International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

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

Heat transfer and thermal management with PCMs in a Li-ion battery

cell for electric vehicles
N. Javani a,⇑, I. Dincer a, G.F. Naterer b, B.S. Yilbas c,1
a
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe St. North, Oshawa, ON L1H 7K4, Canada
b
Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, Memorial University of Newfoundland, 240 Prince Phillip Drive, St. John’s, NL A1B 3X5, Canada
c
Mechanical Engineering Department, King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, Dhahran 31262, Saudi Arabia

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

Article history: This paper investigates heat transfer with phase change materials (PCMs) in passive thermal manage-
Received 16 October 2013 ment of electric and hybrid electric vehicles where the PCM is integrated with a Li-ion cell. When higher
Received in revised form 29 December 2013 current is extracted from the Li-ion cells, heat is generated due to the ohmic law. Therefore, it is vital to
Accepted 30 December 2013
design a successful thermal management system (TMS) to prevent excessive temperature increase and
Available online 26 February 2014
temperature excursion in the battery pack. During the phase change process, PCMs absorb heat and cre-
ate a cooling effect. In the discharging (solidification) process, stored heat is released and it creates a heat-
Keywords:
ing effect. The case considered in this paper includes the use of PCMs with different thicknesses around
Cooling effect
Hybrid electric vehicle
the cells. Despite the small peripheral surface of the prismatic cell, the orthotropic property of Li-ion cells
Li-ion cells improves the planar heat transfer and effectiveness of the PCM around the cell. A numerical study is con-
Phase change material ducted using a finite volume-based method. The results show that the maximum temperature and tem-
Thermal management system perature excursion in the cell are reduced when PCM is employed. The PCM with 12 mm thickness
decreases the temperature by 3.0 K. The corresponding value for thinner layers of 3 mm, 6 mm and
9 mm are then obtained as 2.8 K, 2.9 K and 3.0 K respectively. Furthermore, the effect of the PCM on
the cell temperature is more pronounced when the cooling system is under transient conditions. When
a 3 mm-thick PCM is employed for the Li-ion cell, the temperature distribution becomes about 10% more
uniform which is an important result in thermal management systems in electric vehicles.
Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Designs and modifications of industrial processes have an im-
pact on the environment [1]. Ever-increasing evidence has shown
the adverse effects of air pollution and its harmful impact on hu-
man health, ecology, and the environment. This trend requires
more effective tools to be applied to improve the performance of
energy systems [2]. Reduction of noise problems in urban regions
and improvement of air quality can be achieved using electric
and hybrid electric vehicles (EVs and HEVs) [3].
The energy and power density of battery packs are considered
as important parameters which directly affect the efficiency and
driving range of a HEV. There are many aspects that can affect
the efficiency of an EV and a HEV. An overall efficiency of a HEV
is about 23% which is not meaningfully higher than a correspond-
ing efficiency of 20% for conventional internal combustion engines
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 2892006977; fax: +1 9057213270.
E-mail addresses: Nader.Javani@uoit.ca (N. Javani), Ibrahim.Dincer@uoit.ca
(I. Dincer), gnaterer@mun.ca (G.F. Naterer), bsyilbas@kfupm.edu.sa (B.S. Yilbas).
1
Currently visiting professor at University of Ontario Institute of Technology.
[4]. It is critical to store energy in a battery and run for an extended
driving range.
Based on the specific requirements for the transportation
section, limited types of batteries can be considered for the vehi-
cles. Various performance characteristics based on the limitations
of the chemical components of the batteries, can be employed to
investigate the subject-matter technology. One of the main advan-
tages of this type of energy storage system is their higher energy
density. They have nearly four times higher energy density than
the lead acid batteries. At normal ambient temperatures, Li-ion
cells have a very high performance. Their energy density is about
200 Wh/kg which is almost the highest among other types. Be-
cause of compactness and lightness of Li-ion batteries, they are
considered as a potential candidate for EVs, regarding extended
driving range, life-time and vehicle acceleration [5].
One of the main obstacles to achieve this goal is the generated
heat which should be extracted by thermal management systems
from the battery pack. In this way, passive thermal management
systems, such as using PCMs to improve the performance is re-
quired. The PCMs offer advantages over air and liquid thermal
management systems (TMSs) as they are treated as effective tools

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2013.12.076
0017-9310/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703 691

Nomenclature

A area (m2) h1 overall temperature coefficient

Cp specific heat coefficient (J/kg K) h1 local temperature coefficient
F Faraday’s constant H parameter in general equation
G Gibbs free energy (J) q density (kg/m3)
h specific enthalpy (kJ/kg) X effectiveness index
H total enthalpy content C diffusion coefficient
hs convective heat transfer coefficient (W/m2 K)
I current (A)
Subscripts
k thermal conductivity of a cell (W/m K)
0, amb ambient
L length scale (m), latent heat of fusion (J/kg)
b battery
M mass (kg)
cell cell
n number of electrons
dc discharge
q_ volumetric heat generation rate (w/m3)
gen generation
Q_ heat transfer rate (kW)
m melting
R resistance (O)
ref reference conditions
S entropy (J/K)
Sh source term for heat generation rate (kW/m3)
t time (s) Acronyms
T temperature (K) CFD computational fluid dynamics
T0 ambient temperature (K or °C) EV electric vehicle
U open circuit potential (V) FVM finite volume method
V cell potential (V) HEV hybrid electric vehicle
ICE internal combustion engine
LHTES latent heat thermal energy storage
Greek Symbols
PCM phase change material
b liquid fraction
SOC state of charge
D change in variable
TMS thermal management system

in managing thermal control and simplifying the system due to the
elimination of mechanical equipment such as pumps, fans and con-
nections [6]. The study of paraffin waxes is conducted through dif-
ferent methods such as molecular dynamics (MD). This method is
applied to assess the diffusion property n-nanodecane and other
pure chain alkanes by Rao et al. [7]. They investigated the phase
transition temperature of the binary mixture of pure alkanes. Also,
the latent heat of fusion for these materials, as an important prop-
erty of paraffin waxes, is studied through MD method in their
study. Along with the latent heat of fusion for organic PCMs, one
of their main drawbacks is lower thermal conductivity of these
materials, and therefore different methods to increase the heat
transfer rate are considered in the literature. Nithyanandam and
Pitchumani [8] used thermosyphons in different configurations
for this purpose. Furthermore, various methods to improve the
heat transfer rate can be grouped into four main categories as uti-
lization of extended surfaces, employment of multiple PCMs,
microencapsulation of the PCM and thermal conductivity enhance-
ment [9]. Among the recent technologies, carbon nano-tubes can
be used. Metal functionalization process makes them to get better
alignment and therefore to show improved properties, such as
higher thermal conductivity [10].
The main issue with Li-ion cells is the volumetric heat genera-
tion. A proper thermal management system is required to remove
the excess dissipated heat from the modules and cells. A reliable
safety circuit design is also important in Li-ion batteries. Heat gen-
eration is a function of state of charge (SOC), temperature and heat
capacity of the cell. Liquid electrolyte mixtures along with single
and multiphase solids make Li-ion cells complicated form a ther-
modynamic point of view. Mixing, electrochemical reactions and
phase change cause heat generation which is not easy to determine
and control. On the other hand, to have a reliable and effective pre-
diction of temperature profiles within the cells, heat generation
data of the cell are required.
Selman et al. [11] considered the heat generation as a result of
several effects as follows. First, the reversible heat absorbed or re-
leased is due to chemical reactions in the cell. Second, irreversible
heat generation increases quadratically with the current load.
Third, this heat transfer is mainly caused by ohmic resistance
and polarization effects. Fourth, side reactions include parasitic
and corrosion reactions and chemical shorts. Under normal opera-
tional conditions, reversible and irreversible effects are small and
since the temperature is low, no thermal runaway or capacity fad-
ing can occur even with long operations of the battery. Under abu-
sive conditions, reversible and irreversible effects will be
important. Abusive conditions mean a higher rate of discharge cur-
rent (excessive load) and accidental shorts. In these situations, the
reversible reaction temperature increases linearly and irreversible
temperature increases quadratically which can lead to thermal
runaway conditions and failure of the battery. In most cases, for
Li-ion discharge, the dominant heat effect is reversible and should
be considered. Then, further calculations can be done to estimate
side reactions and their contribution to heat generation. On the
contrary, in abnormal or harsh conditions, such as high discharge
current (excessive load) and short connection, reversible heat gen-
eration due to chemical reactions and irreversible heat produced
by ohmic resistance and polarization, leading to a high tempera-
ture rise in the cell and a non-uniform temperature distribution.
The hot spots, which may form for this reason, can bring the ther-
mal runaway by accelerating the side reaction heat generation
[11]. They also showed that in the scaled-up cells, temperature in-
creases due to high discharge rates and also for the case of natural
convection which is not effective to remove the generated heat and
an effective TMS is required in abusive conditions. Their experi-
mental studies also confirmed that for commercial secondary bat-
teries, a temperature rise in the cell strongly depends on the
chemistry of the cell and discharge rate. In abusive conditions, an
effective thermal management system is required.
692 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703
Duan and Naterer [12] experimentally investigated the effects of
PCMs on thermal management of cylindrical cells. They assumed a
line heat source to represent a battery cell to generate the heat. In
the experimental part of the study, they considered two cases. In
the first one, the cell (line heater) was surrounded by PCM and
in the other design; a cell was wrapped with a PCM jacket. They con-
cluded that both designs were capable to keep the cell temperature
within a narrow band, and therefore, a similar design can be consid-
ered for TMS in HEVs. In the same domain of the study, a rather com-
prehensive investigation about PCMs can be found in a study carried
out by Sharma et al. [13]. More information about the PCMs, their
properties and applications can be found elsewhere [14,15].
Ramandi et al. [16] simulated a two-dimensional model for the
battery pack with constant heat generation and employed four dif-
ferent PCM shell around the battery pack. They showed that a sin-
gle shell PCM can provide a TMS effectively. Furthermore, they
considered two different PCM shells around the block in series con-
figuration and showed that the double PCM shell is more efficient
than single PCM shell TMS.
Recently, Javani et al. [17] have studied a TMS of cooling
cycle of a HEV in which latent heat thermal energy storage
(LHTES) is in parallel with the chiller of the cycle. The effect
of PCM on the energetic and exergetic performance of the sys-
tem has been investigated. It is shown that in the improved
TMS, the exergetic efficiency of the system increases while the
total cost rate of the system decreases. For the coefficient of
performance (COP) of the cooling cycle without LHTES, ambient
temperature is found to be more effective which directly im-
pacts the performance of the battery pack in the HEV [18]. In
another effort, Javani et al. [19] studied the effects of absorption
refrigeration and ejector cooling systems on thermal manage-
ment of a battery pack in EVs and HEVs. In HEVs, the exiting
hot gases from the engine could run the absorption system
and provide the necessary cooling load for cabin cooling and
battery thermal management.
In this paper, a Li-ion cell is considered for a unique TMS study
in different volumetric heat generation rates. These heat genera-
tion rates are in accordance with different operational conditions
and driving cycles. In this regard, the main objective of this paper
to study the heat transfer numerical for the thermal management
of a lithium-ion cell integrated with a phase change material (PCM)
around it with the same thickness of the cell. This configuration
aims to develop a sub-module using the prismatic cells. It also con-
siders different thicknesses of the PCM around the cell. The cooling
effectiveness is defined and studied for thermal management
assessment. Furthermore, it is aimed study the transient response
of the cell and phase change material around it. More innovatively,
an orthotropic thermal conductivity of the cell is studied as a new
parameter in the TMS of HEVs.
2. Heat transfer modeling
In order to conduct numerical heat transfer analysis using
ANSYS FLUENT software there should be a mathematical model
which shows the physics of the problem, input variables and rela-
tionship between these parameters through the governing equa-
tions and their valid range of variation with initial and boundary
conditions. Furthermore, such a model is required to achieve the
determined objectives by assigning constraints for the problem
and defining the corresponding methodology.
For the ANSYS FLUENT based simulations, initially the physical
domain of the model is presented, followed by the assumptions.
Furthermore, the governing conservation equations in the cell zone
along with the PCM are defined, which are discretized and em-
ployed by numerical methods. The boundary and initial conditions
required to complete the model formulation are also illustrated. In
order to explain the model, a single Li-ion cell and the surrounding
PCM are initially modeled. Fig. 1 illustrates the cell geometry and
the aspect ratio of the Li-ion cell and surrounding PCM. The heat
generation rate is assumed to be the only heat source in the cell
zones. The boundary conditions around the cell and positive/nega-
tive terminals which are connected to the cells are defined under
free convection. First, maximum temperature and corresponding
temperature gradients in the cell are obtained numerically under
steady-state conditions. This model, then, is enhanced by adding
the PCM to the peripheral surface of the cell. This configuration
is selected because of the orthotropic property of the cell, where
the planar thermal conductivity of cell and electrolyte material in
the cell zone shows non orthotropic property. Moreover, various
thicknesses of the PCM are considered and studied, and the cooling
effectiveness is introduced to assess the TES performance for each
configuration considered in the study. The problem is the en-
hanced to further study the transient behavior of the cell under
which the simulations are conducted for time-dependent response
of the system as well
For this conjugate heat transfer problem, free convection is con-
sidered for all surfaces, including the cell and PCM interface with
the ambient air where heat transfer coefficient is h = 7 W/m2 K
and Tamb = 294.15 K. The assumptions made and some initial
boundary conditions considered are listed as follows:
 The heat transfer from the terminal surfaces is dominated by
free convection.
 The boundary between the terminal and cell itself is a ‘‘coupled’’
boundary condition to assure the continuity of the temperature
and other properties across the boundary.
 The initial cell temperature is 294.15 K same as the ambient
temperature.
 The cell has orthotropic thermal conductivity.
 The average specific heat for the cell and PCM is used.
 The heat generation in the cell is uniform. (This assumption is in
accordance with a lumped system analysis, which is applicable
for these elements based on the insignificance of their thickness
[20]).
 No flow case exists for the liquid phase of PCM.
 The radiation effect is negligible small.
Li-ion cell is the key component which generates heat. Some
studies refer to an isotropic thermal conductivity of 0.27 W/m K
[5] for the cell material. In simulation study, the option of applying
the PCM around the cell is selected because of the orthotropic
behavior of the cell. This means that the planar (or surface) thermal
conductivity of the cell is assumed to be 25 W/m K, and the value
for the direction normal to the cell surface is considered as
1 W/m K in the numerical study. The specific heat value for the cell
is taken as CP = 1027 J/kg K.
As stated above, the heat generation rate ðq_ gen Þ is considered to
be uniform within the cell as 63.970 kW/m3 for 2C (C-rate) which
becomes 4.45 W for each cell [21]. The C-rate determines the rate
at which the current is discharged from the cell. The generated
heat is mainly due to the internal resistance, which, in turn, de-
pends on the C-rate of the battery. Thermal stability of the cell de-
pends strongly on the internal resistance. For the state of the
charge (SOC) equal to 50% and discharge rate of C/1, the heat gen-
eration rate for the cylindrical cells is estimated to be 20 kW/m3
[5]. In general, for C/1 rate, the approximate amount of heat gener-
ation per cell is 1.33 W which yields a heat generation rate of about
19.1 kW/m3. The latter value is 64.0 kW/m3 for 2C. In the present
study, the volumetric heat generation rates considered as listed
in Table 1.
 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703 693

Fig. 1. Schematic of cell and surrounding PCM.

Table 1 selected. Solidus and liquidus temperatures also depend on the

Volumetric heat generation rates for Li-ion cell based on operating conditions.
material purity. Based on the literature review, the values consid-
q_ ¼ 6855 W=m3 Standard US06 ered for n-octadecane are Tsolidus = 301.15 K and Tliquidus = 303.15 K.
q_ ¼ 22; 800 W=m3 Max 135 Amps (150 kW), 3.6 W/cell The variations of specific heat are considered as a step function be-
q_ ¼ 63; 970 W=m3 2C, 4.45 W/cell tween these two values. In order to find in between values for the
q_ ¼ 200; 000 W=m3 Full power, uphill condition
PCM, the values can be interpolated based on a curve fitting
method.
In order to find a closed form function for the obtained set of
Heat generation in the cell can be determined by a calorimetric data for specific heat, thermal conductivity and density certain
method or can be modeled mathematically. Parameters such as type of fitting algorithms is required. There are a large number of
possible phase change inside the cell, electrochemical reactions, methods to obtain a function for fitting a set of data such as Cheby-
mixing effects and Joule heating will change the heat generation shev polynomials, least squares, Levenberg–Marquardt and Gauss–
whereby the cell surface temperature. The following energy bal- Newton algorithms. Chebyshev polynomials are, based on the
ance equation is used for the heat generation in the cell (see [22] accuracy, utilized to obtain a closed form function for the objective
for details): set of data. The values for the specific heat, thermal conductivity
  and density of the phase change material are given in the following
dU dT
q_ ¼ I U  V  T ¼ hs AðT  T amb Þ þ M cell C p ð1Þ form to be used in simulations:
dT dt
8 9
Here, U and V are open circuit or electromotive force and cell
< 2150 J=kg K
> T solidus > T solid phase >
=
potentials, respectively. hs is per-cell heat transfer coefficient. Term
C p ¼ 225; 000 J=kg K T solidus < T < T liquidus Mushy zone
I (U-V) is the heat generation due to cell polarization and IT dU dT
is >
: >
;
entropy coefficient due to a reversible process in the cell. Mcell is 2180 J=kg K T > T liquidus liquidus phase
the mass of the cell and Cp is the weight-averaged value of cell heat ð5Þ
capacity. If the heat generation in the cell is considered to be
uniform, then, heat generation per unit volume can be written as 8 9
follows [22,23]: < 0:358 W=m K T solidus > T solid phase
> >
=
k ¼ 0:255 W=m K T solidus < T < T liquidus Mushy zone ð6Þ
q_ ¼ I=V b ½ðU  VÞ þ TdU=dT  ð2Þ >
: >
;
0:152 W=m K T > T liquidus liquidus phase
_ Vb, U, V and I are are voluemtric heat generation rate,
where q,
battery volume, open circuit potential, cell potential and current,
respectively (<0 for charging and >0 for discharging). If heat
8 3
9
< 814 kg=m
> T solidus > T solid phase >
=
generation includes reversible and irreversible effects, reversible
q ¼ 769 kg=m3 T solidus < T < T liquidus Mushy zone ð7Þ
heat released or absorbed in the cell as a result of chemical >
: >
;
reactions becomes [11] 724 kg=m3 T > T liquidus liquidus phase
 
@U
Q rev ¼ nLi T DS ¼ T Itdc ð3Þ Here, n-octadecane, as the selected PCM for this study, can be found
@T
in two categories: technical grade and purity. In the literature, the
In order to obtain heat generation, based on thermodynamic latent heat of fusion for this material is considered 244 kJ/kg (Also
relations, the Gibbs free energy is considered as the value of 243.5 kJ/kg is reported elsewhere [24]). The DSC tests
are conducted for pure PCM (99%) as well as technical grade PCM
DG ¼ n  F  U ð4Þ
(90.8% purity). The latent heat value for technical grade PCM is
where F is Faraday‘s constant and n is the number of electrons. 197.3 kJ/kg. For pure PCM, it is 225 kJ/kg on average. So, the simu-
The selection of proper PCM to meet the design requirements is lations are based on 225 kJ/kg. This difference is seen as a result
another objective in the current study. Considering the operating of impurities in the material. The density of impurities affects the
temperature range of the cycle, the organic normal octadecane is material grade.
694 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703
3. Numerical model
In order to obtain the thermal behavior of the cell, numerical
simulations are performed based on the Finite Volume Method
(FVM). In order to discretize the energy equation, the FVM is a
widely used procedure in the calculations. The computational do-
main is divided into a number of control volumes, and the variable
to be studied is set in the center. The governing equation in the dif-
ferentiable form is integrated over each control volume. Between
the cell centroid, the variables are interpolated to have a profile
for variations of the parameter like pressure or temperature. The
resulting equation is a discretized equation in the domain. After
obtaining a discretized equation, an algebraic solver is used to
determine a solution that has converged. The specific steps are de-
scribed by Malasekra [25] to find a suitable solution. Due to a
widespread application of ANSYS FLUENT software, there are vari-
ous references available and technical CFD forums that provide
more detailed information about different aspects of numerical
simulation procedures.
A partial differential equation is employed to describe each phe-
nomenon which comprises a transient term, diffusion term, con-
vection term and a source term. By taking all these terms into
account, a general equation can be derived as follows:
@
ðqHÞ þ r  ðq~
uH  CH rHÞ ¼ SH
@t
where H is 1 and h for continuity and energy equations, respec-
tively. CH and SH are the diffusion coefficient and source terms
which have consistent units. The momentum equation is not con-
sidered for the melted PCM in the simulation domain. The govern-
ing equation in this paper is energy equation to analyze the heat
transfer and temperature distribution in the model.The expression
for the conservation of energy is stated as follows:
The net rate of change for internal and kinetic energy
¼ The net rate energy change by convection ðfluid flowÞ
þ The net rate of energy change by conduction ðheatÞ
þ The net rate of work
During the heat transfer process, there is a phase change in the
PCM where both solid and liquid phases co-exist. Energy equation
for these two phases should be solved separately. In order to avoid
considering the liquid/solid phases separately and to simplify the
methodology, enthalpy-porosity technique [26] is employed. In-
stead of explicitly traction of melting interface in the mushy zone,
liquid fraction is defined in a way that it represents the fraction of
the cell which is in liquid state. A linear source term and linear
liquid fraction are assumed for the melting/solidification interface.
This leads to an effective porosity of 0.5 for the interface of liquid/
solid. In this way, the liquid fraction is calculated in each iteration,
based on the enthalpy balance equation:
@ A grid independence test is carried out to confirm that the mesh
ðqHÞ ¼ r  ðkrTÞ þ Sh
@t
where enthalpy of the PCM is introduced as H = h + DH where H is
the total heat content or enthalpy of the material, h is the sensible
heat and DH is the latent heat of the material and generation rate of
Sh is constant for the cell zone and zero for the PCM zone in the
calculation domain.
By defining b as the liquid fraction, the total content of latent
heat of phase change becomes
DH ¼ bH
with the specific enthalpy as
Z Cell
T
Dh ¼ href þ cP dT
T ref
Note that liquid fraction may become zero or 1, depending on
the temperatures larger and smaller than the melting temperature
of the PCM [27]:
b ¼ 0 for T > T m ð12Þ
b ¼ 1 for T < T m ð13Þ
In the simulation, the Marangony effect is taken into account.
The melting process has not generated circulating flows in the
physical model of the current problem.
4. Results and Discussion
It is known that passive cooling systems require lower input en-
ergy to run the cycle in HEVs. This is due to the fewer number of
components to extract extra energy from the battery pack. In ac-
tive air cooling, however, the fan is consuming the energy while
in passive cooling system there is no need for chiller or other
mechanical power consuming devices. As discussed before, the
passive air cooling load is not fully sufficient to manage the ther-
mal issues in the pack and that is the reason that liquid cooling sys-
tems are used. In this section, the PCM is going to be employed in a
passive thermal management system at the cell.
The higher thermal conductivity in the planar direction is con-
ð8Þ sidered as an advantage of the cells to make it possible to extract
the heat from the side surfaces of the cell where there is no interest
to manipulate the layers between the cells. Cell-integrated applica-
tion of the phase change material is considered. The heat genera-
tion rate in the cell level will cause temperature increase. The
way that heat is generated and distributed mostly depends on
the cell type. The dimensions of the cell are shown in Fig. 1. The
different thicknesses of the PCM are considered to investigate the
effect of each thickness in reducing the temperature and deliver
a uniform temperature distribution throughout the cell. In line
with this idea, cooling effectiveness in the cell is defined as a crite-
rion for various configurations of PCMs in the cell. The considered
thicknesses are 3 mm, 6 mm, 9 mm and 12 mm, respectively. It
should be noted that the selection of PCM thicknesses is based
on the practical applicability of the PCM in electrical vehicles bat-
tery pack.
Two terminals in the cell are symmetrically located. There is no
heat generation in terminals and they behave as cooling fin in the
cell. This assumption is not considered to bring significant error to
the results. The reason is that the space between the cell margin
and the terminals is a very thin layer of metal as a result of com-
pressed cell electrolyte. This decreases the heat transfer area be-
tween the cell and terminals. Table 2 shows the different
thicknesses for the PCM.
4.1. Grid independence test results
ð9Þ size has no effect on the simulation results. Normally a point inside
the domain is monitored to investigate the convergence history of
a property such as temperature. In this study, a rake crossing the
cell is monitored as convergence criteria. Temperature distribution
along a constant rake in the cell is given for three meshes with dif-
ferent sizes. Fig. 2 shows the convergence history for the rake in
Table 2
Dimensions of cell and terminals.
ð10Þ
Zone Length (X) (mm) Height (Y) (mm) Thickness (Z) (mm)
146 194 5.4
Terminals 35 15 0.6
ð11Þ PCM 3, 6, 9 and 12 3, 6, 9 and 12 5.4
 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703
each case. Three meshes are considered for grid independence test.
For the first mesh, the grid size is 97  73. The successive ratio of
the cell in the x and y directions (Fig. 1) are 1.02 and 1.05, respec-
tively. The present mesh sizes are given as follows:
 M102: 87,700 volume elements
 M103: 1,96,300 volume elements
 M103-1: 300,800 volume elements
For the PCM thickness around the cell, the grid number in an x-y
plane is 9  9. Based on Fig. 2, the mesh with 196,300 elements is
then selected.
4.2. Effect of contact resistance on heat transfer rate
A contact resistance (thermal barrier/resistance) can be effec-
tive in any location with two or more different layers due to the
surface roughness effect. In the current mode, the electrolyte in
the Li-ion cell is encapsulated by a thin metal sheet where the ter-
minals have been connected. There can be contact resistance in
this interface that affects heat transfer rate. In addition, when the
PCM is placed around the cell, an enclosure is required to prevent
the leakage of melted PCM. If a thin layer of aluminum cover
(0.5 mm thickness) is considered, the contact resistance (R) can
be written in the following form:
DT L 1
Rtot ¼ ¼ Rthickness þ Rh þ Rcontact ¼ þ þ Rcontact
q_ kA hA
T cell  T terminal
Rcontact ¼
Heat flux at interface
where ‘‘h’’ is the heat transfer coefficient between the cell surface
and ambient and L is the thickness of the casing. For the case of alu-
minum interface (10 micrometer surface roughness, 105 N/m2 with
air as interfacial fluid, the contact resistance is 2.75  104 m2 K/W).
Based on the values for thermal conductivity and other dimen-
sions, Rthickness, Rh, and Rcontac become 1.7  105, 3.531  101 and
7.8  106 m2 K/W, respectively. The thermal conductivity is
considered as k = 202 W/mK. The magnitude of contact resistance
is negligible, compared to the coefficient of heat transfer. So, a
contact resistance does not make a significant difference in the cal-
culations. The main reason behind the contact resistance is the
high temperature differences and heat flux in the interface. At
micro scale levels, this becomes more dominant. The phonons in
Fig. 2. Grid independence study of cell with PCM.
695
the micro-scale level determine the contact resistance more effec-
tively. Conduction takes place through the phonon radiative trans-
port across the contact resistance. In order to examine the phonon
intensity behavior across the interface, equivalent equilibrium
temperature is introduced in line with a previous study [28]. This
temperature is the analog of the usual thermodynamic tempera-
ture defined in the diffusive limit in any medium. It represents
the average energy of all phonons around a local point and it is
equivalent to the equilibrium temperature of phonons when they
redistribute adiabatically to an equilibrium state. Furthermore,
the contact resistance is small enough in the cell and connectors
boundary and is not considered in simulations. This is mainly
due to the high temperature gradients in the direction of heat
transfer.
4.3. Results for Li-ion cell without PCM in steady state and transient
response
As a baseline to compare the effects of applying PCM in various
thicknesses, the cell without the PCM is studied first. Initially,
steady-state simulations are presented followed by the transient
response. Boundary and initial conditions were introduced in the
previous section. For the heat generation rate of 63970 W/m3,
the temperature contours are presented in Fig. 3. For the consid-
ered boundary conditions and heat transfer coefficient, the maxi-
mum volume – averaged and minimum temperatures of the cell
ð14Þ
are compared with various other configurations. Three rakes, 1, 2
and 3, are defined in three different locations in the cell along with
ð15Þ vertical rake throughout the height of the cell. Once the thermal
conductivity is not constant in all directions, the heat transfer rate
will be different in the cell surfaces. This is investigated in the
transient case later. The locations of rakes are shown in Fig. 3,
and the values are listed as follows:
 Rake 01: X = 73 mm, Y = 127.75 mm, Z  [0 5.4] mm
 Rake 02: X = 73 mm, Y = 97 mm, Z  [0 5.4] mm
 Rake 03: X = 73 mm, Y = 24.25 mm, Z  [0 5.4] mm
 Rake 04: X = 73 mm, Y  [0 194], Z = 2.7 mm
The temperature distribution in the created rakes is presented
in Fig. 4. It can be seen that the temperature increases to its pick
value in the middle portion of the cell, which is due to the
symmetrical boundary conditions. The vertical rake is created
696 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703

Fig. 3. Temperature contours in cell without applying PCM.

Fig. 4. Temperature distribution along the horizontal rakes.

and the temperature distribution along this rake is shown in Fig. 5, T ¼ 2  108 y3  7  105 y2 þ 6:9  103 y þ 317 ð16Þ
in order to find the location for the maximum temperature. The
Therefore, the maximum point of this figure is at y = 50.37 mm.
curve fitting gives the following for the temperature (K) distribu-
The main reason for this asymmetric profile is the boundary
tion (with a correlation coefficient of nearly unity):
conditions of the problem. In the top boundary, where the

Fig. 5. Temperature distribution along the vertical rake for the single cell.
 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703 697

connectors are attached, there is no PCM, which causes different
conditions and imposes an asymmetrical pattern of temperature
distribution. Another rake is created along the length of the cell
(in the X direction). This is considered to be the critical rake in
the cell. This rake will be used to compare the cooling effect of
the different cases. This location is below the mid height of the cell
due the cooling effect of terminals. Fig. 6 compares the tempera-
ture distribution in the critical rake and bottom rake. For all cases,
where the cell has no PCM or different types of PCMs around it,
three key values for temperature have been noted: minimum and
maximum cell temperatures and volume-average temperature of
the cell as bulk temperature. The output values for static tempera-
ture and volume-weighted average static temperatures are
315.28 K and 316.74 K, respectively. In order to establish the tran-
sient responses of the models, time-step independency tests are
carried out, and the findings are shown in Fig. 7. The time steps
of 2.5, 5 and 10 s for the time are considered. The percent
difference is used instead of the percent error (because none of
the values is known based on experiment).
jðT 5s  T 2:5s Þj
Percent difference ¼  100
ðT 5s þ T 2:5s Þ=2
For the time equal to 500 s, time steps of 2.5 and 5 s result in tem-
peratures of 304.05 K and 304.04 K in the cell. The percent error in
this case is 0.003%. The time step of 5 s is mostly used in transient
analysis in this study unless higher heat generation rates are
considered. Such a scenario is dominant for the heat generation rate
of 200 kW/m3, which may not last more than couple of minutes. In
these operational conditions, smaller time steps are used in the
simulations. The results for the transient solution are used as
comparison criteria with the other configurations.
4.4. Results for PCM in steady-state and transient conditions
This section presents results of the PCM with 3, 6, 9 and 12 mm
thickness around the cell. The case with 3 mm of PCM around the
cell is considered first as shown in Fig. 8. In this case, the maximum
cell squishiness is 0.076, which allows better geometrical mesh
stability. The steady-state and transient responses of the system
are compared with the previous case where there was no PCM
around the cell. The effect of PCM around the cell gives a shift in
the location of maximum temperature in the cell, as it can be seen
in Fig. 9 (compared to Fig. 3). Fig. 10 also shows the shift in the
location of the critical rake in the cell. This is caused by the appli-
ð17Þ cation of the PCM. The curve fit method gives the critical height of
the cell to be ycritical = 72.8 mm; therefore, the new location is
shifted 22.5 mm toward the cell interior. Fig. 10 also shows that
using PCM around the cell should lead to better temperature

Fig. 6. Temperature distribution along the critical rake compared to the bottom rake.

Fig. 7. Time step independence study of the mesh.

698 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703

Fig. 8. Location of vertical and critical rakes in cell.

Fig. 9. Temperature contours in the cell with PCM (3 mm) around cell.

Fig. 10. Change in the location of maximum temperature point in the vertical rake in cell.

uniformity. At the same time, the maximum temperature is re- in the assessment of TMSs for the battery. A decrease in the max-
duced. Decreasing the temperature and increasing the uniformity imum temperature of the cell is demonstrated in both cases,
of temperature distribution are considered as two critical criteria shown in Table 3.
 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703 699

Table 3 PCM has prevented temperature increase in the cell. Furthermore,

Maximum temperatures in the cell with and without the PCM. 20 min elapsed time shows the PCM effect more than the ones for
Model Tcell, min (K) Tcell, volume average (K) Tcell, max (K) 10 min. The temperature difference between the cell with and
Cell without PCM 315.28 316.74 317.19 without PCM is near two times after 20 min, compared to
PCM (3 mm thickness) 314.62 315.92 316.38 10 min. Fig. 12 also shows the effects of PCM on the temperature
of a specified point in the cell. Two results can be deduced from
Fig. 12. Firstly, the effects of flow time on the maximum tempera-
ture difference can be seen in both cases. Secondly, the maximum
The nature of the current study mostly relies on transient
temperature is reduced in the cell by using the PCM. Another mon-
behavior of the system. In steady-state solution, the PCM has al-
itoring possibility is the maximum temperature trend in the cell.
ready been melted and the liquid thermal conductivity will deter-
The same method is applied for the case with 6 mm PCM
mine be effective in the solution. The mathematical difference
around the cell. In this case, the critical height for the highest tem-
between the steady state and transient temperatures has been re-
perature of the cell is calculated to be Y = 87.86 mm (critical height
placed by the quasi steady-state and steady state temperature dif-
for vertical rake). Along the cell length (X-direction) and at the new
ferences in the cell. This means that when the average temperature
height, the horizontal rake is created to monitor the critical tem-
(volume-average) in the transient conditions reaches a quasi-value
peratures in the cell. The results are recorded for the flow times
(85% has been considered in this study), it is considered as the stea-
of 10 min and 20 min. The new position is found to be
dy state response.
Y = 84.37 mm, which may be considered close enough to the previ-
In order to monitor the temperature in the transient solution, a
ous location of 87.86 mm. Temperature distribution in the cell is
horizontal rake, created in the location of maximum temperature
shown in Fig. 13a, along with the shift of maximum temperature
in the cell, is used with results to be compared with the other
toward the upper side of the cell. In the steady-state situation,
cases. Fig. 11 compares the temperature rise in two critical rakes
the vertical temperature (K) distribution equation is
for the case with no PCM and when there is a 3 mm thickness
PCM around the cell. It can be seen that after 10 and 20 min, the T ¼ 7  108 y3  104 y2 þ 0:0158y þ 314:79 ð18Þ

Fig. 11. Transient response of the cell without PCM and with 3 mm thickness PCM.

Fig. 12. Effect of the PCM in preventing a temperature increase in the cell.
700 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703

(a) (b)
Fig. 13. Temperature contours in the cell surrounded by 9 mm thick PCM.

Fig. 14. Steady-state temperature distributions along the vertical rake in cell.

Fig. 15. Temperature distribution in the horizontal rake after 20 min.

 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703 701

Fig. 16. Temperature distribution along the horizontal rake in the cell after 20 min.

Fig. 17. Transient response for maximum temperature in the cell for different thicknesses.

Table 4
Critical temperatures in the cell for different models.

Configuration Cell minimum temperature (K) Average temperature of the cell (K) Cell maximum temperature (K)
Flow time 10 min Flow time 20 min Flow time 10 min Flow time 20 min Flow time 10 min Flow time 20 min
Cell without PCM around 304.54 309.82 305.24 310.89 305.43 311.20
Cell with PCM (3 mm) 302.37 305.05 303.98 307.58 304.70 308.43
Cell with PCM (6 mm) 302.48 304.72 303.97 307.37 304.64 308.30
Cell with PCM (9 mm) 302.34 304.63 303.92 307.34 304.61 308.22
Cell with PCM (12 mm) 302.35 304.58 303.92 307.28 304.60 308.16

The maximum temperature along the rake occurs at the height
of y = 86.94 mm. The temperature contours the uniform cell tem-
perature distribution. The shift in the location of maximum tem-
perature for 12 mm thicknesses is seen in Fig. 13b. The PCM is
melted by increasing the temperature. The amount of the PCM
used will extend the time interval that temperature is absorbed
in the PCM and prevents temperature increase.
The overall results for the cell without the PCM and with 4 dif-
ferent thicknesses (3 mm, 6 mm, 9 mm and 12 mm) are presented
in Fig. 14. The shift in maximum temperature can be observed
clearly. Time dependent responses of different thicknesses are gi-
ven in Fig. 15 after 20 min. The higher temperature of 305.43 K re-
fers to the case where there is no PCM thermal management in the
cell. A similar comparison is shown in Fig. 16 for the elapsed time
of 20 min. In order to investigate the effects of PCM thickness on
the temperature distribution along the horizontal rake, the tem-
perature range has been modified in Fig. 16 and reveals that PCM
with 12 mm thickness has the greatest thermal management effect
on the cell. However, it should be noted that there is a geometrical
restriction in putting thicker layers of PCM around the pack. Also,
considering the melted PCM, the thicker layer will impose higher
thermal resistance around the cell, which is detrimental to thermal
management of said cell. With the heat generation rate of
63.970 kW/m3, in less than 7 min the effect of PCM around the cells
will dominate in ameliorating the temperature increase in the cell
(Fig. 17). As the maximum temperature in the cell might not rep-
resent the entirety of the physics behind the problem, the temper-
ature distribution along the rake has been compared for different
thicknesses. As Fig. 17 shows, the temperature values along the
rake result in a slower rate of increase for higher PCM thicknesses,
which prevent the maximum temperatures in the short time. In or-
der to compare the temperatures in the different models, mini-
mum, volume average and maximum temperature values of the
cell were measured and are shown in Table 4. The effect of PCM
702 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703

Fig. 18. Average temperature in the cell with different PCM thicknesses after 20 min.

Fig. 19. Cooling effectiveness for different configurations.

Fig. 20. Overall temperature coefficients along the horizontal rake in the cell for different PCM thicknesses.

on average cell temperature with different PCM thicknesses is then without PCM and with PCM in different thicknesses of 3, 6, 9 and
illustrated in Fig. 18. 12 mm).
T  T bulk;gen
4.5. Results for cooling effectiveness in the cell Cooling Effectiveness ¼ ð19Þ
T max;gen  T bulk;gen

In order to investigate the cooling effectiveness, the following where Tbulk,gen = Bulk temperature of all models and Tmax,gen =
dimensionless parameter is defined for temperature variation Maximum temperature of all models. Fig. 19 shows the cooling
along the critical horizontal rake in all five configurations (cell effectiveness in the tested models.
 N. Javani et al. / International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 72 (2014) 690–703
The other parameter used to assess the cooling effect of the
PCM on the cell is defined as the relative temperature ratio. Two
temperature coefficients are defined as follows:
T  T max;local
Overall temperature coefficient : h1 ¼
T max;gen  T max;local
T  T bulk;local
Local temperature coefficient : h2 ¼
T bulk;gen  T bulk;local
where Tbulk,gen = Bulk temperature of all models
Fig. 20 shows the variations of temperature coefficient along the
rake location for different thicknesses. Effectiveness Index O is de-
fined as the depth of the curvature in Fig. 20. A large PCM thickness
around the cell will have larger depth in curvature which, in turn,
provides better cooling in the cell. In this case, the maximum tem-
perature in the cell attains low values and the difference between
the maximum and the minimum temperature becomes small
across the cell.
5. Conclusions
Two main requirements for any TMS in an electric vehicle are
the ability to minimize the peak temperature and prevent temper-
ature gradients. The main goal of employing PCM in cooling sys-
tems is to minimize/eliminate the reliance on the active
refrigeration cooling cycle which currently predominates as a com-
mon method. In this study, a PCM method is introduced around the
Li-ion battery with test thicknesses of 3, 6, 9 and 12 mm and Tem-
perature variations and distribution are calculated and then com-
pared. When the PCM is applied in a 3 mm thickness around the
Li-ion cell, the temperature distribution becomes 10% more uni-
form. The PCM with 12 mm thickness decreases the maximum
temperature by 3.04 K. The corresponding value for thinner layers
of 3 mm, 6 mm and 9 mm are 2.77 K, 2.89 K and 2.98 K, respec-
tively. The results are calculated for the time of 20 min in transient
conditions. With a heat generation rate of 63.970 kW/m3, the effect
of PCM around the cells will dominate in ameliorating the temper-
ature increase in the cell in less than 7 min. By increasing the PCM
thickness around the cell, the location of maximum temperature
moves inward the cell. Without the PCM, the location is closer to
the bottom side of the cell. This is the result of improved unifor-
mity of temperature distribution. Contact resistance in the cell
and connectors boundary is 7.8  106 m2K/W, which is smaller
than air film resistance by an order of 104 and therefore is not
considered in simulations. This is mainly due to the high tempera-
ture gradients in the direction of heat transfer. The cooling effect
has been defined in local and global scales. It is found that the cool-
ing effect provides a deterministic criterion to assess the applied
thermal management system. The effectiveness index (O) is de-
fined as the depth of curvature for temperature coefficient and
PCM thickness. A large PCM thickness around the cell will have lar-
ger depth in curvature which, in turn, provides better cooling in the
cell.
Acknowledgments
The financial support from Automotive Partnerships Canada
(APC) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
of Canada (NSERC) is gratefully acknowledged. The authors also
wish to thank GM Canada, Canadian Regional Engineering Center
(CREC), Oshawa, Ontario, for their support during the research.
703
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