Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Journal of Energy Storage

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

Research papers

Investigation on heat transfer enhancement of phase change material for

battery thermal energy storage system based on composite triply periodic
minimal surface
Zhaohui Fan a, b, Yijie Fu a, b, Renjing Gao a, b, *, Shutian Liu a, **
a
State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China
b
Ningbo Institute of Dalian University of Technology, Ningbo 315016, China

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

Keywords: Phase change material (PCM), such as paraffin wax, has attracted extensive attention in the field of battery
Battery thermal energy storage thermal energy storage (BTES) system. However, the latent heat of the PCM is unable to be efficiently utilized in
Lithium-ion battery the cases with fast thermal responses due to the low thermal conductivity. Triply periodic minimal surface
Triply periodic minimal surface
(TPMS) has large surface area. In this study, the composite P-IWP type TPMS is proposed to enhance local heat
Phase change material
transfer of the PCM. The thermal performance of the TPMS-based BTES system is studied by simulations and
experiments. The results demonstrate that the composite P-IWP type TPMS sheet structure improves the effi­
ciency of the PCM latent heat utilization. The enhanced heat transfer method based on traditional Kelvin type
metal foam structure cannot make full use of the latent heat of PCM. Compared with the P type TPMS, the
melting time of the PCM in the case of P-IWP type TPMS reduces by 30.8 %. The battery temperature in the case
of P-IWP types TPMS decreases by 12.2 % and 11.3 % than that in the case of PCM-only at 1C and 2C discharge
rates, respectively. In addition, the experimental results of the cycle process indicate that the TPMS-based BTES
system reduces the temperature rise of the battery and increases the duration of the unit temperature drop.

1. Introduction
Electric vehicles (EVs) have been considered as an efficient solution
to alleviate the intensifying energy and environmental crisis. Due to the
high energy density, long cycling life and high efficiency, the lithium-ion
batteries (LIBs) are selected as the main power source for EVs. However,
the performance of the LIBs is greatly affected by its operating tem­
perature [1]. During the charge and discharge processes, the reasonable
working temperature range of LIB is 25–40 ◦ C, and the temperature
difference of the battery module should be within 5 ◦ C [2,3]. The power
capacity of the LIB decreases at low temperature, while the risk of
thermal runaway increases at high temperature [4]. In order to avoid the
safety and performance related issues, the battery thermal management
system (BTMS) is significant to control temperature distribution of the
battery pack.
As active methods of BTMS, forced cooling circulation of air or liquid
is extensive adopted by many EV manufacturers [5–8]. In the forced air
cooling system, the fans and blowers are employed to enhance the heat
transfer coefficient [9]. Due to the higher thermal conductivity than the
air medium, the liquid cooling system is found to be an attractive
approach in the BTMS [10]. In the liquid cooling system, the cooling
jackets or tubes are wrapped around the battery module, which takes up
more installation space. The additional energy consumption of the
active cooling method is required to maintain coolant circulation of the
active BTMS, which results in higher power consumption of the battery
and lower driving range of the vehicles [11,12].
As an alternative solution to the active cooling, high-efficiency
thermal energy storage can be achieved by a passive BTMS using
phase change material (PCM). PCM, especially paraffin wax, has been
widely employed in battery thermal energy storage (BTES) systems
owing to its nontoxicity, high latent heat and thermal cyclic stability
[13,14]. Compared with the traditional active thermal management
method, the battery heat can be efficiently stored in the PCM without
any energy consumption and additional components. During the phase
change process, the heat can be absorbed by the PCM in the form of the
latent heat at an almost constant temperature, which improves

* Correspondence to: R. Gao, State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China.
** Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: renjing@dlut.edu.cn (R. Gao), stliu@dlut.edu.cn (S. Liu).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2022.106222
Received 27 August 2022; Received in revised form 16 October 2022; Accepted 24 November 2022
Available online 30 November 2022
2352-152X/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Fan et al.
temperature uniformity of the battery module within a reasonable
temperature range [15–17]. The phase of the PCM is changed from solid
to liquid during the endothermic process and its phase is changed from
liquid to solid during the exothermic process. Al Hallaj and Selman [18]
used the paraffin wax in the applications of battery cooling for the first
time. PCM cooling can significantly reduce the temperature rise and
uniform the temperature distribution of the battery module. However, at
high charge and discharge rates, excessive heat is accumulated in the
exterior of the pure PCM due to its low thermal conductivity.
In order to enhance the thermal conductivity of the PCM, the high
thermal conductivity materials are combined with PCM for cooling ef­
ficiency improvement. Carbon-based materials are widely used in
thermal conductivity enhancement of the PCM. Malik et al. [19]
investigated a passive BTMS for a battery pack using composite phase
change material. Due to the high thermal conductivity of the graphene,
the thermal conductivity of the composite PCM was significantly
improved. Zou et al. [20] used the graphene and carbon nanotubes as
the additives to enhance thermal conductivity of the PCM. They ob­
tained the effect of the optimal synergistic heat transfer by adjusting the
mass ratio of carbon nanotubes and graphene. The results indicated that
the thermal conductivity of the composite PCM increased by 124 %
compared to the pure PCM. Samimi et al. [21] studied the effect of
carbon fiber-PCM composites on thermal performance of battery. The
results demonstrated that the carbon fiber increased the thermal con­
ductivity of the PCM. The sedimentation of the particles is inevitable,
which results in local thermal conductivity deterioration of the PCM
[22]. Metal-based materials are efficient additives for thermal conduc­
tivity enhancement of the PCM. Choudhari et al. [23] designed different
fin structure layouts to improve interior heat dissipation of the PCM. The
results showed that the optimal fin structure layout can effectively
enhance heat dissipation at the inner cells of the battery pack and
improve the temperature uniformity of the battery pack. Ranjbaran et al.
[24] impregnated the PCM into metal foams to improve thermal con­
ductivity of the PCM. They found that the addition of 6 vol% metal foam
can greatly affect the time evolution of the PCM liquid fraction and
achieve the best cooling performance. Heyhat et al. [25] compared the
effect of different filling structures on heat transfer performance of the
PCM. The results indicated that the metal foam is more efficient for
thermal performance improvement of the PCM compared with the fin
and nanoparticle. Zhu et al. [26] embedded the copper micro-fibrous
media into the PCM and studied the effect on the battery temperature
results, which indicated that the thermal conductivity and heat transfer
on the battery surface were improved by the addition of the copper
micro-fibrous media. Kahwaji et al. [27] experimentally studied the
long-term stability and chemical compatibility of paraffin PCMs. They
found that the PCMs are thermally stable after 3000 melt-freeze cycles
and several commonly used metals are compatible with the paraffins.
Triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) is one of the cellular struc­
tures inspired by nature, which has zero mean curvature at every point
on the surface [28]. TPMS-based structures have the prominent features
of three-dimensional periodicity, smooth surfaces and large area-to-
volume ratio. Due to the unique features, TPMS has recently attracted
a lot of interest in many engineering fields, such as tissue engineering
[29], energy absorption [30], sound attenuation [31] and heat
exchanger [32]. It is difficult to manufacture the intricate and complex
geometries by conventional manufacturing techniques. However, the
additive manufacturing (AM) techniques provide a feasible approach to
manufacture any complex architecture. As an effective and promising
AM technology, selective laser melting (SLM) can precisely manufacture
metal structures with complex shapes [33]. Considering the advantage
of large area-to-volume ratio, metal TPMS-based structures can be
applied as thermal conductivity enhancer for the PCM. Qureshi et al.
[34] impregnated the metal foam with PCM to enhance the thermal
conductivity of the PCM. The results demonstrated that the TPMS-based
foams can reduce the melting time of the PCM and increase the average
heat transfer coefficient compared with the conventional Kelvin metal
2
Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222
foams. However, we found that the PCM away from the heat source
melts more slowly, which means that the local heat transfer property of
PCM needs to be further enhanced by designing the non-uniform layout
of the TPMS sheet structure.
In this study, a novel structural design strategy of the composite P-
IWP type TPMS is proposed to enhance the local heat transfer property
of the PCM. The complex P-IWP type TPMS sheet structure is fabricated
by the SLM technology. The thermal performance of the BTES system is
explored via experimental and numerical methods. The structure of this
study is as follows: the novel structural design strategy of the composite
TPMS-based sheet structure is introduced in Section 2. The heat transfer
properties of the BTES system are investigated by numerical simulations
and experiments in Section 3 and 4. The numerical and experimental
results are presented in Section 5. The final section provides the con­
clusions of this study.
2. Design strategy of BTES system based on composite TPMS
A classical P (Schwarz Primitive) type TPMS was initially proposed
by Schwarz. Later, another IWP (Schoen I-graph and wrapped package-
graph) type TPMS was reported by Schoen [35]. These surfaces can be
described using the following level-set approximation equations:
P type TPMS:
cos(ωx) + cos(ωy) + cos(ωz) = c (1)
IWP type TPMS:
2[cos(ωx)cos(ωy) + cos(ωy)cos(ωz) + cos(ωz)cos(ωx) ]
(2)
− [cos(2ωx) + cos(2ωy) + cos(2ωz) ] = c
where x, y and z denote the spatial coordinates, ω = 2π/l denotes peri­
odic parameters, l denotes the side length of an enclosing cube and c is a
constant that control the position of the surface in the enclosing cube.
In order to enhance the local heat transfer of the PCM, the smaller
lattices of the TPMS need to be arranged in the PCM away from the heat
source. As shown in Fig. 1 (a), the large lattice and small lattice of the P
type TPMS cannot be combined with a smooth and continuous surface.
As depicted in Fig. 1 (b), a composite TPMS is designed to combine
larger lattice and smaller lattice. The composite TPMS consists of a
larger P type TPMS lattice and eight smaller IWP type TPMS lattices,
which is called P-IWP type TPMS in this paper. The composite P-IWP
type TPMS can guarantee good connectivity between the P type TPMS
and IWP type TPMS, which forms a smooth and continuous surface.
As shown in Fig. 2, a solid entity of TPMS sheet structure can be
constructed by thickening P-IWP type TPMS. The smooth and contin­
uous P-IWP type TPMS sheet structure can be expediently manufactured
by AM technology. As a thermal conductivity enhancer, the TPMS sheet
structure is immersed with the PCM, which are depicted in Fig. 3. The
enclosing cube can be divided into the TPMS region and PCM region.
According to this concept, the BTES system are presented in Fig. 4. The
P-IWP sheet structure is immersed with the PCM, which is used to
enhance the heat transfer property of the PCM. The P type TPMS sheet
structure with larger lattice is located near the battery, and the smaller
IWP type TPMS sheet structure with smaller lattice is located away from
the battery. During the discharge process of the cell, the heat generated
in the cell is stored in the PCM using latent heat.
3. Mathematical analysis
3.1. Heat generation rate of the battery
During the discharge process, the battery heat is mainly generated by
the internal resistances and the electrochemical reactions of the battery.
According to the classic model [36], the heat generation rate of the
battery can be described as:
Z. Fan et al. Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222

Fig. 1. Description of the composite TPMS.

two terms. The first term is the irreversible heat generation rate due to
joule heating, and the second term is the reversible heat generation rate.
The heat generation rate of the battery can be rewritten as follow [37]:
dU OCV
Qgen = I 2 R − IT b (4)
dT

where R is the total internal resistance of the battery cell.

Commercial 18,650 lithium-ion batteries (Samsung SDI Co. Ltd) are
utilized in this work. Table 1 summarizes the main technical parameters
Fig. 2. Description of the composite P-IWP type TPMS sheet structure. of the LIB. According to our previous work [38], the heat generation rate
[ ]
dU OCV
Qgen = I (UOCV − U) − Tb (3) Table 1
dT
The technical parameters of the 18,650 lithium-ion battery.
where I is the current of the battery; UOCV is the open circuit voltage; U is Property Parameter Property Parameter
the terminal voltage of the battery; Tb is the temperature of the lithium- Normal voltage 3.7 V Capacity 2.6 A⋅h
ion batteries; ∂U∂OCV
T is the entropy heat coefficient.
Maximum voltage 4.2 V Cathode material LiCoO2
Minimum voltage 2.75 V Anode material graphite
In formula (3), the total battery heat generation model consists of

Fig. 3. Schematic of different regions in an enclosing cube.

Fig. 4. Schematics of the BTMS based on PCM filled with the P-IWP type TPMS sheet structures.

3
Z. Fan et al. Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222

of the battery during the whole discharge process is obtained by ex­ transfer structure, PCM and several cells. Because of the module is
periments, which are given below: geometrically symmetrical, the BTES system that inside the dotted line is
{ considered as the analysis domain, which can reduce the computational
Qgen-1C = 10.31⋅DoD4 − 15.63⋅DoD3 + 7.052⋅DoD2 − 1.126⋅DoD + 0.4502 load. The length (L), width (W) and height (H) of the analysis model are
Qgen-2C = 39.46⋅DoD4 − 61.48⋅DoD3 + 28.85⋅DoD2 − 4.587⋅DoD + 1.822
24 mm, 22 mm and 24 mm, respectively. The 18,650 cylindrical cell is in
(5) close contact with the side surface of the TPMS-based heat conductive
structure, where the diameter and height of the cell are 18 mm and 65
3.2. Governing equations mm. For the composite P-IWP sheet structure, the length (l) of the
enclosing cube is 12 mm and the thickness is 0.75 mm.
Assuming that the thermal conductivity of the cell is isotropic, the
energy conservation equation of the cell is given as follows: 4.2. Boundary conditions of the analysis domain
∂T ⋅
ρb Cp,b b = ∇⋅(kb ∇Tb ) + Qgen (6) As depicted in Fig. 5, the planes represented by the red dotted lines
∂t
are subjected to the symmetry boundary conditions. The interfaces be­
⋅
where the source term Qgen in Eq. (6) can be calculated by: tween different regions are subjected to the coupled boundary condi­
tion. The battery heat generation rate at 2C discharge rate is determined
⋅
Qgen =
Qgen
(7) as the heat source term of the analysis model. The initial temperature of
Vb the analysis domain is set to 25 ◦ C. In order to ensure the safety of the
battery pack, in commercial EVs, the cells are usually sealed in compact
where Qgen is the heat generation rate of the battery; Vb is the volume of space without effective ventilation. The outer walls of the analysis
the battery. model are set to the adiabatic boundary condition.
The conservation equations of continuity, momentum and energy of
the PCM are expressed as: 4.3. Grid independence verification
∇⋅u = 0 (8)
In order to improve the efficiency and ensure the accuracy of the
∂u analysis module, the battery temperature is selected as the evaluation
ρPCM + ρPCM (u⋅∇)u = − ∇P + μPCM ∇2 u + ρPCM gβ(TPCM − Tm ) − Au (9)
∂t index to verify grid independence. Five incremental grid numbers are
generated for the analysis module. As presented in Fig. 6, the effect of
where Tm is the melting temperature of the PCM; A is the source term, the result is gradually weakened with the grid number increases. When
which is expressed as: the grid number is 1052454, the relative deviations of the battery
temperature is less than 0.1 %. Therefore, the grid number of 1,052,454
Cmush (1 − fPCM )2
A= 3
(10) is used in the following simulations, where the mesh of the model is
δ + fPCM
depicted in Fig. 7. The material properties used in the simulation are
∂TPCM ∂fPCM shown in Table 2.
ρPCM Cp,PCM + ρPCM Cp,PCM u⋅∇TPCM = ∇⋅(kPCM ∇TPCM ) − ρPCM L
∂t ∂t
(11) 4.4. Experimental setup

The value of the fPCM is satisfied the following equation: As depicted in Fig. 8 (a), the experimental platform of the PCM-based
⎧
⎪ 0 TPCM ≤ Tsolid BTMS is established, which includes a battery test module (Neware, BTS-
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎨T 50V120A-NTF), a temperature data acquisition (Neware, CA-4008-1 U-
PCM − Tsolid
fPCM = Tsolid ≤ TPCM ≤ Tliquid (12) VT-TX), a computer and BTES modules. The battery test module with an
⎪ Tliquid − Tsolid
⎪
⎪
⎪ accuracy of ±0.01 % is used to charge and discharge the battery. The T-
⎩ 1 TPCM ≥ Tliquid type thermocouple (Omega type TT-T-30SLE-1 M) with an accuracy of
±0.1 ◦ C is fixed on the surface of the cell, and the battery temperature is
where β is the volume expansion coefficient; g is the gravitational ac­ recorded by the temperature data acquisition. The BTES module in­
celeration; fPCM denotes the liquid fraction of the PCM, which ranges cludes the aluminum TPMS structures and PCM. Using the SLM tech­
from 0 (solid phase) to 1 (liquid phase); Cmush is the mushy zone nology, the TPMS structures are fabricated with CL 30 AL aluminum
parameter; Tsolid and Tliquid are the solidus and liquidus temperatures of alloy. In this study, the paraffin wax is filled in a transparent plastic case.
the PCM; L denotes the latent heat of the PCM; ρPCM, Cp,PCM, kPCM, μPCM The plastic case and the aluminum thermal conductive structure are
and TPCM are the density, specific heat, thermal conductivity, dynamic sealed with rubber gaskets and tightened with bolts. The TPMS sheet
viscosity and temperature of the PCM. structure is impregnated into the paraffin wax. The thermal silicone
In the aluminum heat conductive structure, the energy conservation grease is applied to the interface between the battery and aluminum
equation can be expressed as: TPMS structures. The BTES module is placed in a closed expanded
∂Ts polystyrene box to avoid heat exchange with the surrounding environ­
ρs Cp,s = ∇⋅(ks ∇Ts ) (13) ment. In order to further validate the effectiveness of the BTES, the
∂t
charge and discharge experiments in the cycle conditions are conducted.
where ρs, Cp,s, ks and Ts are density, average specific heat, thermal The experimental platform of BTMS in the battery cycle conditions is
conductivity and temperature of the aluminum heat conductive struc­ presented in Fig. 8 (b). The experimental platform consists of a battery
ture, respectively. test module, a temperature data acquisition, a thermostatic chamber
(WHKH-150-20-880), a computer and T-type thermocouples. Compared
4. Numerical and experimental investigations of the BTES with the experimental platform in Fig. 8 (a), the batteries are placed in
system the thermostatic chamber of 25 ◦ C for purpose of simulating the actual
application environment of the battery. The PCM with P-IWP type TPMS
4.1. Numerical analysis model is employed as the BTES system to store the battery heat. One of the
batteries is combined with the BTES system and the other battery does
As depicted in Fig. 5, the BTES system consists of a TPMS-based heat not use the BTES system.

4
Z. Fan et al. Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222

Fig. 5. Analysis model of the BTMS based on PCM filled with the P-IWP type TPMS sheet structures.

5. Results and discussion

In order to study the effect of different structures on the heat transfer

performance of the PCM, the case of PCM-only, the case of Kelvin type
lattice and the case of P type TPMS sheet structure are proposed to
compare with the case of P-IWP type TPMS sheet structure. The Kelvin
type lattice consists of six squares and eight hexagonal faces, which is
regarded as the ideal metal foam unit cell [40]. The three BTES modules
mentioned above are shown in Fig. 9, where the Kelvin type lattice, the P
type TPMS sheet structure and the P-IWP type TPMS sheet structure
have the same volume.

5.1. Evolutionary process of the PCM liquid fraction

As the heat source of the BTES module, the discharge rates of the cells
are set to 1C and 2C, respectively. The phase change temperature range
of the PCM is from 29 ◦ C to 31 ◦ C. The minimum liquid fraction of the
PCM is regard as an indicator to evaluate the melting state. When the
minimum liquid fraction is 1, all the PCM completely melts, which
means that the total latent heat of the PCM is utilized. The evolutions of
Fig. 6. Grid independence verification.
the minimum liquid fraction of the PCM for different cases at 2C
discharge rate are depicted in Fig. 10. In the cases of PCM-only and
Kelvin type lattice, the PCM does not completely melt during the 2C
discharge process. The minimum liquid fraction of the PCM for the PCM-
only and Kelvin type lattice are 0.049 and 0.337, respectively. The
traditional Kelvin type lattice can slightly enhance the local heat transfer
of the PCM but cannot make the PCM completely melt at 2C discharge
rate. Compared with the traditional Kelvin type lattice, the P and P-IWP
type TPMS structures provides larger heat transfer area, which can make
full use of the latent heat of the PCM. In the cases of P type TPMS and P-
IWP type TPMS, PCM completely melts in 1785 s and 1236 s. Compared
with the case of the P type TPMS, the melting time of the PCM in the case
of P-IWP type TPMS reduces by 30.8 %. The numerical results indicate
that the composite P-IWP sheet structure significantly enhances the local
heat transfer of the PCM and reduces the melting time of the PCM in the
BTES module.
Since the value of the effective thermal conductivity of composites
falls between the Wiener bounds, the effective thermal conductivity of
the composite TPMS sheet structure and PCM can be calculated by an
empirical model [41,42].
Fig. 7. Mesh of the analysis model.
0.65
keff = 0.35[εkPCM + (1 − ε)kTPMS ] + ( ) (14)
ε ε
kPCM
+ k1−TPMS

5
Z. Fan et al. Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222

Table 2
Material properties used in the simulations [39].
Material ρ (kg•m− 3) cp (J•kg− 1•K− 1) k (W•m− 1•K− 1) μ (kg⋅m− 1•s− 1) L(J•kg− 1) Tm(◦ C)

Battery 2500 1200 4 – – –

Aluminum 2719 871 202.4 – – –
PCM 792 2247 0.28 0.00365 213,000 30

Fig. 8. The experimental platform of BTMS.

Fig. 9. Schematics of the reference BTES module and TPMS-based BTES modules.

where kPCM and kTPMS are the thermal conductivities of PCM and
aluminum TPMS sheet structure, respectively; ε is the porosity of the
TPMS sheet structure.
In this study, the material of the TPMS sheet structure is aluminum
and the porosity of the TPMS sheet structure is 0.38. According to Eq.
(14), the effective thermal conductivity of the TPMS/PCM composite
structure can be calculated using the porosity of the TPMS sheet struc­
ture and the thermal conductivities of the PCM and aluminum. The
values for the effective thermal conductivity of the TPMS/PCM com­
posite structure is 44.44 W•m− 1•K− 1, which is about 159 times higher
than that of the pure PCM. The increase of the thermal conductivity can
enhance the heat transfer inside the PCM and accelerate the melting
process of PCM.
In Eq. (14), kTPMS depends on the surface area and the structure
configuration. Compared with conventional structures, TPMS sheet
structure exhibits higher surface area density, which can increase the

6
Z. Fan et al.
Fig. 10. Evolution of the minimum PCM liquid fraction for different cases at 2C
discharge rate.
heat exchange area between PCM and TPMS sheet structure. The contact
surface areas of Kelvin type lattice, P type TPMS and P-IWP type TPMS
are depicted in Table 3. In the same volume of the structures, P-IWP type
TPMS exhibits the largest surface area than Kelvin type metal foam and
P type TPMS area. The large contact surface area can improve the heat
transfer performance between PCM and metal structure.
Figs. 11 and 12 present the contours of the PCM liquid fraction as a
function of time at 1C and 2C discharge rates. During the discharge
process, the battery heat is transferred to the PCM through the
aluminum structure. The PCM temperature gradually increases with the
accumulation of the heat. When the PCM temperature reaches the phase
transition temperature, the PCM starts to melt and the battery heat is
stored in the PCM. In the case of PCM-only, at 1C and 2C discharge rates,
the PCM is unable to melt completely. The contours of the PCM liquid
fraction exhibit gradient distributions in the case of PCM-only. Due to
the low thermal conductivity of the PCM, the state of the PCM near the
battery is in liquid phase, while the state of the PCM far away from the
battery is in solid phase. The heat is unable to be efficiently transferred
from the liquid layer to the solid layer of the PCM. It is necessary to
enhance the local heat transfer of the PCM away from the heat source.
Compared with the case of PCM-only, the Kelvin type lattice can
enhance the heat transfer. However, at 1C and 2C discharge rates, the
PCM in the case of Kelvin type lattice is still unable to melt completely.
In the cases of Kelvin type lattice, P type TPMS and P-IWP type TPMS, at
1C discharge rate, all the PCM is in the phase transition state. At the end
of the 1C discharge process, the minimum PCM liquid fractions in the
cases of Kelvin type lattice, P type TPMS and P-IWP type TPMS are 0.21,
0.45 and 0.65, which means that more latent heat of the PCM is utilized
in the case of P-IWP type TPMS. The distributions of the PCM liquid
fraction are changed due to the different structures. The aluminum P-
IWP type TPMS structure provides an efficient heat pathway with
smaller thermal resistance, which allows battery heat can be transferred
to the PCM away from the heat source.
Table 3
Performance of different structures.
Kelvin P P-IWP
2
Area (mm ) 1224 2625 5241
Volume (mm3) 1720 1720 1720
7
Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222
5.2. Evolutionary process of the battery temperature
It is benefit to improve the utilization rate of the PCM latent heat by
embedding the aluminum TPMS sheet structures to the PCM. The bat­
tery temperature can be affected by different types of TPMS sheet
structures. Hence, it is significant to study the evolution of the battery
temperature during the discharge process. Fig. 13 presents the battery
temperature in different BTES modules at 1C and 2C discharge rates
under adiabatic conditions.
As shown in Fig. 11, at 1C discharge rate, the PCM does not melt
completely due to the lower heat generated of the battery. It can be
noticed from Fig. 13 (a) that the battery temperature comes to be the
highest in the case of PCM-only owing to the lower thermal conductivity
of the PCM. In the cases of the Kelvin type lattice, P type TPMS and P-
IWP type TPMS, the thermal conductivity of the PCM is enhanced by
embedding the TPMS sheet structures, which results in lower battery
temperatures. At the end of the discharge process, the battery temper­
atures in the cases of PCM-only, Kelvin type lattice, P types TPMS and P-
IWP types TPMS are 37.84 ◦ C, 36.22 ◦ C, 34.24 ◦ C and 33.21 ◦ C,
respectively. The battery temperature in the case of P-IWP types TPMS
decreases by 12.2 % than that in the case of PCM-only. In the case of
PCM with P-IWP type TPMS sheet structure, the local heat transfer of the
PCM far away from the heat source is enhanced by the IWP type TPMS
sheet structure with smaller lattice. Therefore, the battery temperature
in the case of P-IWP type TPMS is lower than that in the case of P type
TPMS.
As shown in Fig. 12, at 2C discharge rate, the PCM melts completely
in the cases of P type TPMS and P-IWP type TPMS, while it does not melt
completely in the case of PCM-only and in the case of Kelvin type lattice.
Therefore, the battery temperature in the PCM-only case is the highest
among the three cases, which is depicted in Fig. 13 (b). At the end of the
2C discharge process, the battery temperatures in the cases of PCM-only,
Kelvin type lattice, P types TPMS and P-IWP types TPMS are 60.58 ◦ C,
57.30 ◦ C, 54.14 ◦ C and 53.72 ◦ C, respectively. The volume of the PCM is
same in the cases of the P type TPMS and P-IWP type TPMS. Due to the
same volume of the PCM, the batteries have the similar temperature in
the cases of the P type TPMS and P-IWP type TPMS. The battery tem­
perature in the case of P-IWP types TPMS decreases by 11.3 % than that
in the case of PCM-only. The reason of this phenomenon is that the total
latent heat of the PCM is efficiently used by the composite P-IWP type
TPMS sheet structure to store battery heat. It can be also verified by the
complete melting time of the PCM, which is presented in Fig. 12.
In addition, the battery heat storage experiments are conducted
using the experimental platform in Fig. 8 (a). In the comparative ex­
periments, the batteries are discharged from upper cut-off voltage (UCV)
to lower cut-off voltage (LCV) at 1C discharge rate and 2C discharge
rate, which are presented in Fig. 14. The experimental results of the
cases of PCM-only, PCM with Kelvin type lattice, PCM with P type TPMS
and PCM with P-IWP type TPMS are depicted in Fig. 15. Although the
thermal silicone grease and the insulation cotton are adopted to the
cooling module, the contact thermal resistance between the aluminum
heat transfer structure and batteries and the heat convection with the
surrounding environment are unavoidable in the experiments. The
experimental results validate the accuracy of the simulation results and
demonstrate that the heat storage performance of the PCM is enhanced
by the composite P-IWP sheet structure.
5.3. Experimental results in the battery cycle conditions
According to the previous results, P-IWP sheet structure exhibits the
best heat transfer performance in PCM. In order to further study the
effect of P-IWP sheet structure type BTES on the battery temperature, the
verification experiments of cycle conditions are conducted in Fig. 8 (b),
where the batteries are placed in the thermostatic chamber of 25 ◦ C. As a
comparison, the battery cycle experiment of a battery cell without any
BTES is also conducted. As shown in Fig. 16, the total charge and
Z. Fan et al.
Fig. 11. Contours of the PCM liquid fraction as a function of time at 1C discharge rate.
discharge experiments are divided into four cycles. At the beginning of
each cycle, the batteries rest for 2 h to initialize the battery temperature.
In each cycle, the batteries undergo the discharge process from UCV to
LCV and the charging process from LCV to UCV. The discharge rate of
the battery is 2C. The constant current-constant voltage (CC-CV) method
is applied to charge the battery, where the charge rate is 1C in the
constant current process and the cut-off current of the battery is 0.52 A
in the constant voltage process. In the first cycle, the discharge process
consists of four discharge stages and the discharge capacity in every
stage is 25 %. In the second cycle, the discharge process consists of three
discharge stages and the discharge capacity in every stage is 33 %. In the
third cycle, the discharge process consists of two discharge stages and
the discharge capacity in every stage is 50 %. The time interval between
adjacent discharge stages is set to 1 h. In the last cycle, the batteries are
8
Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222
discharged from UCV to LCV without time intervals. In addition, the
batteries rest for an hour after the entire discharge process and then start
the charge process.
The battery temperature profiles of the charge-discharge cycles are
depicted in Fig. 17. The temperature results of the battery with PCM and
without PCM are listed in Table 4. The temperature rise of the battery
(ΔTrise) is a crucial indicator to evaluate the heat absorption perfor­
mance of the BTES system. The indicator of ΔTrise is defined as the
temperature difference between battery temperature at the beginning of
the discharge process and battery temperature at the end of the
discharge process. In the charge and discharge processes, the tempera­
ture of the battery with PCM is much lower than that without PCM,
which indicates that battery heat is efficiently absorbed by the PCM and
alleviates the severe temperature rise of the battery. In addition, the heat
Z. Fan et al.
Fig. 12. Contours of the PCM liquid fraction as a function of time at 2C discharge rate.
preservation performance is another important indicator for the BTES
system. In this study, the ratio of holding time of the battery temperature
to battery temperature drop (Δtdrop/ΔTdrop) is introduced to evaluate the
heat preservation performance of the BTES system. The indicator of
ΔTdrop is defined as the temperature difference between battery tem­
perature at the end of the discharge process and battery temperature of
26 ◦ C. The indicator of Δtdrop denotes the duration of the battery tem­
perature declining process. After the discharge process, the Δtdrop/
ΔTdrop of the battery with PCM is significantly higher than that of the
battery without PCM, which can maintain a favorable temperature state
of the battery in next discharge process.
9
Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222
6. Conclusions
In this study, the composite P-IWP type TPMS sheet structure is
proposed to enhance local heat transfer property and improve thermal
response of the PCM. The thermal performance of the TPMS-based BTES
system is investigated by simulations and experiments. The following
conclusions can be drawn in this study.
(1) The thermal response of the PCM is accelerated by embedding the
composite P-IWP type TPMS sheet structure. The melting time of
the PCM in the case of P-IWP type TPMS reduces by 30.8 % than
that in the case of P type TPMS.
(2) The thermal storage property is improved by the heat transfer
enhancement of the PCM. At 1C discharge rate, the battery
Z. Fan et al. Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222

Fig. 13. The evolution of the battery temperature as a function of time: (a) 1C discharge rate, (b) 2C discharge rate.

Fig. 14. Battery voltage and current profiles in the discharge process: (a) 1C discharge rate, (b) 2C discharge rate.

Fig. 15. The experimental battery temperature: (a) 1C discharge rate, (b) 2C discharge rate.

temperature in the case of P-IWP type TPMS decreases by 12.2 % (3) At 2C discharge rate, the PCM completely melts in the case of P-
than that in the case of PCM-only. IWP type TPMS due to the local heat transfer enhancement of the
IWP type TPMS sheet structure with smaller lattice. The battery

10
Z. Fan et al. Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222

temperature in the case of P-IWP types TPMS decreases by 11.3 %

than that in the case of PCM-only.
(4) The results of the cycle experiments indicates that the TPMS-
based BTES system reduces the temperature rise of the battery
and increases the duration of the unit temperature drop, which
can maintain a favorable temperature state of the battery.

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Zhaohui Fan: Conceptualization, Roles/Writing - original draft,

Methodology. Yijie Fu: Software, Investigation. Renjing Gao: Visuali­
zation, Formal analysis. Shutian Liu: Supervision, Methodology,
Investigation.

Declaration of competing interest

We declare that we have no known competing financial interests or

personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work
reported in this paper.
Fig. 16. Battery voltage and current profiles of the charge and discharge cycles
in the experiments. Data availability

No data was used for the research described in the article.

Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science

Foundation of China (U1808215) and the Fundamental Research Funds
for the Central Universities (DUT21GF101). These financial supports are
acknowledged.

References

[1] G. Murali, G.S.N. Sravya, J. Jaya, V. Naga Vamsi, A review on hybrid thermal
management of battery packs and it's cooling performance by enhanced PCM,
Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev. 150 (2021), 111513.
[2] H. Wang, T. Tao, J. Xu, X. Mei, X. Liu, P. Gou, Cooling capacity of a novel modular
liquid-cooled battery thermal management system for cylindrical lithium ion
batteries, Appl. Therm. Eng. 178 (2020), 115591.
[3] J. Wang, Q. Huang, X. Li, G. Zhang, C. Wang, Experimental and numerical
simulation investigation on the battery thermal management performance using
silicone coupled with phase change material, J. Energy Storage 40 (2021), 102810.
[4] J. Luo, D. Zou, Y. Wang, S. Wang, L. Huang, Battery thermal management systems
(BTMs) based on phase change material (PCM): a comprehensive review, Chem.
Eng. J. 430 (2022), 132741.
[5] H. Zhou, F. Zhou, L. Xu, J. Kong, Q. Yang, Thermal performance of cylindrical
lithium-ion battery thermal management system based on air distribution pipe, Int.
Fig. 17. Battery temperature profiles of the charge-discharge cycles in the J. Heat Mass Transf. 131 (2019) 984–998.
experiments. [6] 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.
[7] L. Xie, Y. Huang, H. Lai, Coupled prediction model of liquid-cooling based thermal
Table 4
management system for cylindrical lithium-ion module, Appl. Therm. Eng. 178
Experimental results of battery with PCM and without PCM. (2020), 115599.
Cycle Stage ΔTrise (◦ C) Δtdrop/ΔTdrop (s/◦ C) [8] J. Duan, J. Zhao, X. Li, S. Panchal, J. Yuan, R. Fraser, M. Fowler, Modeling and
analysis of heat dissipation for liquid cooling lithium-ion batteries, Energies 14
Without With Without With (14) (2021) 4187.
PCM PCM PCM PCM [9] Y. Bao, Y. Fan, Y. Chu, C. Ling, X. Tan, S. Yang, Experimental and numerical study
on thermal and energy management of a fast-charging lithium-ion battery pack
Cycle 1 Discharge 1 9.3 5.0 137.87 294.89 with air cooling, J. Energy Eng. 145 (6) (2019), 04019030.
Discharge 2 9.3 4.8 143.26 242.09 [10] B. Xia, Y. Liu, R. Huang, Y. Yang, Y. Lai, W. Zheng, H. Wang, W. Wang, M. Wang,
Discharge 3 9.7 5.3 134.41 216.46 Thermal analysis and improvements of the power battery pack with liquid cooling
Discharge 4 11.3 6.1 113.3 208.25 for electric vehicles, Energies 12 (16) (2019) 3045.
Cycle 2 Discharge 1 11.1 6.1 127.26 234.11 [11] K. Chen, W. Wu, F. Yuan, L. Chen, S. Wang, Cooling efficiency improvement of air-
Discharge 2 11.6 6.3 115.98 195.17 cooled battery thermal management system through designing the flow pattern,
Discharge 3 14.6 8.1 101.34 167.63 Energy 167 (2019) 781–790.
Cycle 3 Discharge 1 13.7 8.2 107.80 176.75 [12] Y. Yang, L. Yang, X. Du, Y. Yang, Pre-cooling of air by water spray evaporation to
Discharge 2 17.0 10.1 90.48 143.44 improve thermal performance of lithium battery pack, Appl. Therm. Eng. 163
(2019), 114401.
Cycle 4 Discharge 19.3 12.4 79.95 131.76
[13] Z. An, X. Chen, L. Zhao, Z. Gao, Numerical investigation on integrated thermal
management for a lithium-ion battery module with a composite phase change
material and liquid cooling, Appl. Therm. Eng. 163 (2019), 114345.
[14] Y. Lv, X. Yang, G. Zhang, Durability of phase-change-material module and its
relieving effect on battery deterioration during long-term cycles, Appl. Therm. Eng.
179 (2020), 115747.

11
Z. Fan et al.
[15] W. Wang, X. Zhang, C. Xin, Z. Rao, An experimental study on thermal management
of lithium ion battery packs using an improved passive method, Appl. Therm. Eng.
134 (2018) 163–170.
[16] M. Subramanian, A.T. Hoang, K. B, S. Nižetić, J.M. Solomon, D. Balasubramanian,
S. C, T. G, H. Metghalchi, X.P. Nguyen, A technical review on composite phase
change material based secondary assisted battery thermal management system for
electric vehicles, J. Clean. Prod. 322 (2021), 129079.
[17] M. Jurčević, S. Nižetić, M. Arıcı, A.T. Hoang, E. Giama, A. Papadopoulos, Thermal
constant analysis of phase change nanocomposites and discussion on selection
strategies with respect to economic constraints, Sustain.Energy Technol. Assess. 43
(2021), 100957.
[18] S.A. Hallaj, J.R. Selman, A novel thermal management system for electric vehicle
batteries using phase-change material, J. Electrochem. Soc. 147 (2000)
3231–3236.
[19] M. Malik, I. Dincer, M. Rosen, M. Fowler, Experimental investigation of a new
passive thermal management system for a Li-ion battery pack using phase change
composite material, Electrochim. Acta 257 (2017) 345–355.
[20] D. Zou, X. Ma, X. Liu, P. Zheng, Y. Hu, Thermal performance enhancement of
composite phase change materials (PCM) using graphene and carbon nanotubes as
additives for the potential application in lithium-ion power battery, Int. J. Heat
Mass Transf. 120 (2018) 33–41.
[21] F. Samimi, A. Babapoor, M. Azizi, G. Karimi, Thermal management analysis of a Li-
ion battery cell using phase change material loaded with carbon fibers, Energy 96
(2016) 355–371.
[22] M. Liu, W. Saman, F. Bruno, Review on storage materials and thermal performance
enhancement techniques for high temperature phase change thermal storage
systems, Renew. Sust. Energ. Rev. 16 (4) (2012) 2118–2132.
[23] V.G. Choudhari, A.S. Dhoble, S. Panchal, M. Fowler, R. Fraser, Numerical
investigation on thermal behaviour of 5 × 5 cell configured battery pack using
phase change material and fin structure layout, J. Energy Storage 43 (2021),
103234.
[24] Y.S. Ranjbaran, S.J. Haghparast, M.H. Shojaeefard, G.R. Molaeimanesh, Numerical
evaluation of a thermal management system consisting PCM and porous metal
foam for Li-ion batteries, J. Therm. Anal. Calorim. 141 (5) (2020) 1717–1739.
[25] M.M. Heyhat, S. Mousavi, M. Siavashi, Battery thermal management with thermal
energy storage composites of PCM, metal foam, fin and nanoparticle, J. Energy
Storage 28 (2020), 101235.
[26] W.H. Zhu, H. Yang, K. Webb, T. Barron, P. Dimick, B.J. Tatarchuk, A novel cooling
structure with a matrix block of microfibrous media/phase change materials for
heat transfer enhancement in high power Li-ion battery packs, J. Clean. Prod. 210
(2019) 542–551.
[27] S. Kahwaji, M.B. Johnson, A.C. Kheirabadi, D. Groulx, M.A. White,
A comprehensive study of properties of paraffin phase change materials for solar
thermal energy storage and thermal management applications, Energy 162 (2018)
1169–1182.
12
Journal of Energy Storage 57 (2023) 106222
[28] Z. Fan, R. Gao, S. Liu, A novel battery thermal management system based on P type
triply periodic minimal surface, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 194 (2022), 123090.
[29] E. Alabort, D. Barba, R.C. Reed, Design of metallic bone by additive manufacturing,
Scr. Mater. 164 (2019) 110–114.
[30] L. Zhang, S. Feih, S. Daynes, S. Chang, M.Y. Wang, J. Wei, W.F. Lu, Energy
absorption characteristics of metallic triply periodic minimal surface sheet
structures under compressive loading, Addit. Manuf. 23 (2018) 505–515.
[31] D.W. Abueidda, I. Jasiuk, N.A. Sobh, Acoustic band gaps and elastic stiffness of
PMMA cellular solids based on triply periodic minimal surfaces, Mater. Des. 145
(2018) 20–27.
[32] O. Al-Ketan, M. Ali, M. Khalil, R. Rowshan, K.A. Khan, R.K. Abu Al-Rub, Forced
convection computational fluid dynamics analysis of architected and three-
dimensional printable heat sinks based on triply periodic minimal surfaces,
J. Therm. Sci. Eng. Appl. 13 (2) (2021), 021010.
[33] D. Liang, G. He, W. Chen, Y. Chen, M.K. Chyu, Fluid flow and heat transfer
performance for micro-lattice structures fabricated by selective laser melting, Int.
J. Therm. Sci. 172 (2022), 107312.
[34] Z.A. Qureshi, E. Elnajjar, O. Al-Ketan, R.A. Al-Rub, S.B. Al-Omari, Heat transfer
performance of a finned metal foam-phase change material (FMF-PCM) system
incorporating triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS), Int. J. Heat Mass Transf.
170 (2021), 121001.
[35] A.H. Schoen, Infinite Periodic Minimal Surfaces Without Self-intersections, Natl.
Aeronaut. Space Adm., 1970.
[36] D. Bernardi, E. Pawlikowski, J. Newman, A general energy balance for battery
systems, J. Electrochem. Soc. 132 (1) (1985) 5–12.
[37] W. Wu, G. Zhang, X. Ke, X. Yang, Z. Wang, C. Liu, Preparation and thermal
conductivity enhancement of composite phase change materials for electronic
thermal management, Energy Convers. Manag. 101 (2015) 278–284.
[38] R. Gao, Z. Fan, S. Liu, A gradient channel-based novel design of liquid-cooled
battery thermal management system for thermal uniformity improvement,
J. Energy Storage 48 (2022), 104014.
[39] Z. Rao, Z. Qian, Y. Kuang, Y. Li, Thermal performance of liquid cooling based
thermal management system for cylindrical lithium-ion battery module with
variable contact surface, Appl. Therm. Eng. 123 (2017) 1514–1522.
[40] K. Boomsma, D. Poulikakos, On the effective thermal conductivity of a three-
dimensionally structured fluid-saturated metal foam, Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 44
(4) (2001) 827–836.
[41] S. Feng, M. Shi, Y. Li, T.J. Lu, Pore-scale and volume-averaged numerical
simulations of melting phase change heat transfer in finned metal foam, Int. J. Heat
Mass Transf. 90 (2015) 838–847.
[42] Z.A. Qureshi, S.A.B. Al-Omari, E. Elnajjar, O. Al-Ketan, R.A. Al-Rub, Using triply
periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS)-based metal foams structures as skeleton for
metal-foam-PCM composites for thermal energy storage and energy management
applications, Int. Commun. Heat Mass Transf. 124 (2021), 105265.