Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303

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Journal of Power Sources

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

Novel thermal management system using boiling cooling for high-

powered lithium-ion battery packs for hybrid electric vehicles
Maan Al-Zareer*, Ibrahim Dincer, Marc A. Rosen
Clean Energy Research Laboratory, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North,
Oshawa, Ontario, L1H 7K4, Canada

h i g h l i g h t s

Battery thermal management system based on a phase change material is proposed.

HEV fuel is used to cool the batteries and then used to generate electricity.

Thermal performance is evaluated for high-powered batteries.

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

Article history: A thermal management system is necessary to control the operating temperature of the lithium ion
Received 24 May 2017 batteries in battery packs for electrical and hybrid electrical vehicles. This paper proposes a new battery
Received in revised form thermal management system based on one type of phase change material for the battery packs in hybrid
4 July 2017
electrical vehicles and develops a three dimensional electrochemical thermal model. The temperature
Accepted 19 July 2017
Available online 1 August 2017
distributions of the batteries are investigated under various operating conditions for comparative eval-
uations. The proposed system boils liquid propane to remove the heat generated by the batteries, and the
propane vapor is used to cool the part of the battery that is not covered with liquid propane. The effect on
Keywords:
Lithium-ion battery
the thermal behavior of the battery pack of the height of the liquid propane inside the battery pack,
Electric vehicle relative to the height of the battery, is analyzed. The results show that the propane based thermal
Thermal management management system provides good cooling control of the temperature of the batteries under high and
Cooling continuous charge and discharge cycles at 7.5C.
Energy © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Phase change material

1. Introduction
Concerns over fossil fuel depletion and environmental damage
have fostered efforts to develop diverse energy sources as well as
electrical vehicles (EVs) and hybrid electrical vehicles (HEVs) [1].
EVs and HEVs have the advantage of higher energy utilization,
lower noise and less environmental impact relative to conventional
vehicles [2]. The energy source for such vehicles is not limited to
fossil fuel sources [2]. The electrical power that batteries provide is
an important factor in the development of EVs and the HEVs [3].
There are in general a wide range of batteries, including
rechargeable ones that can be used more than once and others that
are disposed of after a single use. Batteries also differ in the types of
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: maan.al-zareer@uoit.ca (M. Al-Zareer), ibrahim.dincer@uoit.ca
(I. Dincer), marc.rosen@uoit.ca (M.A. Rosen).
chemicals of which they are made. For example, lithium ion (Li-ion)
batteries, and metal hydride batteries are available for use in EVs
and HEVs [3]. Comparing battery types shows that Li-ion batteries
have a significant advantage in terms of higher energy densities,
low self-discharge rates, and longer lifetimes [3]. These advantages
make Li-ion batteries good options for EVs and HEVs [3].
Li-ion batteries are sensitive to temperature, which has an effect
on the life cycle of a Li-ion battery, as well as its efficiency, safety
and reliability [4]. During the charging and discharging of Li-ion
batteries, thermal energy is generated inside the battery as a
result of the electrochemical reactions occurring there and internal
resistances, causing the battery temperature to increase. If internal
heat generation is not removed from the battery, its temperature
can reach relatively high levels resulting in electrolyte fires and
battery explosions [5]. The best operating temperature range for Li-
ion batteries is between 25  C and 40  C, and the temperature
distribution throughout the battery and from one module to

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpowsour.2017.07.067
0378-7753/© 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
292 M. Al-Zareer et al. / Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303
another in the pack should be less than 5  C [6]. Consequently, an
efficiency thermal management system for Li-ion batteries is
required.
Currently the main battery thermal management systems can
be classified into three main types: liquid cooling, air cooling and
phase change material (PCM) cooling. Air cooling and the liquid
cooling systems can be further classified into two types: passive
and active. PCM cooling system are usually passive systems [7].
Because of the simplicity of the air cooling structure for EVs and
HEVs, as well as the low cost and easy maintenance compared to
other cooling systems, air cooling is one of the most widely used
battery thermal management systems in EVs and HEVs [3]. The
Toyota Prius, the Honda Insight and the Nissan Leaf have used air
cooling based thermal management systems [8].
Zolot et al. [9] analyzed the performance of a forced air cooling
system for the thermal management of Ni-MH batteries. That
cooling system was able to effectively reduce the maximum tem-
perature of the batteries and produce a uniform temperature dis-
tribution throughout the battery. Fan et al. [10] studied the effect of
the gap space between the batteries and the air flow rate on the
temperature of the Li-ion battery module. The results showed that
as the gap between the batteries decreases and the flow rate of air
from the fan increases the maximum temperature of the batteries
in the module decreases. However, a temperature gradient was
found to be unavoidable in the air flow direction throughout the
module.
An air cooling thermal management system for battery packs is
sufficient in many cases. However, during severe charging and
discharging conditions, an air cooling system cannot meet the
cooling requirements. A liquid has a higher thermal conductivity
than air, which results in better cooling performance and which is
better suited for large scale battery pack cooling applications.
Chen et al. [11] studied various thermal management cooling
systems for Li-ion batteries and showed that the lowest maximum
temperature of the batteries was achieved with an indirect liquid
cooling system. They concluded that indirect liquid cooling is more
practical than the direct liquid cooling. Huo and Rao [12] proposed
a cooling system with alumina (Al2O3) nanoparticles in a heat
transfer fluid (liquid water) for a five battery system, and showed
that the cooling performance of the liquid cooling system was
enhanced by the addition of the nanoparticles and lowered the
average temperature by 7% with a 0.04 vol fraction of nanoparticles
compared to the water cooling system. Rao et al. [13] proposed and
analyzed a battery thermal management system that uses a specific
type of oscillating heat pipe, and showed that the start-up tem-
perature of the heat pipe was based on the selected battery
maximum temperature difference. Liquid cooling can be utilized
more effectively based on the mini channel cold plate battery
cooling design of Panchal et al. [14]. The mini channel exhibited a
maximum temperature decrease as the mass flow rate of the liquid
increased and as the number of the channels increased. Others have
considered mini channel designs also, such as those proposed by
Panchal et al. [15] in which cooling channels with water are used to
cool a prismatic battery. Jin et al. [16] proposed a liquid cooling
system made of an oblique mini channel plate, and demonstrated
that proposed design achieves higher heat transfer rates than
previously proposed mini channel designs.
The use of phase change materials in battery thermal manage-
ment systems is a recent development in battery cooling systems,
and involves using the latent heat of the phase change to absorb the
thermal energy generated by the batteries in the module. Al-Hallaj
and Selman [17] were the first to propose a PCM based battery
cooling system. The effects of using a PCM based battery thermal
management system for a square Li-ion battery were investigated
by Javani et al. [18], who found that the PCM provided a uniform
temperature throughout the battery submodule, and it also helped
keep the battery in the safe operating temperature range. Rao et al.
[19] used a PCM to cool a rapidly degrading Li-ion battery, such as
LiFePO4 battery. They found that as the PCM melting temperature
decreases and the thermal conductivity increases, the lower is the
battery maximum temperature. However, PCM thermal manage-
ment systems are still not widely used due to their limited overall
heat transfer coefficients [20].
In this paper, a PCM cooling system based on pressurized pro-
pane, changing phase from liquid to vapor, is introduced to manage
the temperature of a battery pack of Li-ion batteries for hybrid
electrical vehicle applications. The advantages of the proposed
system are constant temperature phase change of the PCM system,
the liquid cooling system having a high heat transfer coefficient and
the air cooling system not needing an additional heat exchanger to
reject heat to a heat sink. A numerical thermoelectrochemical
model is established to investigate the cooling system performance.
The effect of the level of the liquid in the battery pack and the effect
of the saturation pressure of the liquid propane on the temperature
distribution throughout the cylindrical battery is investigated. The
aim of this study is to provide a novel thermal management system
for battery packs used in hybrid electrical vehicles that is
competitive with air, liquid and PCM cooling and more environ-
ment friendly in terms of hybrid electrical vehicles.
2. Analysis and modeling
The main components of the HEVs are the fuel tank, battery
pack, battery thermal management system, combustion engine
with an electric generator, electric motor, and AC to DC converter.
Fig. 1 shows a schematic diagram of the HEVs in which the pro-
posed battery thermal management system is to be used. The liquid
propane which is the fossil fuel part of the HEV is used first for
cooling then for combustion to produce electrical power that either
charges the batteries or drives the vehicle. The propane tank helps
to maintain the specified propane height in the battery pack to
ensure the continuous availability of the cooling effect. The evap-
orated propane, which becomes slightly superheated, passes to a
collection tank-pressure regulator as shown in Fig. 1. When the
propane reaches a specified pressure that is compatible with the
vapor propane injector in the combustion engine, it flows to the
engine, which produces electrical energy with the help of the
electric generator. The produced electrical energy from the propane
vapor combustion engine is used either to drive the vehicle through
the electrical motor or to charge the batteries. Note that the pro-
pane is injected to the combustion chamber in the form of slightly
superheated vapor, which provides an advantage over the conver-
sion of fossil fuels to electrical energy by increasing the overall
efficiency of the combustion process based on the Rowley invention
[21]. Rowley proposed and analyzed experimentally injecting fuel
in the vapor phase to fuel injection engines. He determined that
feeding the engine gasoline vapor or propane vapor can increase
the engine efficiency from 12.8 to 18.3 km per litter of fuel (30e43
miles per gallon of fuel) [21].
In HEVs the batteries are grouped in battery packs. Fig. 2(a)
shows the schematic diagram of the propane based thermal
management system proposed in this paper. The cylindrical bat-
teries are arranged in an array format where part of the cylindrical
batteries are submerged in the liquid propane. The thermal energy
generated by the cells is transferred to the propane, which cools
the batteries in the pack. The thermal energy generated by the
cells is removed by the surrounding propane in two heat transfer
modes. The first mode involves boiling the liquid propane, where
the level of the propane in the battery pack is maintained by the
propane tank in the HEV. The propane in the vapor phase, which
 M. Al-Zareer et al. / Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303
Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the hybrid electric vehicle on which the proposed battery thermal management system is employed.
results from boiling of the liquid propane produces an upward
flow due to the buoyancy force and the pressure difference made
by the propane injectors, which inject the vapor propane into the
combustion chambers of the electrical generator in the HEV.
Before the propane injectors there is a regulator tank that stores
the propane vapor before sending it to the injectors. The upward
flow of the vapor propane in the battery pack cools the reaming
part of the batteries that are not submerged in the liquid propane.
There are a total of nine batteries in the battery pack considered in
this paper.
Fig. 2(b) gives the dimensions of the battery pack and the Li-ion
batteries, where the batteries are separated by a distance equal to
the battery radius and the surrounding walls of the battery pack are
one radius away from the surface of the outer batteries in the pack.
The cylindrical 18650 lithium ion battery shown in Fig. 2(b) consists
of a cylindrical rod in the center of the battery around which the
sheets of electrodes and the electrolytes are wrapped to form the
battery active material. The active battery material is covered by a
steel canister of 0.25 mm thickness, and the connecter to the pos-
itive terminal of battery is 3 mm high and 3 mm in radius. The
structure of the active material layers is presented in Fig. 3(a) and
information on the chemistry and dimensions of the electrodes is
provided in Table 2.
Only half of a single battery with its surrounding is considered
due to the selection of symmetric boundary conditions as shown in
Fig. 2(b) and Fig. 3. The flow derives from boiling the liquid propane
and the propane vapor rises due to two forces: buoyancy and the
pressure difference. Due to the vertical motion of the propane va-
por, all the batteries in the pack are expected to have the same
temperature distribution. Liquid and vapor propane thermophys-
ical properties are a function of temperature and they are available
in COMSOL library. Further descriptions of Fig. 3, including the
selection of the boundary conditions and the working principle, are
presented next in the next section, which describes the numerical
model.
2.1. Numerical solution
The proposed battery thermal management system is meshed
and simulated numerically in COMSOL Multiphysics. The thermo-
electrochemical modeling of the battery is carried out with two
integrated models. The first model is a one dimensional
293
electrochemical model for the electrochemical reactions that occur
inside the battery, which in turn results in thermal energy and
electrical power generation. The second part of the model is a three
dimensional heat and mass flow model. The fluid flow is modeled
as laminar since the Reynolds number is very low compared to the
critical Reynolds number. The one dimensional electrochemical
model for the Li-ion battery is based on the cylindrical 18650
lithium ion battery, for which the dimensions of each cell are
presented in Table 1.
As shown in Table 1, the thickness of each cell in the battery is on
the of micrometers in the normal direction to the cell's layer.
However, each layer of those making up each cell in the battery
spans up to several centimeters in the layer direction, where the
layers are wound into a multilayer structure. For a battery pack the
dimensions of these layers can span from tens of centimeters and
up to meters, which is the case for HEVs. Simulating these layers in
a three dimensional model is demanding computationally. How-
ever, since the heat conductivity of the battery is high compared to
the thermal energy it generates and since the objective of the
thermal management system is to decrease the heat distribution in
the battery, little information is lost by considering a lumped model
for the battery, where the lumped system uses the average tem-
perature of the battery to determine the behavior of the electro-
chemical model. The one dimensional model of the electrochemical
reactions that occur in the battery cell is based on the transient
average temperature of the three dimensional heat and mass
transfer model. The dimensions, material properties, kinetics of the
electrochemical reactions and parameters of the Li-ion battery
considered in this paper are adapted from Doyle et al. [22]. The
boundary conditions used to define the one dimensional model are
shown in Fig. 3 (a).
The inlet mass flow for the propane vapor is selected based on
the surface of the liquid propane, where the value of the mass flow
rate depends on the amount of propane evaporated during boiling
and the outlet conditions are those at the upper outlet boundary
condition, as shown in Fig. 3. The submerged portion of the battery
surface is modeled with a convection boundary condition and a
heat transfer coefficient defined by a nucleate boiling correlation.
The correlation used here is generated in Engineering Equation
Solver (EES) for a surface temperature 5  C above the boiling
temperature of the liquid propane with free natural convection at
lower surface temperatures. The remaining part of the battery
294 M. Al-Zareer et al. / Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303

Fig. 2. Schematic diagram of the battery thermal management system: (a) battery pack with cooling system and (b) their dimensions.

surface is considered to be subject to convective heat transfer. The 2.2. Governing equations
pressure of the liquid propane is 8.5 bar, which corresponds to a
saturation temperature of 293.75 K. This pressure was selected at The energy balance equation for a battery can be used to
slightly below the tank pressure (9 bar) to give a saturation tem- determine the temperature variation in it during charging and
perature slightly below the optimum operating temperature for the discharging. The energy rate balance for a single battery can be
battery (25  C) [6]. An independent analysis of the sensitivity of the written as follows [23]:
maximum temperature of the batteries to the mesh (number of
v

elements) was carried and the results are presented in Table 3,
where the number of mesh elements selected is seen to be 151,793. rb cp;b Tb ¼ V,ðkb VTb Þ þ Q_ gen (1)
vt
The battery was charged for 300 s and then discharged for 300 s,
with charging and discharging currents of 7.5C and starting with a where rb is the density of the battery, cp;b is the specific heat ca-
state of charge of 10%. pacity of the battery, Tb is the temperature of the battery, kb is the
 M. Al-Zareer et al. / Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303 295

Fig. 3. Dimensions and boundary conditions of the simulated battery and cooling domains. (a) one dimensional model of the electrochemical reactions in a battery cell and (b) three
dimensional heat and mass transfer model.

Table 1
Property values of lithium ion battery model used in the simulation.

Property Negative current collector Negative porous electrode Separator Positive porous electrode Positive current collector

Value Al, 7 mm LixC6 MCMB, 55 mm 30 mm LiyMn2O4, 55 mm Cu, 10 mm

Table 2
18650 cylindrical battery electrode chemistry and specifications (data from Ref. [22]).

Specification Unit Negative electrode Positive electrode

Chemical formula of electrode material LixC6 LiyMn2O4

Lithium diffusion coefficient in electrode solid particle cm2 =s 3:9  1010 10  109
Exchange current density of insertion process mA=cm2 0.11 0.08
Conductivity of porous electrode S=cm 1.0 0.038
(S cm-1)
Mass density of electrode material g=cm3 1.90 4.14
Maximum concentration of salt in intercalation material mol=dm3 26.39 22.86
Particle radius mm 2.5 1.7
Initial state of charge 2205 20925
Fraction of material in solid phase (volume basis) 0.384 0.43
Fraction of the electrode in the electrolyte phase (volume basis) 0.444 0.4
Reaction rate coefficient m\s 2  1011 5  1010

thermal conductivity of the battery and Q_ gen is the thermal energy
rate generated by the battery. Since the active part of the battery is
made of a number of battery cell sheets, which are wounded to
form a cylinder, the thermal conductivity of the active part of the
battery is anisotropic. The battery has a lower thermal conductivity
in the radial direction of the cylindrical battery than the along its
axis (i.e., the direction along the length of the battery). The thermal
conductivity of the battery in the radial direction can be expressed
as follows:
296 M. Al-Zareer et al. / Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303

Table 3
Mesh independence study.

Number of mesh elements Maximum temperature of battery at end of charging (at 300 s) ( C) Percent change in maximum temperature (%)

151,793 37.4 0.594

78,590 37.2 1.33
16,561 36.7 1.35
8432 36.2 Starting mesh

P where rp , cp;p , Tp and kp are the thermophysical properties of

Li propane.
kb;r ¼ P (2)
ðLi =ki Þ The governing equations of the one dimensional model of the
electrochemical reactions that take place in the battery are based
where ki is the thermal conductivity of each layer of the cell with on Doyle et al. [22]. The battery cell is shown in Fig. 3 (a) to be
thickness Li . The thermal conductivity for the active part of the divided into three regions: a separator and two composite elec-
battery along the length of the cylinder direction can be written as trodes. The equations that describe the solution part of the elec-
follows: trode are as follows:
P
ðLi  ki Þ

kb;z ¼ P (3) vc i2 ,Vt0þ
Li ε ¼ V,ðDVcÞ  þ ajn 1 þ t0þ (11)
vt F
The density and the specific heat capacity of the active part of
the battery material are calculated as follows: where ε is the volume fraction, t is time, c is the salt concentration,
D is the salt diffusion coefficient, a is the specific interfacial area, the
P
ðLi  ri Þ subscript þ refers to the positive electrode, and i2 is the superficial
rb ¼ P (4) current density in the solution phase, expressible as follows:
Li
 
P  2kRT vlnf ±

Li  cp;i i2 ¼ kVf2 þ 1þ 1  t0þ Vlnc (12)
cp;b ¼ P (5) F vlnc
Li
Here, f is the conductive filler and ajn can be written as follows:
The thermal energy rate generated by the battery in Eq. (1) is a
main factor affecting the temperature of the battery. The thermal
1
energy generated by the battery has two main parts: joule thermal ajn ¼ V,i2 (13)
F
energy and thermal energy from the electrochemical reaction [24].
The thermal energy rate released by the electrochemical reaction The solid phase of the composite electrode behavior is described
can be written as follows: as follows:

I i1 ¼ sVf1 (14)
Q_ ec ¼ TDS (6)
nF
" #
where DS is the entropy change of the battery reaction, F is Faraday vcs v2 cs 2 vcs
¼ Ds þ (15)
constant, n is the number of electrons transferred during one of the vt vr2 r vr
half electrochemical reactions and I is the current traveling through
the battery. where s is the solid matrix electronic conductivity, cs is the con-
When current travels through the battery, its internal resistance centration of lithium ions in the solid, and Ds is the lithium
is the main cause of joule heating. The joule heat release rate, which diffusion coefficient in the solid electrode. The two phases of the
is calculated as follows: composite electrode are related by the following boundary con-
dition that is defined at the radius of the electrode:
Q_ J ¼ IðE  VÞ (7)
vc
where V is the operating voltage of the battery and E is the open Ds ¼ jn (16)
vr
circuit voltage, both of which are functions of the temperature T
and the state of charge of the battery. where jn can be found by using the Butler-Volmer kinetics
The conservation equations of mass, momentum and energy for expression as follows:
the propane can be written as    
F
vrp jn ¼ kðcÞ0:5 ðci  cs Þ0:5 ðcs Þ0:5 exp ðh  UÞ  exp
! 2RT
þ V,ðrP y Þ ¼ 0 (8) 
vt F
 ðh  UÞ (17)
2RT
v
!
r y þ V,ðrP !
y!y Þ ¼ VP þ rg (9)
vt p Here, the electrode potential and the parameter k respectively
are calculated as follows:
v

  
rp cp;p Tp þ V, rp cp;p !
y p ¼ V, kp VTp (10) h ¼ f1  f2 (18)
vt
 M. Al-Zareer et al. / Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303
.
 250 s of the 300 s of high discharge rate the temperature was below
k ¼ io FðcÞ0:5 ðct  cs Þ0:5 ðcs Þ0:5 (19)
where f is the electrical potential, the subscripts 1 and 2 refer to the
solid phase and the solution phase of the electrode respectively, ct
is the maximum salt concentration, U is the open circuit voltage, io
is the exchange current density for the insertion process, and V is
the cell voltage.
3. Results and discussion
The objective of this study is to propose a thermal management
system for the battery packs of HEVs that use propane as a source of
some of the energy required by the vehicle, and to investigate the
effect of the cooling system on the thermal performance of the Li-
ion battery pack. Five heights of the liquid propane in the battery
pack are investigated to define the minimum height of liquid pro-
pane that provides a low temperature throughout the battery for a
high discharge current, and to simulate the high power demand of
the HEVs. The effect of the cooling system on the thermal perfor-
mance of the battery pack is assessed through the maximum
temperature and the temperature difference throughout the bat-
tery, which represents the temperature distribution for the battery.
3.1. Effect of liquid propane height on maximum temperature in the
battery
The height of the liquid propane surrounding the batteries was
varied from 5% to 30% of the height of the battery. The pressure of
the propane was maintained at 8.5 bar for all of the propane heights
considered. Fig. 4 shows the maximum temperature in the battery,
the difference between the maximum and minimum temperatures
in the battery, the volumetric heat generation and the electrical
potential of the battery for a 300 s charging rate at 7.5C, followed by
a 300 s discharge rate of 7.5C, all for several heights of liquid
propane.
Fig. 4 (a) shows that the maximum temperature in the battery
continues to increase during the charging phase, with the period
for which the battery experience the highest increase rate of
maximum temperature occurring at around 200 s for the various
liquid propane height in the battery pack. The increase rate of the
maximum temperature decreases after two thirds of the charging
period, since the heat generation rate decreases as shown in Fig. 4
(c) and the cooling by the liquid propane is still active. The
maximum temperature for the five cases of liquid propane height in
the pack during charging phase is 37.4  C, occurring for the case
when 5% of the battery height is covered by liquid propane, which
is acceptable considering the high charging rate of the battery. The
maximum temperature is below 32.0  C for half of the high
charging rate period (150 s out of the 300 s).
Fig. 4 (a) shows the thermal behavior of the battery after 300 s at
a high charging rate of 7.5C followed by 300 s at a high discharge
rate of 7.5C. The maximum temperature in the battery during the
discharging phase starts decreasing and continues to decrease until
around half of the discharging period (different point in time for
different heights of liquid propane). The reason why the maximum
temperature is decreasing is the sudden drop in the heat generation
rates as shown in Fig. 4 (c) when the operation mode shifts from
charging to discharging. However, in the last 50 s of the discharging
period the maximum temperature in the battery starts increasing
nonlinearly to reach a maximum temperature after the 600 s of
charging and discharging. The maximum temperature for the five
cases of liquid propane height is 38.9  C for the case with 5% of the
battery height covered with the liquid propane pool. However, for
297
37.5  C. For the last 50 s, the thermal behavior of the battery can be
explained by the heat generation curve shown in Fig. 4 (c). Fig. 4 (a)
shows the effect increasing the height of the liquid propane in the
battery pack. As the height of the propane increase in the battery
pack the maximum temperature in the battery decreases. Fig. 4 (a)
shows that when the height of the battery that is submerged in the
liquid propane increases from 5% to 30% the maximum tempera-
ture drops by 5.6  C (from 38.9  C to 33.3  C). Higher heat transfer
occurs at the submerged surface in the form of boiling heat transfer,
and as more of the battery surface is covered by the liquid propane
more area is available on which boiling heat transfer is occurring.
Another effect of increasing the liquid propane covered area on the
maximum temperature in the battery is that it causes the rate at
which the maximum temperature increases to decline, as shown in
Fig. 4 (a).
3.2. Effect of liquid propane height on the temperature distribution
in the battery
The temperature distribution through each single battery and
between the batteries in the pack affects significantly the perfor-
mance of the batteries in the pack, and also is an indicator of the
performance of the cooling system. The temperature difference
between the batteries in the pack is expected to be very close to
zero, since the cooling system provides cooling for each battery
independently due to all batteries being submerged in the liquid
propane, which is at a constant boiling temperature. The propane
vapor released from the evaporation of the liquid propane flows
along the length of the battery. However, regarding the tempera-
ture distribution in a single battery in the pack, the maximum
temperature difference across the battery is shown in Fig. 4 (b). The
behavior of this temperature difference is similar to the maximum
temperature in the battery shown in Fig. 4 (a). The maximum
temperature difference during the charging and discharging pe-
riods for the five cases of liquid propane height is 18.0  C for the
case when 5% of the length of the battery is covered with liquid
propane. But the temperature difference is lower than 16.6  C for
the first 550 s of the 600 s cycle.
Fig. 4 (b) shows that the temperature difference across the
battery decreases as the percentage of the length of the battery
covered by the liquid propane increases. When the liquid propane
height covered in the pack rises from 5% to 30% of the battery
height, the maximum temperature difference decreases from
18.0  C to 12.5  C. This is because more of the battery surface area is
covered by the liquid propane, subjecting a greater area to the high
heat transfer coefficient of the boiling process. This causes more
propane vapor to be generated, providing more cooling effect to the
uncovered parts of the battery. This means that the large gap in the
cooling effect between boiling and convection on the uncovered
part decreases, which also helps in reducing the maximum tem-
perature difference across the battery. Fig. 5 shows the temperature
contours of the middle section of the battery in the center of the
pack for the five cases of liquid propane height, at the end of the
cycle (at 600 s). It is clear that, as more of the battery is covered
with propane, the lower are the maximum temperature in the
battery and the temperature difference across the battery. More
surface area of the battery is exposed to the high heat transfer
coefficient of boiling, which removes more of the generated ther-
mal energy from the battery, leading to a lower maximum battery
temperature and more uniformity in the temperature across the
battery body.
Fig. 6 shows the development of the temperature distribution
during the high rate charging and discharging for the case when the
liquid propane covers 30% of the battery height. It is observed that,
298 M. Al-Zareer et al. / Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303

Fig. 4. Distributions of (a) maximum temperature, (b) maximum temperature difference, (c) volumetric heat generation and (d) electric potential of the lithium ion battery for
various heights of the battery submerged in the liquid propane.

after 100 s from the start of the charging process (7.5C), a clear
temperature distribution starts appearing and, by the end of the
charging process, the temperature distribution is similar to that at
the end of the discharging phase. The battery maintains the shape
of the temperature distribution after charging ends and, even when
the temperature starts to decrease at the beginning of discharging,
the shape of the temperature distribution is almost the same.
3.3. Effect of liquid propane saturation pressure on the maximum
temperature
The pressure of the liquid propane surrounding the batteries in
the pack determines the saturation temperature at which the
propane boils to provide the cooling effect. Two saturation pres-
sures are considered: 8.5 bar which corresponds to a saturation
temperature of 293.75 K and 10 bar which corresponds to a satu-
ration temperature of 300.1 K. The two pressure cases are applied to
the five heights of propane considered in this paper. Fig. 7 shows
the effect of the liquid propane saturation pressure on the
maximum temperature and the temperature difference across the
battery. A consistent result for all the five heights of liquid propane
is observed when the pressure of the liquid propane increases,
which is that the maximum temperature of the battery during the
charging and discharging high rate cycle is always higher for the
higher pressure. However, the higher pressure maintains a lower
temperature difference through the battery in all cases of liquid
propane height. The high pressure considered exhibits a tempera-
ture difference of less than 2  C in the first 80 s as shown in Fig. 7,
which is the trend for nearly all cases of propane height. Fig. 7
shows that, as more of the battery is covered by the liquid pro-
pane, less of a drop in the temperature difference is observed due to
the increase in the pressure. Fig. 7 shows that reducing the pressure
for the higher liquid propane height has a larger effect on the
maximum temperature than for the lower liquid propane height in
the pack. At a higher elevation of the propane in the pack, the effect
of the vapor propane in the convective cooling of the uncovered
part of the battery is much higher than its effect at low a liquid
propane height. This means that the lower temperature vapor
propane reduces the temperature more effectively than the higher
temperature propane, which is the case when the pressure of the
liquid propane increases. This observation justifies further the
difference between the maximum temperature of the battery
 M. Al-Zareer et al. / Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303 299

Fig. 5. Temperature contours of the middle section of the battery in the center of the pack for the five cases of liquid propane height at the end of the cycle (at 600 s).

achieved by the low and high pressure propane, shown in Fig. 7.
The highest change in the temperature difference due to the
increase in the pressure is when 5% of the battery is covered with
liquid propane; then the temperature difference across the battery
decreases by 1.64  C and exhibit the lowest increase in the
maximum temperature (4.46  C).
3.4. Effect of the environment temperature on the performance
Although the analysis of the performance of the proposed sys-
tem considers an ambient temperature of 25  C and an insulated
battery pack, the system is able to perform well in cold and hot
weather. In hot weather more propane evaporates due to the
leakage of thermal energy to the battery pack. The increase in the
amount of evaporated propane due to heat infiltration from
outside, is expected to be much smaller than the propane evapo-
rated due to the thermal energy generated by the batteries in the
pack. Even if the amounts of heat entering the pack from the
environment are comparable to the energy generated by the bat-
tery, the extra vapor propane is sent to power production and the
worst possible scenario is to increase the size of the vapor propane
collector-pressure regulator. In cold weather the liquid propane
remains in the liquid phase, since the freezing point incurs negli-
gible changes with pressure and the freezing point for liquid pro-
pane is 187.7  C. Since the boiling of the propane is driven more by
the higher temperature of the battery surface than the saturation
temperature of the liquid propane covering part of the battery, no
excessive cooling will occur for the batteries in the pack. In addi-
tion, the liquid propane acts as an insulator, protecting the batteries
from the cold environment, and it also increases the mass and the
300 M. Al-Zareer et al. / Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303

Fig. 6. Temperature distribution variation with time during the charging and discharging phases, for 30% of the battery length covered with liquid propane.

specific heat of the battery pack. In other words, the thermal energy
that needs to be removed from the pack to reduce the temperature
of the pack is higher due to the presence of the propane pool.
4. Performance comparison of proposed thermal
management system with systems from similar studies
In this section, the performance of the proposed system is
compared against other studies for thermal management of 18650
Li-ion battery packs, and the comparison is presented in Fig. 8. The
performance of the proposed propane based battery thermal
management system is compared with studies that considered air
cooling and PCM [25,26], at a high discharging rate of 6.667C. Li
et al. [25] proposed a sandwich structure cooling system that uses a
copper metal foam structure integrated with a PCM (copper foam-
paraffin composite), and investigated its performance
experimentally at a high power discharge rate of 6.667C, which
corresponds to 10 A. Li et al. [25] reported the results of the battery
pack in terms of the average maximum temperature of the batteries
in the pack. Li et al. [25] used battery model 18650, which is similar
to the battery type considered in this study. Sabbah et al. [26]
proposed expanded graphite that is saturated with paraffin,
where the structure is designed to reduce the surface temperature
of the battery. A similar discharge rate of 6.667C was also consid-
ered by Sabbah et al.. Sabbah et al. assessed two air based cooling
system as comparison cases to assess the performance of the pro-
posed cooling system.
It is pointed out that the use of the HEV fuel, propane, in this
study as a PCM to passively manage the thermal performance of the
Li-ion batteries in the pack has not yet been proposed. In previous
studies, researchers focused on using solid metallic meshes with
foam PCMs, such as copper-foam, aluminum-foam, nickel foam-
Fig. 7. Effect of pressure of the saturated liquid propane partially covering the lithium ion batteries in the pack on the maximum temperature and the temperature difference in the
battery.
302 M. Al-Zareer et al. / Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303

maintains the maximum temperature of the battery below 39  C

for the charging and discharging cycles at a high rate of 7.5C for
600 s. The more propane covers the battery length, the lower is
maximum temperature achieved. Covering 30% of the battery
length by saturated liquid propane keeps the temperature
below 34  C.

The temperature difference across a single battery in the pack
can be maintained at less than 18  C by covering only 5% of the
battery length with saturated liquid propane. Increasing the
percentage of battery length covered by propane reduces the
temperature difference across the battery.

Increasing the pressure of the saturated liquid propane from
8.5 bar to 10 bar, reduces the temperature difference across the
battery. However, this also increases the maximum temperature
in the battery. Increasing the pressure of the saturated liquid
propane has a greater effect on the maximum temperature and
the temperature difference in the battery for low liquid propane
heights in the pack.

One of the disadvantages of the proposed system is that it is

specific to hybrid electric vehicles that run on propane (the fossil
fuel part of the vehicle). Further studies are suggested to modify the
proposed system for use on other kinds of electric vehicles. Further
analyses are merited on the corrosive effect of the direct contact
between the batteries and the propane.
Fig. 8. Performance compared of the proposed system against proposed systems from
other studies for the thermal management of 18650 Li-ion battery packs at a discharge Acknowledgement
rate of 6.667C.
The authors acknowledge the financial support provided by the
Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
paraffin and graphite-foam, as a battery thermal management
system for Li-ion batteries. As shown in Fig. 8, the proposed system
Nomenclature
is highly efficient at keeping the maximum temperature in the
battery pack at less than 30  C through 450 s of a high discharge
a Specific interfacial area (m2 m3)
rate of 6.667C. Comparing the performance of the battery thermal
cp Specific heat capacity (kJ kg1 K1)
management system proposed in this study with other previous
cs Concentration of lithium ions in the solid (mol dm3)
studies considering PCM and air cooling shows that the proposed
c Salt concentration (mol dm3)
system performs better than the systems in the considered studies,
D Salt diffusion coefficient (cm2 s1)
with even better performance than the proposed system of Li et al.
Ds Lithium diffusion coefficient in the solid electrode (cm2
[25] using nickel foam-paraffin.
s1)
U Open circuit voltage (V)
5. Conclusions V Cell voltage (V)
t Time (s)
A thermoelectrochemical model is developed to investigate the T Temperature (oC or K)
performance of a novel thermal management system for lithium k Thermal conductivity (W m1 K1)
ion batteries used in hybrid electric vehicles. The thermal man- Q_ Thermal energy rate (W)
agement system proposed uses a fossil fuel (propane) to cool the Rs Radius of the positive electrode (m)
batteries of the hybrid electric vehicle before sending it to the L Length (m)
electrical generator either to charge the batteries or to produce DS Entropy change
power for driving the vehicle. In the proposed system the batteries n Number of electrons
are submerged partially in saturated liquid propane that cools the F Faraday's constant (96485 C mol1)
battery by absorbing the thermal energy generated by the battery; f Conductive filler
this causes boiling which produces vapor that cools the remaining V Operating voltage of the battery (V)
part of the battery. The effect of the height of the liquid propane in E Open circuit voltage (V)
the battery pack and its saturation pressure on the thermal per- I Electrical current (A)
formance of the battery are investigated. The performance of the i2 Superficial current density in the solution phase (mA
cooling system is measured in terms of the maximum temperature cm2)
in the battery and the uniformity of the temperature through a y Velocity (m s1)
single battery (i.e., temperature difference through the battery). g Gravitational acceleration (9.81 m s2)
The main conclusions are as follows:
Greek letters

The propane based cooling system provides good cooling per- r Mass density (kg m3)
formance, maintaining the temperature of the battery in the y Velocity (m s1)
acceptable operation range. Covering only 5% of the total length ε Volume fraction
of the battery by saturated liquid propane at a pressure of 8.5 bar f Electrical potential (V)
 M. Al-Zareer et al. / Journal of Power Sources 363 (2017) 291e303 303

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