enclosure is the resultant of the battery loads
acting on the centre of module case.
Fig. 4 Deformation analysis from the four methods (a) CCD and ANN
(maximum deformation = 0.0018 m) (b) CCD and RSM (maximum
The results of the vibration (modal) analysis of the battery
pack enclosure are clearly shown in Table 4. There are 6
modes discovered for each of the methods with minimum
natural frequency ranging from 91.62 Hz to 99.67 Hz
(Table 4). The notion behind evaluation of natural frequencies
of battery pack enclosure is to check if these are in the range of
7–200 Hz, which is in the range of vibration frequencies of
electric vehicle during its normal operation. The purpose is to
maximize the minimum natural frequency observed in each of
the case.
As revealed by the finite element analysis by using the
combination of four methods in the first phase, the worst
scenario (i.e. maximum value of maximum deformation and
minimum value of minimum natural frequency) is found for
the combination of CCD and ANN. In this study, the maxi-
mum uncertainty i.e. worst scenario is considered to ensure
deformation = 0.0016 m) (c) LHS and ANN (maximum deformation =
0.0015 m) (d) LHS and RSM (maximum deformation = 0.0015 m)

the robustness of design optimization. Therefore, the combi-
nation CCD and ANN is selected for the analysis. The
results of the second phase consist of the results obtained from
CCD and ANN methods. CCD is used to generate 100
samples as shown in Table 4. Using the data shown in
Table 8 in the Appendix, ANN models for the mass, maxi-
mum deformation and minimum natural frequency are
formulated respecitvely.
In the third phase, NSGA II is applied on the ANN
models to obtain the pareto (candidate) solutions. Settings of
NSGA II is shown in Table 5. The three candidate solutions
are shown in Table 6. Among them, the chosen point is
highlighted in bold in Table 6. The reason of choosing this
point is that costs of the battery pack enclosure must be
minimized, which is dependent on its mass, besides, light
mass enclosure can provide wider range of electric vehicle.
Fig. 4 continued.
L. Shui et al.
In addition, the objective values obtained for the other two
objectives/outputs (maximum deformation and minimum
natural frequency) are comparable on the three solutions,
therefore the mass is given a priority which forms the basis
of the selection of candidate 1 for the design of battery
pack enclosure.
Fig. 5 shows the convergence criteria for three objectives
and the pareto front for the multi-objective optimization of
candidate point 1 chosen from Table 7.
5 Parametric and sensitivity analysis
The parametric and sensitivity analysis (SA) on the ANN
models is useful for understanding the effects and contribu-
tions of each of the design variables/inputs on three outputs/
Design optimization of battery pack enclosure for electric vehicle

Table 4 Modal analysis of the

battery pack enclosure Mode CCD and ANN CCD and RSM LHS and ANN LHS and RSM

1 91.621 95.457 96.57 99.673

2 137.53 143.71 150.89 152.48
3 212.25 226.8 216.69 217.07
4 272.2 268.14 277.55 276.85
5 310.07 285.59 306.47 287.1
6 320.98 335.84 328.48 329.72

The bold represents chosen solution for the post-analysis

Table 5 Settings for NSGA II
Parameter
Number of initial samples
Number of samples per iteration
Maximum allowable pareto percentage
Maximum number of iterations
Maximum number of candidates/objectives
objectives respectively. Details on the procedure of parametric
and SA are given in (Choi et al. 2013). Parametric analysis
involves the plot of 3-D surfaces by varying two inputs at
a time among the six inputs, while keeping the other inputs
at their mean values and thereby computing the values of
models (three outputs). The inputs are varied in their given
range of values. In this study, the five design variables which
are mainly the thickness of the enclosure and module are
varied from 1 to 5 mm and the environmental temperature is
varied from 20 to 40 °C. 3-D plots showing the interactive
effects among the inputs on three outputs are shown in Fig. 6.
It can be seen that the non-linear relationships are observed
for the interactive effect of design variables such as the
combination of battery case bottom thickness (EB) and
module bottom thickness (bb), EB and wide wall thickness
of battery module (bww), EB and long wall thickness of
battery module (bwl), EB and battery case wall thickness
Value (EW) on the maximum deformation and minimum natural
frequency. Whereas, combinations of EB and bb, EB and
100 bww, EB and bwl and EB and EW have linearly decreasing
100 effects on the geometry mass. The SA percentage of the six
70 design variables on the three outputs (three objectives) is com-
20 puted by using the given formulae as follows:
3
Li ¼ f max ðxi Þ− f min ðxi Þ ð1Þ
Li
SAi ¼ n  100 ð2Þ
∑ Lj
j¼1
where fmax(xi) and fmin(xi) are the maximum and minimum
values of the predicted output over the ith input domain,
respectively. The results from SA (Fig. 7) of the models
reveal that for the maximum deformation, the wide wall
thickness of battery module (bww) is found to have a sig-
nificant effect (61%). For the minimum natural frequency
corresponding to maximum deformation, the module bot-
tom thickness (bb) is found to be significant (26.6%),
followed by battery case wall thickness (EW) (19.5%).
For the geometry mass, the bottom thickness of battery case
(EB) is found to have the most significant effect (42.7%),
followed by wall thickness of battery case (EW) of 21.4%
and wide wall thickness of battery module (bwl) of 19.7%.
From the analysis, for each of the outputs, the dominant

Table 6 Candidate solutions

obtained from NSGA II on ANN Design variables/Inputs Candidate point 1 Candidate point 2 Candidate point 3
models
EB 1.28 1.22 1.28
bb 1.51 1.49 1.62
EW 1.23 1.20 1.21
bwl 1.42 1.98 1.33
bww 2.94 2.40 3
Temperature 39.30 38.80 38.73
Objective function/Outputs Objective function values
Maximum deformation 0.0014 0.0014 0.0014
Minimum natural frequency 94.54 92.73 94.19
Mass 15.91 16.05 16.08

The bold represents chosen solution for the post-analysis


Fig. 5 Convergence criteria for (a) Maximum deformation (b) Minimum natural frequency (corresponding to maximum deformation) (c) Geometry
mass (d) Pareto stability criteria
design variables are found to be different. Therefore, it
is very difficult to select the combination of the design
variables which can achieve the required three objectives
simultaneously.
6 Battery pack enclosure and battery module
case manufacturing based on design analysis
The optimized design parameters such as the value of wall
thickness of battery case (EW) of 1.28 mm, the value of its
bottom thickness (EB) of 1.23 mm, the value of its bottom
thickness (bb) of 1.51 mm, the value of long wall thickness
of battery module (bwl) of 1.42 mm and the value of wide
wall thickness of battery module (bww) of 2.94 mm were
used to manufacture battery pack enclosure and battery
L. Shui et al.
module case on the CNC machine as shown in Fig. 8.
The purpose of manufacturing the enclosure is to validate
the simulated design by performing experiments on com-
pression machines to measure its deformation and by
performing experiments on shaker table to measure its
natural frequency. It is found that the simulated design
in the fabrication achieves lower value of maximum defor-
mation by 22.22%, higher value of minimum natural fre-
quency by 3.18% and an decrease in mass by 11.61% from
its standard design.
7 Conclusions
This work proposes the design optimization methodology
comprising four phases to determine the parameters for the
Design optimization of battery pack enclosure for electric vehicle

Fig. 5 continued.

optimum design of battery pack enclosure. To consider the
uncertainties in selecting the methods used for design
optimization, the combination of four methods (i.e.CCD
and ANN, CCD and RSM, LHS and ANN, LHS and
RSM) was chosen. The worst scenario (best combina-
tion) was chosen to ensure the robustness in the design
optimization solutions. The analysis reveals the battery
case wall thickness (EW) value of 1.28 mm, the battery
case bottom thickness (EB) value of 1.23 mm, the
module bottom thickness (bb) value of 1.51 mm, the long
wall thickness of battery module (bwl) of 1.42 mm and
the wide wall thickness of battery module (bww) of
2.94 mm, the objective function values of maximum de-
formation of 0.0014 m, minimum natural frequency of
94.54 Hz and the geometry mass of 15.91 Kg are obtained.
The optimized design is proposed and validated by

Table 7 Improvement from

standardized design Parameter Original Simulated Improvement
value value (%)

Maximum deformation 0.0018 mm 0.0014 mm 22.22%

Minimum natural frequency (maximum deformation 91.62 Hz 94.54 Hz 3.18%
case)
Geometry mass 18 Kg 15.91 Kg 11.61
 L. Shui et al.

a Effect of EB and bb on the Maximum deformaon, minimum natural frequency and mass

b Effect of EB and bww on the Maximum deformaon, minimum natural frequency and mass

c Effect of EB and bwl on the Maximum deformaon, minimum natural frequency and mass

d Effect of EB and EW on the Maximum deformaon, minimum natural frequency and mass

Fig. 6 3-D surface plots for studying the interactive effect of design variables (inputs) on three objectives/outputs
Design optimization of battery pack enclosure for electric vehicle
Fig. 7 Sensitivity analysis showing the contribution of each of design variables on three outputs/objectives
performing the experiments on compression and shaker ma-
chines. It is found that the simulated design in the fabrication
process achieves lower value of maximum deformation by
22.22%, higher value of minimum natural frequency by
3.18% and an decrease in mass by 11.61% from its standard
design. The following are some future research directions,
which are critical for the safety of battery pack/electric vehicle
in the case of emergency or disaster.
Fig. 8 Manufacturing of
simulated design on the CNC
facility in our University
(1) Incorporation of Thermal Design Parameters
The focus in this work is to improve and optimize the design
in the context of mechanical features such as the mass, the de-
formation and the frequency. However, the temperature is the
main enemy of the battery/battery modules because any exces-
sive increase in temperature or uneven distribution of tempera-
ture in the module may result in fire/explosion and reduce the
Baery module box
Baery pack enclosure

cycle life of the battery. Therefore, an efficient cooling system
(air/water/phase change materials, forced/free convection) is
needed to be optimized along with the mechanical features
(Hang et al. 2011).
(2) Comprehensive Design of Battery Pack Enclosure
The present study is limited to mechanical tests such
as deformation and shock. However, more comprehen-
sive tests for altitude and external forces (compressive/
tensile/torsion) due to crash can be conducted simulta-
neously. This can be combined with the studies of mate-
rial development for battery packs (Zhang et al. 2016;
Qin et al. 2017). Light weight and shock-absorbing ma-
terials such as Honeycomb which is used in aerospace
can be investigated.
(3) Installation and Placement of Battery Pack Enclosure
Another research direction that can be taken into consider-
ation is the placement of enclosure in vehicle in such a way
that it can be easily replaced and subject to minimal damages
in the case of sudden crash/impact. Generally, it is recom-
mended to be placed in centre of chassis of electric vehicle
(Jaguemont et al. 2016). However, further research on opti-
mizing the placement of battery pack enclosure can be con-
ducted. A mechatronic mechanism can be designed inside or
outside battery module/battery pack enclosure to allow the
main circuit of electric vehicle to get disengaged in the case
of fire in the battery modules.
Fig. 9 Procedure for the development of intelligent product
L. Shui et al.
(4) Development of Intelligent Product
The development of intelligent product involves the
installation of sensors, integration of battery pack system
with models for estimating the temperature distribution,
charging state and health state of modules in real time.
This is possible only when the research at both the system
level (optimization of thermal and mechanical design of
battery pack enclosure) and the cell level (SOC and SOH
estimation of battery) is done simultaneously (Yi et al.
2017; Jin and Huang 2016; Garg et al. 2017b; Huang
et al. 2018). To achieve this objective, future work of
the authors involves the aspect of “Design and Analysis
of Electric Vehicle Components” (Fig. 9) where, the
methods such as free form surface optimization and
Topology design optimization can play a key role (Das
et al. 2018; Garg et al. 2017c). Eventually, the analysis
results will play a role in the transformation and moderniza-
tion of the technologies used for battery manufacturing.
This may add another parameter such as the mechanical
quality of battery pack enclosure to evaluate and rank the
battery manufacturers in an open market.
Acknowledgements Supports provided by engineers in Shantou Institute
for Light Industry Equipment Research for the development of the case
study are gratefully acknowledged. The authors also wish to thank the
National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number 51375287,
51505269], Shantou University Scientific Research Funded Project
[Grant No. NTF 16002, NTF 16011], as well as the sailing talent project
and Shantou University National fund cultivation project for providing
financial supports to this research.
Design optimization of battery pack enclosure for electric vehicle

Appendix

Table 8 CCD method for

generation of 100 data samples Inputs Outputs/Objectives
within ANSYS
EB bb EW bwl bww Temperature Maximum Minimum natural Mass
deformation (m) frequency (Hz) (Kg)

1.21 1.55 1.17 1.32 3.25 34.79 0.0019 90.12 15.81

1.62 1.71 1.39 1.32 3.31 33.65 0.0018 88.66 17.65
1.32 1.66 1.28 1.62 3.04 36.07 0.0018 89.28 16.78
1.21 1.51 1.37 1.31 2.92 38.76 0.0019 92.07 15.61
1.38 1.70 1.18 1.58 2.92 38.46 0.0018 89.30 16.73
1.29 1.53 1.31 1.26 2.52 39.26 0.0019 92.73 15.37
1.01 1.13 1.26 1.39 3.24 38.96 0.0019 93.25 14.41
1.35 1.49 1.25 1.37 3.13 42.83 0.0018 90.64 16.12
1.27 1.54 1.14 1.25 2.84 34.16 0.0019 91.15 15.43
1.24 1.79 1.20 1.60 2.88 38.56 0.0019 89.23 16.57
1.05 1.33 1.28 1.55 3.08 46.43 0.0019 92.52 15.15
1.26 1.38 1.06 1.50 2.47 40.66 0.0020 90.11 14.94
1.17 1.39 1.12 1.42 2.57 45.26 0.0020 91.30 14.79
1.37 1.76 1.24 1.29 2.95 37.19 0.0018 90.43 16.51
1.43 1.91 1.09 1.26 2.18 42.55 0.0019 88.97 16.10
1.22 1.69 1.22 1.14 2.79 38.06 0.0019 90.88 15.54
1.07 1.36 1.55 1.36 2.87 39.55 0.0019 93.15 15.09
1.43 1.48 1.29 1.45 3.28 44.23 0.0018 89.73 16.62
1.45 1.41 1.17 1.19 3.15 35.48 0.0019 89.25 15.89
1.34 1.56 1.19 1.47 2.62 39.95 0.0018 91.35 15.85
0.95 1.54 1.27 1.46 3.36 39.75 0.0019 91.42 15.48
1.50 1.47 1.29 1.66 3.00 45.97 0.0018 89.04 16.86
1.31 1.63 1.25 1.56 2.68 39.36 0.0019 90.15 16.20
1.48 1.45 1.37 1.40 2.72 43.64 0.0019 90.71 16.18
1.25 1.42 1.08 1.58 2.99 37.07 0.0019 89.58 15.65
1.14 1.44 1.31 1.44 2.73 42.28 0.0019 91.47 15.21
1.20 1.40 1.21 1.73 3.17 34.59 0.0019 90.07 15.99
1.18 1.66 1.32 1.18 2.86 35.15 0.0019 91.93 15.57
1.54 1.44 1.27 1.53 2.77 37.30 0.0019 89.30 16.45
1.40 1.29 1.15 1.28 2.78 32.19 0.0019 91.07 15.18
1.34 1.40 1.44 1.30 3.02 41.66 0.0019 91.41 15.89
1.19 1.46 1.17 1.48 2.86 36.72 0.0019 90.67 15.42
1.35 1.68 1.42 1.48 2.30 31.60 0.0018 92.68 16.15
1.42 1.46 1.24 1.16 3.09 35.32 0.0018 90.94 15.89
1.27 1.52 1.30 1.39 3.10 41.20 0.0018 92.13 16.02
1.23 1.38 1.43 1.23 2.70 37.74 0.0019 92.66 15.10
1.20 1.81 1.24 1.50 2.63 43.14 0.0019 90.68 16.17
1.36 1.55 1.25 1.65 3.33 38.16 0.0018 89.65 16.88
1.39 1.31 1.30 1.51 2.80 35.78 0.0019 90.91 15.77
1.29 1.30 1.23 1.45 3.29 33.36 0.0018 91.82 15.75
1.20 1.43 1.47 1.40 2.54 40.56 0.0019 93.27 15.29
1.37 1.65 1.08 1.28 2.75 41.31 0.0019 88.83 15.86
1.33 1.60 1.33 1.21 2.74 40.46 0.0019 91.20 15.79
1.26 1.53 1.16 1.43 3.39 38.26 0.0018 89.57 16.18
1.24 1.48 1.32 1.24 2.60 38.86 0.0020 91.63 15.16
1.10 1.34 1.22 1.37 3.12 39.16 0.0019 91.53 15.01
1.12 1.60 1.07 1.44 2.93 37.52 0.0019 90.03 15.44
1.44 1.36 1.05 1.30 2.98 43.83 0.0019 90.39 15.59
1.32 1.57 1.34 1.54 2.89 35.63 0.0019 90.09 16.35
1.12 1.41 1.22 1.41 2.77 38.36 0.0020 91.33 14.95
1.41 1.52 1.27 1.61 3.35 40.15 0.0018 89.56 16.92
1.23 1.46 0.99 1.22 2.89 35.93 0.0020 90.10 14.94
1.15 1.33 1.14 1.38 3.16 43.47 0.0019 90.61 15.07
1.13 1.49 1.11 1.51 2.82 38.66 0.0020 90.20 15.24
1.15 1.32 1.10 1.70 2.97 45.59 0.0019 90.62 15.33
1.11 1.58 1.18 1.35 2.67 40.88 0.0020 90.76 15.10
1.33 1.52 1.30 1.29 2.50 33.03 0.0019 91.38 15.45
1.32 1.55 1.20 1.05 3.27 47.01 0.0019 90.50 15.76
 L. Shui et al.

Table 8 (continued)
Inputs Outputs/Objectives

EB bb EW bwl bww Temperature Maximum Minimum natural Mass

deformation (m) frequency (Hz) (Kg)

1.17 1.77 1.40 1.57 2.36 41.90 0.0019 91.14 16.03

1.42 1.59 1.36 1.35 3.03 42.02 0.0018 90.23 16.53
1.29 1.43 1.35 1.31 3.58 41.43 0.0017 92.18 16.24
1.27 1.35 1.15 1.34 3.06 40.98 0.0018 92.29 15.31
1.46 1.62 1.13 1.47 3.44 39.85 0.0018 87.21 17.03
1.09 1.67 1.26 1.27 2.76 37.41 0.0020 90.94 15.31
1.47 1.63 0.92 1.54 2.44 49.43 0.0020 86.63 16.01
1.41 1.50 1.46 1.51 2.97 40.77 0.0018 91.10 16.60
1.38 1.42 1.02 1.42 3.21 33.91 0.0019 89.16 15.90
1.49 1.59 1.04 1.44 3.04 39.06 0.0019 86.78 16.52
1.30 1.65 1.36 1.34 3.41 34.38 0.0017 91.67 16.68
1.22 1.64 1.23 1.46 3.05 30.78 0.0018 90.30 16.15
1.39 1.50 1.19 1.64 2.41 37.63 0.0019 91.17 15.88
1.31 1.58 1.26 1.23 3.07 44.97 0.0019 90.71 15.95
1.22 1.19 1.16 1.34 2.82 29.18 0.0020 91.81 14.57
1.08 1.73 1.21 1.36 3.52 41.09 0.0019 89.28 16.20
1.18 1.62 1.29 1.49 3.23 42.41 0.0018 90.38 16.27
1.28 1.37 1.14 1.62 3.00 36.47 0.0018 90.92 15.75
1.28 1.57 1.11 1.52 2.71 44.46 0.0019 90.72 15.77
1.24 1.72 1.38 1.56 3.14 43.30 0.0018 89.96 16.78
1.16 1.61 1.13 1.79 3.14 36.96 0.0019 88.72 16.35
1.23 1.59 1.23 1.47 2.90 39.46 0.0019 90.25 15.92
1.30 1.47 1.22 1.55 2.95 36.21 0.0018 90.87 16.00
1.26 1.51 1.35 1.39 2.94 42.98 0.0018 92.70 15.88
1.30 1.26 1.18 1.52 2.83 34.97 0.0019 90.94 15.30
1.33 1.45 1.33 1.68 2.69 36.84 0.0018 91.09 16.12
1.35 1.22 1.31 1.43 2.65 40.25 0.0019 91.49 15.18
1.19 1.75 1.21 1.37 3.19 41.78 0.0019 89.56 16.27
1.40 1.56 1.34 1.43 2.96 36.34 0.0018 90.58 16.45
1.37 1.68 1.19 1.49 3.47 36.59 0.0017 89.81 17.06
1.31 1.85 1.10 1.41 2.59 32.64 0.0018 90.35 16.21
1.45 1.27 1.50 1.59 3.11 40.05 0.0018 91.66 16.48
1.56 1.39 1.06 1.33 2.85 42.15 0.0019 88.11 15.94
1.14 1.61 1.12 1.41 3.18 37.85 0.0019 89.86 15.75
1.28 1.57 1.20 1.48 2.56 47.84 0.0019 91.23 15.68
1.25 1.50 1.28 1.45 2.64 39.65 0.0019 90.72 15.58
1.25 1.53 1.33 1.33 3.70 44.03 0.0018 90.25 16.48
1.34 1.64 1.16 1.36 3.22 42.69 0.0018 89.46 16.40
1.17 1.74 1.01 1.38 3.01 41.54 0.0020 88.27 15.79
1.03 1.44 1.41 1.40 2.81 37.95 0.0020 92.15 15.01
1.36 1.48 1.39 1.53 3.07 40.35 0.0018 90.76 16.47
1.52 1.24 0.97 1.11 2.91 44.70 0.0020 89.69 15.08

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