Applied Thermal Engineering 212 (2022) 118562

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Applied Thermal Engineering

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

Research Paper

Internal temperature prediction model of the cylindrical lithium-ion battery

under different cooling modes
Wencan Zhang a, Weijian Wan a, Weixiong Wu b, *, Zhongbo Zhang a, Xiao Qi b
a
College of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Automation, Foshan University, Foshan 528200, China
b
Energy and Electricity Research Center, Jinan University, Zhuhai 519070, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: With the popularity of electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries are widely used. As a temperature-sensitive
Power battery component, the performance, life span, and safety of lithium-ion batteries are affected by their working tem­
Thermal management perature. Therefore, the monitoring of lithium-ion battery temperature is of great significance for electric ve­
Internal temperature
hicles. Currently, the temperature monitoring methods are mainly based on the measurement of battery surface
Prediction model
temperature. It is difficult to obtain the more important internal temperature that reflects the actual electro­
chemical reaction status inside the battery. Herein, a prediction model for cylindrical 18,650 lithium-ion bat­
teries is established to reveal the internal temperature under various boundary conditions. Firstly, T-type
thermocouples are inserted into the battery to obtain the internal and surface temperature. The characteristics of
the battery temperature variation at different discharge rates under different cooling conditions are analyzed in
detail. Then, the calculation model of the battery internal temperature under different cooling modes is estab­
lished by using the thermal network method. Finally, the accuracy of the prediction model is verified by the
experimental data. The results show that the internal temperature at the positive terminal is higher than that in
other parts. From the perspective of safety, this temperature can be used as a target parameter for the battery
thermal management system and is also suitable as a warning parameter to monitor the battery thermal
runaway. The battery internal temperature prediction model can achieve a high calculation precision based on
the thermal network method. The absolute and mean square deviations can be controlled within 1.5 ◦ C and
0.8 ◦ C under the discharge rate of up to 1.5C and 1C pulse discharge. It provides high precision and reliable
calculation method for the internal temperature prediction of power batteries in electric vehicles under daily
driving with low discharge rates.

high temperature will affect the charging/discharging performance,

1. Introduction
Conventional fossil fuel vehicles have serious emissions of pollutants
and low energy efficiency, which is one of the causes of environmental
pollution and intensification of the greenhouse effect [1]. Electric ve­
hicles are rapidly developing with the advantages such as high energy
utilization rates and green environmental protection [2]. As for the
power equipment, Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in electric ve­
hicles due to their high specific energy density and power, long cycle
life, and low self-discharge rate. With the wide application of the high-
energy lithium-ion battery, its safety problem has gradually attracted
much attention. As a temperature-sensitive component, the optimum
temperature range of a lithium-ion battery is 15 ◦ C to 40 ◦ C [3–5], and
the temperature difference should not exceed 5 ◦ C [6]. The excessively
capacity, service life and even cause irreversible damage, i.e., thermal
runaway or explosion [7]. In addition, when the temperature is too low
(less than − 10 ◦ C), lithium-ion batteries capacity, power, and cycle life
will also decrease significantly [8]. Therefore, monitoring the operating
temperature of lithium-ion batteries is of great significance.
The battery thermal management system (BTMS) is critical to
maintaining the battery in the optimal temperature range. Researchers
have paid extensive attention and intensive studies in this area [9].
According to the heat transfer medium used in the BTMS, it can be
divided into air cooling [10,11], liquid-cooling [12,13], and phase
change material (PCM) cooling [14,15] strategies. Air cooling includes
natural convection cooling [16] and active cooling, which strengthens
the airflow on the battery surface through the fan to enhance the cooling
effect [17]. However, because of the poor thermal conductivity and heat

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: weixiongw@126.com (W. Wu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2022.118562
Received 24 December 2021; Received in revised form 25 March 2022; Accepted 20 April 2022
Available online 25 April 2022
1359-4311/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
W. Zhang et al.
Nomenclature
Q Heat source
Ts Surface temperature
Tin Internal temperature
Tamb Environmental temperature
Cc Heat capacity inside the battery
Cs Heat capacity of the battery shell
Ri Internal thermal resistance
Roi External thermal resistance (i = 1, 2, 3)
Ro1 External thermal resistance under the natural convection
cooling model
Ro2 External thermal resistance underthe air cooling model
Ro3 External thermal resistance under the phase change
material cooling model
ΔTis Temperature differences between internal temperature
and ambient temperature
capacity of air, these BTMS barely meet the battery thermal re­
quirements in extreme ambient environments or at high discharge rates.
Liquid cooling mainly uses liquid as the cooling medium, including
direct contact cooling (such as immersion cooling) or indirect contact
cooling (such as cold plate cooling) [18]. The difference between them is
whether the battery is in direct contact with the coolant. Liquid coolants
have much higher thermal conductivity and heat capacity than air,
making them more effective, energy-saving, quiet, and compact as the
cooling medium. However, its drawbacks include structural complexity,
high cost, and leakage risk, which limit its practical applications[19].
PCM cooling is regarded as an attractive thermal management strategy
due to its simple structure, good performance, and not requiring para­
sitic energy. However, once the latent heat of PCM is exhausted, the
cooling capacity sharply deteriorates or even fails [20]. The thermal
process in a battery is affected by the cooling modes. The maximum
temperature and temperature uniformity of the battery show obvious
differences under different BTMS. To overcome the disadvantages of
individual cooling methods, the BTMS gradually adopts mixed thermal
management methods, such as the combination of air cooling and liquid
cooling [21], which can significantly improve the thermal environment
and temperature uniformity of battery modules.
At present, the BTMS mainly aims at controlling the surface tem­
perature and temperature difference of the battery [22–26]. However,
the generated heat primarily comes from the internal electrochemical
reactions and is then reflected in the variation of surface temperature
through the heat transfer of the battery body. Thus, the battery internal
temperature can represent the working state more accurately [27,28].
Forgez et al. [29] measured the internal and external temperatures of
26,650 lithium-ion batteries during the charging and discharging pro­
cesses, and the results showed a significant difference between them.
They pointed out that the surface temperature can not truly represent
the actual operating temperature of the battery. Similarly, Wen et al.
[30] proved that thermal management based on surface temperature
might bring the risk of overheating. The study by Wang et al. [31]
showed that although the internal temperature is difficult to be moni­
tored in real-time, it is the most direct and effective parameter to
determine whether a battery is entering a precarious working state. To
get an accurate internal temperature, the researchers placed thermo­
couples between two cells and glued them together to form a high-
capacity cell, then using the temperature measured by the thermocou­
ples as the internal temperature of the cell [32–34]. However, this
method is greatly affected by the heat transfer process and cannot
accurately measure the actual temperature inside the battery. Zhu et al.
[35] placed a thin-film temperature sensor into the positive electrode of
the battery, and then reassembled the battery in an argon-filled glove
2
Applied Thermal Engineering 212 (2022) 118562
ΔTss Temperature differences between surface temperature and
ambient temperature
Ucell Terminal voltage
Tp-in Internal temperature of the positive terminal
Tp-s Surface temperature of the positive terminal
Tn-in Internal temperature of the negative terminal
Tn-s Surface temperature of the negative terminal
SOC State of charge
OCV Open-circuit voltage
PCM Phase change material
NCC Natural convection cooling
AC Air cooling
PCMC Phase change material cooling
CFD Computational Fluid Dynamics
dOCV/dT Entropy thermal coefficient
DET Degradation-electrochemical-thermal model
BTMS Battery thermal management system
box. The internal temperature was measured after the stability of the
reassembled battery, which was tested through 100 charge and
discharge cycles. The internal temperature of the battery obtained by
this method can genuinely reflect the internal thermal environment of
the battery. But the operation process of this approach is complicated
and costly, and there are still significant limitations in practical appli­
cation. Nascimento et al. [36] used the optical fiber sensor to measure
the battery internal temperature at different discharge rates. Although
the temperature information can be obtained in real-time, the accuracy
of the optical fiber sensor is easily influenced by physical parameters
such as strain, bending and refractive. It can be seen that the tempera­
ture sensor embedded inside the battery can accurately obtain the in­
ternal temperature of the battery. Still, it needs to be pre-set in the
manufacturing process, which increases the complexity and cost of
manufacturing and may lead to the reduction of battery capacity and
cycle life.
Due to the difficulty in measuring the internal temperature, a
possible method is to estimate the internal temperature based on the
surface temperature. In the study of Richardson et al. [37], the cell was
regarded as an infinite number of concentric rings. The internal tem­
perature was estimated based on electrochemical impedance and sur­
face temperature measured at a specific frequency and then verified by
experiments. The results show that the mean absolute error in the pre­
dicted maximum temperature throughout the cycle is 2.6 ◦ C. Although
this method has a particular application value, it has some problems
such as significant errors, and the application of online temperature
estimation still needs to be further verified. Drake [27] established an
estimation model of battery internal temperature by calculating the heat
generation and heat transfer during battery operation. However, due to
the linear system established, the calculation error of the model is
relatively large when the battery works for a long time, and the actual
internal temperature cannot be estimated effectively. Tran et al. [38]
present a one-dimensional, radial, and coupled degradation-
electrochemical-thermal (DET) model. The model had more accurate
temperature prediction, shorter calculation time, and higher efficiency
than the existing model in COMSOL Multiphysics. However, this method
had not been verified by experiments, and the establishment and anal­
ysis of DET model were very complex. Lin et al. [39] established a
lumped thermal model to estimate the internal temperature and SOC.
The results showed that the model could obtain the internal temperature
efficiently and quickly. But the battery was regarded as a body with
uniform temperature by this mode. Ignoring the temperature difference
between the positive and negative terminals of the battery will cause the
problem that the maximum temperature inside the battery cannot be
detected. In addition, the model did not consider the influence of
W. Zhang et al.
Fig. 1. Diagram of battery thermal process (a), and schematic diagram of the thermal network model (b).
external cooling conditions on the battery internal temperature. Yang
et al. [40] proposed a 3D multi-partition model based on the Compu­
tational Fluid Dynamics(CFD) method to study the influence of different
heat dissipation conditions on the thermal behavior of the battery. The
3D multi-partition thermal model had high accuracy, but the compu­
tational resources and time required for CFD models were not suitable
for deployment in battery management systems. To further improve the
accuracy and convenience of internal temperature estimation, the
electrochemical impedance method [41], internal resistance method
[42], and semilinear partial differential equation method [43] have
been proposed successively. Nevertheless, these models are still char­
acterized by complex calculations and time-consuming. The effect of
cooling methods on the battery internal temperature is not considered in
these models. In practice, there are many thermal management modes in
the actual operation of the battery, such as air cooling and PCM cooling
as mentioned above. The cooling methods will affect the boundary
conditions during the battery heat dissipation process, resulting in
different battery surface temperatures and heat transfer characteristics
inside the battery, and ultimately a significant internal temperature
difference of the battery. Therefore, the prediction model of battery
internal temperature must consider the influence of the cooling method
Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the simulation.
3
Applied Thermal Engineering 212 (2022) 118562
to improve the practicability and calculation accuracy.
To accurately obtain the battery internal temperature under different
thermal management strategies, the present study takes the commercial
Panasonic NCR 18,650BD, a cylindrical lithium-ion battery, as the
research object. The internal and surface temperature of the battery is
measured under different discharge conditions and cooling methods by
embedding thermocouples into the battery. The temperature charac­
teristics and differences of internal and surface temperature of the cy­
lindrical lithium-ion battery under different heat dissipation conditions
are analyzed firstly. Then, the thermal network method is used to
establish the prediction model of the internal temperature under
different cooling modes, and the accuracy of the model is verified by the
independent experimental data. Distinguished from the existing works,
the lumped parameter model established in the present study can
accurately predict the battery internal temperature under different heat
dissipation boundary conditions. In addition, the model considers the
temperature difference between the positive and negative terminal of
the battery to obtain the maximum temperature inside the battery,
which is more convenient to control the safety risk caused by over­
heating. The remainder of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2
describes the battery internal temperature estimation model. Section 3
W. Zhang et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 212 (2022) 118562

Fig. 3. Diagram of battery sample and thermocouples layout (a), and battery performance before and after embedding thermocouples (b).

gives the battery internal temperature test procedure. Section 4 dis­

dΔTis ΔTis − ΔTss
cusses the results of the study, and section 5 performs the conclusion. Cc = Q− (5)
dt Ri
2. Battery internal temperature prediction model dΔTss ΔTis − ΔTss ΔTss
Cs = − (6)
dt Ri Roi
2.1. Thermal network model
Taking the heat source (Q) as input and the temperature difference
The thermal process in the battery can be mainly divided into two (ΔTis) between inside and outside of the battery as output, (7) can be
parts during the charging and discharging procedure. As shown in Fig. 1 obtained by Laplace transform.
(a), one is the heat conduction from the inside of the battery to the
(Cs Ri s + 1 + RRoii )
battery shell. The other part is the heat at the battery shell transfer to the ΔTis (s) = Q(s) (7)
Cs Cc Ri s2 + (Cs + Cc + RRoii Cc )s + R1oi
surrounding environment through the cooling medium. According to the
thermal process, the equivalent thermal network model of cylindrical Equation (7) is the thermal model of the battery, where the heat
battery is established based on the lumped parameter method [44]. As source (Q) during the charging and discharging process can be calcu­
depicted in Fig. 1(b), the resistance is equivalent to the thermal resis­ lated by (8) [45]. The first term is the irreversible heat generation due to
tance, the voltage is equivalent to the temperature, the constant current Joule heating. The second term is the heat generated by the electro­
source and capacitance are equivalent to the heat source and heat ca­ chemical reaction inside the battery.
pacity of the battery, respectively, in the equivalent thermal network.
Fig. 2 shows the procedure of predicting internal temperature. Q = (OCV(SOC) − Ucell )⋅I + I⋅T⋅
dOCV
(8)
Firstly, the surface temperature (Ts), open-circuit voltage (OCV), state of dT
charge (SOC), and terminal voltage (Ucell) of the battery are obtained The unknown parameters in (7) and (8), such as Cc, Cs, Ri, Roi, etc.,
through experiments and calculations, and the heat source (Q) is can be identified through discretization and the least square method.
calculated as the input of the prediction model. Then, the predicted While the battery open-circuit voltage (OCV), the terminal voltage
value of the internal temperature is obtained based on the thermal (Ucell), the entropy thermal coefficient (dOCV/dT), etc., can be obtained
network model. Finally, the accuracy was verified and improved based through experimental testing and calculation.
on the experimental data.
According to Fig. 1(b), the equivalent thermal network model inside 2.2. Parameter identification of the thermal model
the battery can be expressed by (1) based on the energy conservation
principle. After the discretization of (5) and (6), the difference equation of the
thermal model can be obtained as (9).
d(Tin − Tamb ) Tin − Ts
Cc = Q− (1)
dt Ri ΔTis (k + 2) = aΔTis (k + 1) + bΔTis (k) + cQ(k + 1) + dQ(k) (9)
Similarly, the equivalent thermal network model outside the battery In (9), a, b, c, and d can be represented by (10) to (13).
can be expressed by (2).
t t t
a = 2− − − (10)
d(Ts − Tamb ) Tin − Ts Ts − Tamb Ri Cc Roi Cs Ri Cs
Cs = − (2)
dt Ri Roi ( )( )
t t t t2
ΔTis and ΔTss are the temperature differences between internal and b= 1− + − 1 + 2 (11)
Ri C c Roi Cs Ri Cs Ri C c C s
external temperatures and ambient temperatures, represented by (3)
and (4), respectively. t
c= (12)
ΔTis = Tin − Tamb (3) Cc

t t t
ΔTss = Ts − Tamb (4) d= ( + − 1) (13)
Cc Roi Cs Ri Cs
Then, (1) and (2) can be simplified to.
where, t is the sampling period, φ(k) and θ are defined as (14) and
(15).

4
W. Zhang et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 212 (2022) 118562

Fig. 4. Experimental platform.

φ(k) = [ ΔTis (k + 1) ΔTis (k) Q(k + 1) Q(k) ] (14) battery thermal runaway caused by the drilling operation. Then, a small
electric drill is used to drill a hole through the center of the negative
θ = [a b c d] (15) electrode carefully in a dry room. Two T-type thermocouples are
inserted into the hole to measure the temperature of the positive and
Equations (16)-(18) are established by the recursive least square
negative terminals. The metal measuring points of the thermocouples
method [46] to identify the parameters a, b, c, and d.
are coated with insulating and thermally conductive silica gel to prevent
P(k)φ(k + 1) a short circuit between the thermocouples and the battery. Finally, the
H(k + 1) = (16)
[1 + φT (k + 1)P(k)φ(k + 1)] hole is sealed with high temperature-resistant glue to avoid electrolyte
leakage and shedding of thermocouples.
̂
θ(k + 1) = ̂
θ(k) + H(k + 1)[ΔTis (k + 1) − φT (k + 1)̂
θ(k)] (17) The batteries are placed in the thermostat for charging and dis­
charging treatment to verify the consistency of battery performance
P(k + 1) = P(k) − H(k + 1)φT (k + 1)P(k) (18) before and after the thermocouples are implanted. The battery is first
charged to 4.2 V at 0.3C rate, followed by 30 min for rest, and then
where, P(k) is the covariance matrix, and the initial value is a 4*4
discharged to 2.5 V at 1C or 1.5C rate. During this process, the battery
unit matrix, H(k) is the gain, ̂ θ(k + 1) is the current estimate of the voltage and current are measured and obtained. Where C-rate corre­
parameter matrix, and φ(k) is the regressors matrix at time k. Therefore, sponds to the ratio of charge/discharge current to the nominal capacity,
the temperature difference ΔTis in (7) can be obtained by calculating the thus 1C means that the battery should be fully charged or discharged for
heat source Q and (16)-(18) at each time step. When the deviation be­ one hour, the 0.3C and 1.5C mean that the charge or discharge current is
tween ΔTis and the actual temperature difference is less than 0.05 ◦ C, 0.3 times, and 1.5 times of 1C, respectively. Fig. 3(b) shows the capacity-
parameter identification can be completed. Then, the intermediate co­ voltage curves in the charging-discharging process before and after the
efficients a, b, c, and d can be obtained by the coefficient matrix θ, and thermocouples are embedded in the battery. It can be seen that these
the final results of Cc, Cs, Ri, and Roi can be calculated by the (10)-(13). two curves coincide, and the slight offset between them is caused by the
Finally, a complete battery internal temperature prediction model is rise of the battery internal resistance after the thermocouple is
formed. embedded. Besides, there is an inevitable capacity loss after the ther­
mocouple is inserted. It is about 2.2% in the charging process and about
3. Battery internal temperature test 1.8% and 2.1% in the 1C and 1.5C discharge processes. In general, slight
variations in capacity and internal resistance can be accepted for this
3.1. Battery samples study.

The experimental battery is commercial Panasonic NCR 18,650BD,

made of NCA ternary material with a nominal capacity of 3,000 mAh.
The cut-off voltage of charge and discharge is 4.2 V and 2.5 V, respec­
tively. To accurately measure the battery internal temperature, as shown
in Fig. 3(a), a tiny hole is drilled with a diameter of 1 mm in the center of
the negative electrode of the battery [32]. Before drilling, the battery is
discharged to the cut-off voltage of 2.5 V to release the battery energy,
and the insulation tape is applied to the positive electrode to avoid
3.2. Experimental platform and procedure
The battery internal temperature test platform is shown in Fig. 4.
Firstly, T-type thermocouples are embedded inside the battery and
pasted on the battery surface. The battery testing system (Chroma,
17020A) is used to charge and discharge the battery at different rates. A
data acquisition (Keysight, 34972A) collects the battery temperature
and transfers the data to the computer for storage and processing. A

5
W. Zhang et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 212 (2022) 118562

Table 1 thermostat (Shanghai Jinghong, GDHS-2010B) is used to control the

Detailed information of instruments applied in this work. experimental ambient temperature of the tests. The detailed specifica­
Instrument Manufacture Model Uncertainty tions and uncertainty of instruments applied in this work are shown in
Table 1. All equipment has been calibrated before the test. It can be seen
Battery testing system Chroma 17020A Voltage:±0.05%
Current:±0.05% that each instrument has a high accuracy to ensure the credibility of the
Thermostat Jinghong GDHS-2010B ±0.5% experimental results.
DC-power UNI-T UT1306S Voltage:±0.5% To obtain the battery internal temperature under different thermal
Current:±0.2% management strategies and verify the established temperature predic­
Data acquisition Agilent 34972A
tion model, the surface and internal temperatures are measured simul­
±1%
Thermocouple Omega T-type ±0.75%
Flowmeter Huyi UG-1132A ±1.5% taneously under the natural convection cooling, air cooling, and PCM
cooling based BTMS, respectively. The basic configurations of the three
BTMS are shown in Fig. 4. In the natural convection model, the battery is
cooled by the airflow caused by the temperature difference between the
battery and the surrounding environment instead of the active cooling.

Fig. 5. Battery internal and surface temperature under three cooling methods at 1C and 1.5C discharge.

6
W. Zhang et al.
Fig. 6. Temperature rise rate under three cooling methods at 1C and 1.5C discharge.
The air cooling experimental system includes a step-less speed regu­
lating fan, PVC pipe, power supply unit, flowmeter, etc. The step-less
speed regulating fan provides the forced cooling airflow to the bat­
tery. The flowmeter is located in the rear of the battery to monitor the
airflow rate, which is set at 60 Nm3/h during the test. The length of the
PVC pipe is 1000 mm, which is used to stabilize the cooling airflow and
minimize instability fluid flow through the battery. Under the PCM
cooling model, the battery is first placed in a container made of acrylic
7
Applied Thermal Engineering 212 (2022) 118562
plates with the dimensions of 26*24*70 mm. Then, graphene and
paraffin wax with a phase change transition temperature of 31 ◦ C are
combined to form a composite PCM with a mass ratio of 1:9. The com­
posite PCM is finally filled around the batteries. In addition, two heat
pipes are inserted into the PCM to transfer the heat stored by the PCM to
the surrounding environment and restore its latent heat. In this way, the
deterioration of cooling performance caused by latent heat depletion of
PCM can be avoided. The tests under natural convection cooling and
W. Zhang et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 212 (2022) 118562

Table 2
Maximum temperature and maximum temperature difference between inside
and outside of the battery under different cooling modes.
Cooling Discharge Maximum Maximum Maximum
mode rate internal internal temperature
temperature temperature difference (◦ C)
at the positive at the
Positive Negative
terminal (◦ C) negative
terminal (◦ C)

NCC 1C 45.1 42.9 1.9 1.7

1.5C 53.3 49.9 2.5 1.9
AC 1C 32.7 29.9 3.0 0.7
1.5C 38.8 35.1 4.0 1.0
PCMC 1C 37.4 34.5 2.1 0.5
1.5C 41.7 35.1 3.1 1.1

PCM cooling modes are carried out in the thermostat to reduce the in­
fluence of environmental temperature on the experimental results. At
the same time, the ambient temperature of the experiments under air Fig. 7. Parameter identification results.
cooling is adjusted by air conditioning. The ambient temperature of all
three modes is controlled at 25 ◦ C. Three tests are performed for each
changed due to the Li-ion intercalation and deintercalation on electrodes
cooling strategy to avoid random errors.
during the discharging process [47]. The NCC strategy has the highest
temperature rise rate among these three cooling modes, while the lowest
4. Results and discussions
rate is found under the AC mode. As depicted in Fig. 6, the variation
trend of temperature difference at the positive terminal is more similar
4.1. Battery internal and surface temperature under different cooling
to the internal and surface temperature change, as compared to the
modes
negative terminal.
Table 2 summarizes the maximum internal temperature at the pos­
Fig. 5 shows the battery internal and surface temperature variation
itive and negative terminals, and the corresponding maximum temper­
during 1C and 1.5C discharge under three thermal management modes.
ature difference between inside and outside of the battery at 1C and 1.5C
Natural convection cooling, air cooling, and PCM cooling are hereinafter
discharge rates under the three thermal management modes. A notice­
referred to as NCC, AC, and PCMC, respectively. Tp-in and Tn-in are
able internal and surface temperature difference at the positive terminal
positive and negative internal temperatures, respectively. Meanwhile,
is found. This difference is more pronounced under AC and PCMC modes
Tp-s and Tn-s are positive and negative surface temperatures, respec­
because of the enhanced heat dissipation on the external surface. It can
tively. Overall, the internal and surface temperature has a similar vari­
be noted that the internal temperature at the positive terminal is always
ation trend during the discharge process under the same cooling mode
higher than that in other parts in the present test, reflecting the actual
and discharge rate. Under the NCC and PCMC modes, the heat transfer
electrochemical reaction status inside the battery. From the perspective
process and boundary conditions are relatively stable. Thus, the corre­
of safety, the positive internal temperature can be used as a target
sponding temperature curves are smooth. In contrast, the battery tem­
parameter of BTMS for lithium-ion batteries with the maximum tem­
perature will fluctuate significantly during the discharging process due
perature occurring at the positive terminal and is also suitable as a
to the unstable airflow under the AC mode. Furthermore, different parts
warning parameter to monitor the thermal runaway. Thus, a prediction
of the battery have a certain temperature difference. As the inherent
model will be established to calculate the battery internal temperature
thermal resistance inside the battery, the temperature gradient in the
at the positive terminal in the present study. However, it should be noted
cell is inevitable. The internal temperature is higher than the surface
that the maximum temperature area of the battery varies with the
temperature, and the temperature of the positive terminal is higher than
structure and materials of the battery [48–50], which needs to be
the negative terminal is found in the tests. In terms of temperature dif­
determined according to experimental tests. In addition, significant
ference, the difference at the positive terminal is more evident than that
differences in the temperature variation trend and the maximum battery
at the negative terminal between inside and outside the battery, espe­
temperature are found under different thermal management modes,
cially in the late discharge process under the AC and the PCMC mode.
indicating that the internal temperature calculation model based on the
During 1C discharge, the maximum battery internal temperatures at the
natural convection environment is not applicable to other thermal
positive terminal under the NCC, AC, and PCMC modes are 45.1 ◦ C,
management modes. Establishing the corresponding calculation model
32.7 ◦ C, and 37.4 ◦ C, respectively. The corresponding maximum surface
for different thermal management modes is necessary.
temperature at the positive terminal is 43.2 ◦ C, 29.7 ◦ C, and 35.3 ◦ C,
respectively. When the discharge rate rises to 1.5C, the maximum bat­
tery internal temperature at the positive terminal increases to 53.3 ◦ C, 4.2. Battery internal temperature prediction under different cooling modes
38.8 ◦ C, and 41.7 ◦ C, and the corresponding surface external tempera­
ture is 50.8 ◦ C, 34.8 ◦ C, and 38.6 ◦ C, respectively. The parameters in the battery thermal network model are firstly
Except for the maximum temperature, the cooling mode has a identified according to the experimental temperature data under
considerable influence on the temperature change rate of the battery. As different cooling methods at 1.5C discharge rate. As shown in Fig. 7,
shown in Fig. 6, the battery temperature reveals a nonlinear rising these parameters are time-varying, which present dramatic changes at
during the discharge process and its rising rate changes at different
discharge rates. At the initial stage of discharge, the temperature in­ Table 3
creases rapidly and then enters a slow rising period. While the battery Parameter identification of the thermal model.
will heat up rapidly again at the later stage of discharge, especially for
Parameter Cc Cs Ri Ro1 Ro2 Ro3
NCC mode. Such a variation trend is related to the change of internal J/K J/K K/W K/W K/W K/W
resistance. It is dependent on SOC that the Li-ion concentration is
Value 87.70 4.15 2.51 8.47 6.98 7.56

8
W. Zhang et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 212 (2022) 118562

Fig. 8. Prediction results of battery internal temperature. (a)-(c) Comparison of calculation results under three cooling modes. (d) Comparison of calculation results
under 1C pulse discharge.

Fig. 9. The deviations of the model under three cooling modes.

the initial discharge, then gradually become stable. Because the
maximum temperature that the battery eventually reaches is of greater
concern, the stabilized value, as shown in Table 3, is selected as the
parameter of the model for the convenience of calculation. Ro1, Ro2, and
Ro3 represent the thermal resistance between the battery and the
external cooling medium under the NCC, AC, and PCMC modes. It can be
seen that the heat transfer conditions are quite different under the three
cooling methods. The thermal resistance under the NCC mode is the
largest, resulting in the high temperature rise rate and maximum battery
temperature. The minimum thermal resistance under the AC mode can
better control the battery operating temperature. Based on the thermal
model parameters, the temperature difference between the internal of
the battery and ambient is calculated by (7). And then, the battery in­
ternal temperature can be obtained according to the battery surface
temperature measured experimentally.
Fig. 8 shows the calculation results of the battery internal tempera­
ture prediction model. Independent experimental tests are carried out to
verify the reliability of the model, and the results are also depicted in the
figure. In addition, to verify the effectiveness of the model in dynamic
discharge conditions, the battery internal temperature calculation and
experiment of 1C pulse discharge are also conducted to simulate the
battery in start-stop scenarios. It can be seen from Fig. 8(a)-(d) that the

9
W. Zhang et al.
temperature curve obtained by the prediction model is close to the
temperature measured in the experiment, and the changing trend is
consistent. Under the low discharge rate, the battery temperature is not
significantly affected by the external heat transfer environment due to
the small internal heat generation. So the prediction model can obtain
higher calculation accuracy. As shown in Fig. 9, under 1C discharge, the
maximum deviation of the NCC, AC, and PCMC mode is 1.0 ◦ C, 0.9 ◦ C,
and 0.6 ◦ C, respectively, while the mean square deviation is 0.7 ◦ C,
0.5 ◦ C, and 0.3 ◦ C, respectively. When the discharge rate increases, the
calculation accuracy of the prediction model decreases. For instance,
under 1.5C discharge rate, the maximum calculation deviation of the
internal temperature under the NCC, AC, and PCMC mode increases to
1.3 ◦ C, 1.5 ◦ C, and 1 ◦ C, respectively, and the mean square deviation is
0.8 ◦ C, 0.8 ◦ C, and 0.6 ◦ C, respectively. Under the dynamic condition of
1C pulse discharge, the model also has high calculation accuracy under
different cooling modes. The maximum temperature deviation is 1.4 ◦ C,
and the maximum mean square deviation is 0.8 ◦ C. The variations be­
tween the model and experiment are mainly caused by the heat gener­
ation model and parameter identification. Because only the Joule heat
and electrochemical reaction heat sources are considered in the heat
generation model, ignoring other heat sources will affect the calculation
accuracy. Furthermore, the identification parameters in the prediction
model are only approximate estimates. The time-varying parameters are
treated as constant values, which will introduce certain errors. Although
the calculation accuracy of the model decreases at high discharge rates,
its absolute deviation can still be controlled within 1.5 ◦ C at a discharge
rate as high as 1.5C and 1C pulse discharge. These results indicate that
the model has sufficient accuracy and application value for electric ve­
hicles in daily driving conditions dominated by low discharge rates.
In addition, it can be seen from Fig. 9 that the calculation deviation
of the internal temperature prediction model under the AC mode is
higher than that of the other two cooling modes under 1.5C discharge
rate. It is because the airflow generated by the cooling fan fluctuates in
the tests, which changes the heat transfer conditions between the battery
and the external environment, ultimately leading to dynamic tempera­
ture fluctuations. This phenomenon could dramatically increase the
difficulty in predicting the battery internal temperature, so it is of great
significance to improve the accuracy of the prediction model by keeping
the heat transfer condition stable in practical application.
5. Conclusions
The present study experimentally obtains the battery internal and
surface temperature at different discharge rates under different thermal
management strategies. The characteristics of the maximum battery
temperature and temperature difference between inside and outside of
the battery are analyzed in detail. The cylindrical lithium-ion battery
internal temperature prediction model is established and verified by
independent experiments at different cooling modes based on the ther­
mal network method. The results show that: (1) The temperature at the
different parts of the battery has noticeable differences during the dis­
charging process. The internal temperature is higher than the surface
temperature, and the temperature at the positive terminal is higher than
that of the negative terminal. In addition, the temperature difference is
more evident at the positive terminal. Therefore, from the perspective of
battery safety, the temperature at the positive terminal inside the bat­
tery can be taken as a suitable target parameter and a thermal runaway
warning parameter in the BTMS. (2) There are significant differences in
the temperature variation trend and maximum temperature under
different thermal management modes. Therefore, it is necessary to
establish a corresponding internal prediction model for different cooling
strategies. (3) The battery internal temperature prediction model based
on the thermal network method shows a high calculation precision. The
absolute and mean square deviations can be controlled within 1.5 ◦ C and
0.8 ◦ C, respectively, under the discharge rate up to 1.5C and 1C pulse
discharge. It is indicated that the model established in the present study
10
Applied Thermal Engineering 212 (2022) 118562
has sufficient accuracy and practical value for electric vehicles with low
discharge rates in daily driving.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to appreciate the support from National
Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52106244), Natural
Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China (Grant No.
2022A1515011849), the State Key Laboratory of Automotive Safety and
Energy under Project No. KFY2223, Zhuhai Basic and Applied Basic
Research Foundation (Grant No. ZH22017003210053PWC) and
Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (Grant No.
21620334).
References
[1] M. Wada, Research and development of electric vehicles for clean transportation,
J. Environ. Sci. 21 (6) (2009) 745–749.
[2] P.H. Andersen, J.A. Mathews, M. Rask, Integrating private transport into
renewable energy policy: The strategy of creating intelligent recharging grids for
electric vehicles, Energy Policy 37 (2009) 2481–2486.
[3] D.P. Finegan, J. Zhu, X. Feng, M. Keyser, M. Ulmefors, W. Li, M.Z. Bazant, S.
J. Cooper, The Application of Data-Driven Methods and Physics-Based Learning for
Improving Battery Safety, Joule 5 (2) (2021) 316–329.
[4] D. Worwood, Q. Kellner, M. Wojtala, W.D. Widanage, R.M. Glen, D. Greenwood,
J. Marco, A new approach to the internal thermal management of cylindrical
battery cells for automotive applications, J. Power Sources 346 (2017) 151–166.
[5] A. Tourani, P. White, P. Ivey, Analysis of electric and thermal behaviour of lithium-
ion cells in realistic driving cycles, J. Power Sources 268 (2014) 301–314.
[6] M. Al-Zareer, I. Dincer, M.A. Rosen, A review of novel thermal management
systems for batteries, Int. J. Energy Res. 42 (10) (2018) 3182–3205.
[7] H.U. Escobar-Hernandez, R.M. Gustafson, M.I. Papadaki, S. Sachdeva, M.
S. Mannan, Thermal Runaway in Lithium-Ion Batteries: Incidents, Kinetics of the
Runaway and Assessment of Factors Affecting Its Initiation, J. Electrochem. Soc.
163 (13) (2016) A2691–A2701.
[8] Y. Gao, T. Rojas, K.e. Wang, S. Liu, D. Wang, T. Chen, H. Wang, A.T. Ngo, D. Wang,
Low-temperature and high-rate-charging lithium metal batteries enabled by an
electrochemically active monolayer-regulated interface, Nat. Energy 5 (7) (2020)
534–542.
[9] Z. Xiaoqing, W. Zhenpo, W. Hsin, W. Cong, Review of Thermal Runaway and Safety
Management for Lithium-ion Traction Batteries in Electric Vehicles, J. Mech. Eng.
56 (14) (2020) 91.
[10] Y. Fan, Y. Bao, C. Ling, Y. Chu, X. Tan, S. Yang, Experimental study on the thermal
management performance of air cooling for high energy density cylindrical
lithium-ion batteries, Appl. Therm. Eng. 155 (2019) 96–109.
[11] J Zhao, Z Rao, Y Huo, X Liu, Y Li, Thermal management of cylindrical power
battery module forextending the life of new energy electric vehicles, Appl. Therm.
Eng. 85 (2015) 33–43.
[12] Z. An, L.i. Jia, X. Li, Y. Ding, Experimental investigation on lithium-ion battery
thermal management based on flow boiling in mini-channel, Appl. Therm. Eng.
117 (2017) 534–543.
[13] Z Liu, H Wang, C Yang, J Zhao, Simulation study of lithium-ion battery thermal
management system based on a variable flow velocity method with liquid metal,
Appl. Therm. Eng. 179 (2020) 115578.
[14] H. Yang, H. Zhang, Y. Sui, C. Yang, Numerical analysis and experimental
visualization of phase change material melting process for thermal management of
cylindrical power battery, Applied thermal engineering: Design, processes,
equipment, economics 128 (2018) 489–499.
[15] P Cicconi, P Kumar, P Varshney, A support approach for the modular design of Li-
ion batteries: A test case with PCM, J. Energy Storage 31 (2020) 101684.
[16] W.Q. Li, Z.G. Qu, Y.L. He, Y.B. Tao, Experimental study of a passive thermal
management system for high-powered lithium ion batteries using porous metal
foam saturated with phase change materials, Experimental study of a passive
thermal management system for high-powered lithium ion batteries using porous
metal foam saturated with phase change materials.Journal of power sources 255
(2014) 9–15.
[17] H. Park, A design of air flow configuration for cooling lithium ion battery in hybrid
electric vehicles, J. Power Sources 239 (2013) 30–36.
[18] W. Wu, S. Wang, W. Wu, K. Chen, S. Hong, Y. Lai, A critical review of battery
thermal performance and liquid based battery thermal management, Energy
Convers. Manage. 182 (2019) 262–281.
W. Zhang et al.
[19] P. Dubey, G. Pulugundla, A.K. Srouji, Direct Comparison of Immersion and Cold-
Plate Based Cooling for Automotive Li-Ion Battery Modules, Energies 14 (5) (2021)
1259.
[20] W Wu, W Wu, S Wang, Thermal management optimization of a prismatic battery
with shape-stabilized phase change material, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 121 (2018)
967–977.
[21] W. Yang, F. Zhou, H. Zhou, Q. Wang, J. Kong, Thermal performance of cylindrical
lithium-ion battery thermal management system integrated with mini-channel
liquid cooling and air cooling, Appl. Therm. Eng. 175 (2020) 115331.
[22] K. Chen, M. Song, W. Wei, S. Wang, Structure optimization of parallel air-cooled
battery thermal management system with U-type flow for cooling efficiency
improvement, ENERGY -OXFORD- 145 (2018) 603–613.
[23] M S Patil, J H Seo, S Panchal, S Jee, M Lee, Investigation on thermal performance
of water-cooled Li-ion pouch cell and pack at high discharge rate with U-turn type
microchannel cold plate, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 155 (2020) 119728.
[24] Y Lv, G Liu, G Zhang, X Yang, A novel thermal management structure using
serpentine phase change material coupled with forced air convection for
cylindrical battery modules, J. Power Sources 468 (2020) 228398.
[25] J Weng, D Ouyang, X Yang, X Yang, M Chen, G Zhang, J Wang, Optimization of the
internal fin in a phase-change-material module for battery thermal management,
Appl. Therm. Eng. 167 (2020) 114698.
[26] W Zhang, Z Liang, X Yin, G Ling, Avoiding thermal runaway propagation of
lithium-ion battery modules by using hybrid phase change material and liquid
cooling, Appl. Therm. Eng. 184 (2021) 116380.
[27] S.J. Drake, M. Martin, D.A. Wetz, J.K. Ostanek, S.P. Miller, J.M. Heinzel, A. Jain,
Heat generation rate measurement in a Li-ion cell at large C-rates through
temperature and heat flux measurements, J. Power Sources 285 (2015) 266–273.
[28] H Wang, Y Wang, H Feng, W Shi, X Hu, H Li, S Chen, H Lin, C Jiang, Heat
generation measurement and thermal management with phase change material
based on heat flux for high specific energy power battery, Appl. Therm. Eng. 194
(2021) 117053.
[29] C. Forgez, D. Vinh Do, G. Friedrich, M. Morcrette, C. Delacourt, Thermal modeling
of a cylindrical LiFePO4/graphite lithium-ion battery, J. Power Sources 195 (9)
(2010) 2961–2968.
[30] J Wen, Y Yu, C Chen, A Review on Lithium-Ion Batteries Safety Issues: Existing
Problems and Possible Solutions, Materials Express 2 (2012) 197–212.
[31] P. Wang, X. Zhang, L.e. Yang, X. Zhang, M. Yang, H. Chen, D. Fang, Real-time
monitoring of internal temperature evolution of the lithium-ion coin cell battery
during the charge and discharge process, Extreme Mech. Lett. 9 (2016) 459–466.
[32] C Xu, X Feng, W Huang, Y Duan, Internal temperature detection of thermal
runaway in lithium-ion cells tested by extended-volume accelerating rate
calorimetry, J. Energy Storage 31 (2020) 101670.
[33] W. Zhang, G. Ling, L. Zhuang, Z. Liang, The effect of reducing the thermal contact
resistance on the performance of battery thermal management system, Int. J.
Energy Res. 45 (7) (2021) 9970–9982.
[34] D. Ren, X. Feng, L. Lu, M. Ouyang, S. Zheng, J. Li, X. He, An electrochemical-
thermal coupled overcharge-to-thermal-runaway model for lithium ion battery,
J. Power Sources 364 (2017) 328–340.
11
Applied Thermal Engineering 212 (2022) 118562
[35] S. Zhu, J. Han, H.-Y. An, T.-S. Pan, Y.-M. Wei, W.-L. Song, H.-S. Chen, D. Fang,
A novel embedded method for in-situ measuring internal multi-point temperatures
of lithium ion batteries, J. Power Sources 456 (2020) 227981.
[36] M. Nascimento, S. Novais, M.S. Ding, M.S. Ferreira, S. Koch, S. Passerini, J.L. Pinto,
Internal strain and temperature discrimination with optical fiber hybrid sensors in
Li-ion batteries, J. Power Sources 410-411 (2019) 1–9.
[37] R.R. Richardson, P.T. Ireland, D.A. Howey, et al., Battery internal temperature
estimation by combined impedance and surface temperature measurement,
J. Power Sources 265 (2014) 254–261.
[38] N.T. Tran, T. Farrell, M. Vilathgamuwa, S.S. Choi, Y. Li, A Computationally
Efficient Coupled Electrochemical-Thermal Model for Large Format Cylindrical
Lithium Ion Batteries, J. Electrochem. Soc. 166 (13) (2019) A3059–A3071.
[39] X. Lin, H.E. Perez, S. Mohan, J.B. Siegel, A.G. Stefanopoulou, Y.i. Ding, M.
P. Castanier, A lumped-parameter electro-thermal model for cylindrical batteries,
J. Power Sources 257 (2014) 1–11.
[40] X Yang, X Hu, Z Chen, Y Chen, Effect of ambient dissipation condition on thermal
behavior of a lithium-ion battery using a 3D multi-partition model, Appl. Therm.
Eng. 178 (2020) 115634.
[41] J. Zhu, Z. Sun, X. Wei, H. Dai, Battery Internal Temperature Estimation for LiFePO4
Battery Based on Impedance Phase Shift under Operating Conditions, Energies. 10
(1) (2017) 60.
[42] K. Gaouzi, H. El Fadil, A. Rachid, A. Lassioui, Z. El Idrissi, F. Giri, Sampled-Data
Observer for Estimating the State of Charge, State of Health, and Temperature of
Batteries, Electr. Power Compon. Syst. 48 (19-20) (2020) 2168–2180.
[43] D. Zhang, S. Dey, S.-X. Tang, R. Drummond, S.J. Moura, Battery internal
temperature estimation via a semilinear thermal PDE model, Automatica 133
(2021) 109849.
[44] H. Dai, L. Zhu, J. Zhu, X. Wei, Z. Sun, Adaptive Kalman filtering based internal
temperature estimation with an equivalent electrical network thermal model for
hard-cased batteries, J. Power Sources 293 (2015) 351–365.
[45] H Zhou, C Dai, Y Liu, X Fu, Y Du, Experimental investigation of battery thermal
management and safety with heat pipe and immersion phase change liquid,
J. Power Sources 473 (2020) 228545.
[46] M.L.C. Peixoto, E.G. Nepomuceno, S.A.M. Martins, M.J. Lacerda, Computation of
the largest positive Lyapunov exponent using rounding mode and recursive least
square algorithm, Chaos, Solitons Fractals 112 (2018) 36–43.
[47] W Wu, R Ma, J Liu, M Liu, Impact of low temperature and charge profile on the
aging of lithium-ion battery: Non-invasive and post-mortem analysis, Int. J. Heat
Mass Transf. 170 (2021) 121024.
[48] L. Sequino, B.M. Vaglieco, Infrared Diagnostics of a Li-Polymer Battery for the
Estimation of the Surface Temperature Distribution and the Heat Transfer
Parameters// SAE Powertrains, Fuels & Lubricants Meeting. (2020).
[49] Z. Li, J. Zhang, B. Wu, J. Huang, Z. Nie, Y. Sun, F. An, N. Wu, Examining temporal
and spatial variations of internal temperature in large-format laminated battery
with embedded thermocouples, J. Power Sources 241 (2013) 536–553.
[50] S.C. Chen, C.C. Wan, Y.Y. Wang, Thermal analysis of lithium-ion batteries,
J. Power Sources 140 (1) (1996) 111–124.