Energy 270 (2023) 126860

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Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/energy

Experimental investigation on energy consumption of power battery

integrated thermal management system
Jing Ma *, Yongfei Sun, Shiang Zhang
School of Automobile, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710021, China

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

Handling Editor: X. Ou The mileage range of electric vehicles is still restricted incredibly due to the limitation of the onboard battery
energy and long charging time; therefore, a comprehensive energy consumption optimization of the thermal
Keywords: management system is necessary to guarantee the normal use of electric vehicles. A test bench of integrated
Power battery battery thermal management system for pure electrical transportation vehicles is established in this study. The
Electric vehicles
optimal thermal management strategy is developed based on analyzing the energy-saving potential of thermal
Integrated thermal management system
management components. When the battery system operates under real-vehicle operating conditions at repre­
Energy consumption
sentative ambient temperatures, the thermal management system characteristics applied to the proposed strategy
are validated and analyzed. The experimental tests show that the proposed thermal management strategy can
effectively reduce the energy consumption of the thermal management system under the premise that the battery
temperature is controlled within the appropriate range, compared with the prototype vehicle.

1. Introduction
The limited reserves of fossil fuels and environmental concerns
aroused by conventional fuel vehicles have attracted widespread
attention [1–3]. The research prioritizes related to electric vehicles
(EVs) are badly needed by the transportation sector [4,5]. Due to the
advantages of high specific power, long cycle life, and high specific
energy density, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries have become the
primary power source for electric vehicles [6]. However, lithium-ion
batteries’ performance, life, and safety are susceptible to temperature
[7,8]. Once the operating temperature of a Li-ion battery exceeds the
optimal operating temperature range, it will affect the performance and
life of the battery and even cause thermal safety problems. An efficient
battery thermal management system is indispensable for the battery
system to maintain the temperature within the optimal range [9,10].
Extensive research concluded that the appropriate operating tempera­
ture of lithium batteries is 25◦ C–45 ◦ C, within which the lithium-ion
battery achieves a good balance between performance and life [11–13].
In recent years, the research on thermal management systems has
focused on cooling methods. The main thermal management methods of
battery systems include air cooling, liquid cooling, and phase change
material (PCM) cooling [14]. The air-cooled thermal management is out
of use because the poor thermal conductivity of air cannot meet the
cooling needs of current high-power battery packs [15,16]. The princi­
ple of a PCM-based cooling system is to absorb heat generated by the
battery as it changes phase during the melting process [17,18], and the
advantage of phase change cooling is to keep the temperature constant
and uniform [19]. The PCM-based technology has also been integrated
with other cooling devices, such as heat pipes [20,21]. However, the
application of phase change material in electric vehicles is limited by its
low thermal conductivity, ease of leakage due to melting expansion, and
high cost [22,23].
Liquid cooling is widely used in in-service vehicles. The research
mainly focuses on the layout of cooling plates and the modes of indirect
cooling [24–27]. A liquid cooling system, which is more heat dissipation
efficient as compared to air cooling [28], can effectively control the
temperature rise of the battery system [29]. In real-use scenarios of
electric vehicles, liquid cooling systems still perform better than both air
and PCM-based systems under similar conditions [30]. In addition, for
the cold start of fuel cell vehicles, liquid can be a better solution to the
preheating problem [31]. Therefore, the liquid cooling technique based
on a cold plate is preferred and adopted to cool the lithium-ion battery
pack in the following study.
Due to the strict limitation of the vehicle’s onboard space, all pow­
ertrains and components have tight packaging constraints [32]. It is
desirable to reduce cooling system size, volume, weight, air drag, and so

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: jingma@chd.edu.cn (J. Ma).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2023.126860
Received 20 November 2022; Received in revised form 11 January 2023; Accepted 31 January 2023
Available online 2 February 2023
0360-5442/© 2023 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
J. Ma et al.
Fig. 1. The integrated radiator construction.
Fig. 2. Integrated thermal management principle of the battery system.
Fig. 3. A test bench of battery thermal management system.
on, while meeting the cooling requirements [33].
One critical research area is the integration of the vehicle thermal
management system.
Tian et al. [34] studied an integrated thermal management system
with battery cooling and motor waste heat recovery. Xu et al. [35] found
liquid cooling preferable for integrated thermal management systems
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Energy 270 (2023) 126860
because of its high specific heat and ease of integrating other thermal
systems. Li et al. [36] proposed an innovative thermal management
framework and its control strategies for the cooling loop of electric drive
to achieve a more refined thermal management. Hemmati et al. [37]
analyzed an integrated cabin heating and powertrain thermal energy
management for a connected hybrid electric vehicle. One vehicle inte­
grated thermal management system was studied to satisfy the re­
quirements of performance reliability and human thermal comfort [38].
A novel vehicle integrated thermal system, consisting of the Li-ion bat­
tery packs circuit, the electric motor and power electronics cooling
circuit, as well as the air conditioning circuit, etc., was proposed to
obtain the integrated optimization of the vehicle system [39,40]. With
the rapid development of computer technology, commercial software
was used to simulate and analyze the multiple thermodynamic processes
[41].
Two potential barriers to the mass acceptance of electric vehicles
(EVs) are batteries’ thermal safety and range anxiety. The recent
research focused on increasing the cruising range of electric vehicles by
minimizing power consumption to maintain the batteries at optimum
operating conditions.
Wang et al. [42] introduced an interior point method to perform a
series of laboratory tests on different fan and speed combinations. Both
the mathematical methods and the experimental results showed that the
optimal control strategy can reduce the power consumption of the fan
matrix by 67% under the specified thermal load. Angermeier et al. [43]
introduced a steady-state modeling method for air-cooled vapor
J. Ma et al. Energy 270 (2023) 126860

Fig. 4. Schematic depiction of the experimental setup.

Fig. 5. Battery thermal management system control strategy.

compression systems to predict the ideal condenser fan speed. The re­
sults showed that the total energy consumption was minimized by
adjusting the speed of the condenser fan and compressor, respectively.
Yuan et al. [44] proposed a practical strategy to look for optimal energy
consumption in real-time for the heat pump. Li et al. [45] proposed an
innovative cooling circuit framework for electric vehicles. They
investigated the thermal management effects of fans, pumps, and pro­
portional valves under a regular control strategy; the results showed that
the method proposed could improve the thermal management perfor­
mance of key components and the efficiency of pumps effectively. Min
et al. [46] proposed a thermal management strategy to reduce
battery-lifetime loss, which reduced 3.11–3.76% energy consumption.

3
J. Ma et al.
Fig. 6. Partial speed curve of urban comprehensive operating conditions.
Fig. 7. The temperatures of the battery system, coolant inlet and outlet during urban condition discharging, then fast charging condition (a) at 25 ◦ C ambient
temperature (b) at 40 ◦ C ambient temperature.
Fig. 8. The temperatures of the battery system, coolant inlet and outlet during high-speed condition discharging, then fast charging condition (a) at 25 ◦ C ambient
temperature (b) at 40 ◦ C ambient temperature.
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Energy 270 (2023) 126860
Huang et al. [47] established a dynamic model based on motion
boundary and an appropriate control strategy. The experimental results
showed that the controller saved about 8% energy compared with the
traditional switching controller. Xie et al. [48] developed a
control-oriented BTMS model and combined a neural network-based
vehicle speed predictor with a Pareto-bounded target battery tempera­
ture adapter to develop an intelligent model predictive control (IMPC)
strategy. The results showed that the method was superior in controlling
the battery temperature, extending the battery life, and saving energy.
Quan et al. [49] proposed a predictive control energy management
strategy for a fuel cell electric vehicle hybrid system. Zhou et al. [50]
developed a non-linear control-based thermal management algorithm to
study the energy consumption of the electric compressor, electronic
water pump, and electronic fan. Simulation results showed that the
overall power consumption of the cooling system was reduced by 45%
compared to conventional cooling control methods. Park et al. [51]
proposed a thermal management control method based on the stochastic
model predictive controller (SMPC). However, most of the current
research on the thermal management of electric vehicles concentrates
J. Ma et al.
Fig. 9. The energy consumption of the battery thermal management system.
Fig. 10. The dependence of rate flow and power on the duty ratio of the
electronic water pump.
on the individual component’s cooling performance and energy con­
sumption [52–54].
This paper proposes a comprehensive experiment on the energy
consumption optimization of thermal management components for
electric vehicles. The components include the electric compressor,
electronic water pump, and electronic fan. Electric vehicles’ thermal
management characteristics and energy consumption are analyzed and
verified when the battery system operates under real-vehicle operating
conditions at representative ambient temperatures.
2. Design and description of the integrated thermal
management system
The integrated radiator, which integrates the battery radiator,
condenser, motor radiator, and electronic fan, is arranged in a series
configuration due to the limited space of the real vehicle layout, as
shown in Fig. 1.
The integrated thermal management system considers the cooling of
the motor system, the lithium battery, and the passenger compartment,
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Energy 270 (2023) 126860
Fig. 11. The temperature variations of the battery system over time at different
duty ratios, during the condition of high-speed discharging, then fast charging
at 40 ◦ C ambient temperature.
Fig. 12. The coolant inlet temperature variations over time at different duty
ratios, during the condition of high-speed discharging, then fast charging at
40 ◦ C ambient temperature.
as depicted in Fig. 2. The battery system includes two circuits, one cir­
cuit called the coolant circuit containing a water pump, radiator, and
fan; the other one called refrigerant circuit containing a water pump and
a chiller, and the two circuits are switched via an electronic three-way
valve. The coolant used in the coolant circuit is a mixture of water
and glycol, while the refrigerant used in the refrigerant circuit is R134a.
The thermal management system is formulated to meet the heat
dissipation requirements of the power battery, as well as the battery life
and fast charging. A test bench of temperature characteristics and en­
ergy consumption is designed as shown in Fig. 3, in order to test the
performance of the integrated thermal management system. The power
battery system consisting of 168 commercial square lithium iron phos­
phate batteries is applied in this study, and the dimensions of the cell
battery are 205 mm × 174 mm × 41 mm (height × width × depth), and
the capacity is 150 Ah.
The main components in the refrigerant circuit, coolant circuit, and
J. Ma et al.
Fig. 13. The temperature variations of the battery system over time at different
duty ratios, during the condition of high-speed discharging, then fast charging
at 25 ◦ C ambient temperature.
Fig. 14. The coolant inlet temperatures variations over time at different duty
ratios, during the condition of high-speed discharging, then fast charging at
25 ◦ C ambient temperature.
high and low-voltage lines are connected according to the thermal
management system design.
3. Experimental setup
3.1. Testing system
The real vehicle application equipped with the proposed integrated
thermal management system and the schematic diagram of the experi­
mental setup is depicted in Fig. 4. A power battery comprehensive
performance test system with a voltage measurement range 24–800 V,
maximum current 1000 A, maximum power 400 kW, and an accuracy of
(0.05%FS+5dgt) was used to charge and discharge the battery system.
T-type thermocouples (omega type TT-T-30-SLE-1M, accuracy of
±0.1 ◦ C) were attached to the surface center of each battery pack and the
inlet and outlet of the cooling plate for recording the temperatures by a
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Energy 270 (2023) 126860
PC-based data acquisition unit (Agilent 34980 A). Two programmable
DC power supplies (Chroma 62150H-1000, Chroma 62150H-40) were
used to record the current, voltage, power, and energy consumption
supplied by the high and low-voltage power, respectively. The un­
certainties in the voltage and current measurements were 0.05% +
0.05%F.S. and 0.1% + 0.2%F⋅S., respectively. The walk-in high and low-
temperature humid heat test chamber with the temperature measure­
ment range − 60 ◦ C~+100◦ Cand an accuracy of ±1 ◦ C was applied to
provide for high and low temperature alternating hot and humid envi­
ronment with meeting the in-real vehicle conditions.
The experimental procedures were compiled on the basis of State-
standard GB/T 31,484–2015 (Cycle life requirements and test methods
for traction battery of electric vehicle) and GB/T 31467.2–2015
(Lithium-ion traction battery pack and system for Electric vehicles—Part
2: Test specification for high energy applications).
3.2. Battery thermal management system control strategy
The proposed integrated thermal management system includes three
thermal management modes: natural cooling mode, self-circulation
mode, and refrigeration mode. As shown in Fig. 2, the thermal man­
agement system switches among the three cooling modes based on
battery temperature and coolant inlet temperature; meanwhile, the
operation of each thermal management component is adjusted based on
battery temperature and coolant inlet temperature. In the natural
cooling mode, no cooling measures are taken for the battery system, and
all thermal management components are in shutdown condition. As
shown in Fig. 2, the three-way valve ab is turned on in the self-
circulation mode. The coolant is driven by the electronic water pump
through the integrated radiator and then passes to the cooling plate at
the bottom of the battery system to dissipate the heat of the battery
system. When the refrigeration mode is activated, both the ac and ab
circuits are turned on simultaneously. An integrated radiator cools one
part of the coolant, and the chiller cools the other part of the coolant
with low-temperature refrigerant.
In summary, it can be seen that the operation of each thermal
management component needs to be explicitly controlled according to
the temperature of the battery system in the self-cycling and cooling
modes. Fig. 5 depicts the control strategy of the battery thermal man­
agement system, where Tmax indicates the maximum temperature of the
battery system, Tmean is the average temperature of the battery system,
Tinlet is the inlet temperature of the coolant on the cooling plate. Nfan and
Ncomp in the figure are the speeds of the electronic fan and compressor,
respectively, which will be adjusted according to Tinlet and Tmean.
4. Results and discussions
The performances of the thermal management system are investi­
gated in this section. 25 ◦ C and 40 ◦ C are the two selected ambient
temperatures representing room and high temperatures, respectively.
Two typical operation conditions, urban test condition and high-speed
condition, which are primarily operated for pure electrical trans­
portation vehicles, are used for testing. The high-speed road test of
electric vehicles [55] was done in more than ten cities in China
(including different altitudes, humidity, latitude, and longitude cities
from north to south), and the average speed 80 km/h is used as the
high-speed test condition in this research. The real operation condition
of electric vehicles in Xi’an city is taken as the urban test condition, and
the partial speed curves are presented in Fig. 6.
4.1. The performance of the thermal management system based on a real
vehicle prototype test
A series of tests based on a real vehicle prototype is implemented to
investigate the performance of the thermal management system and
analyze the effects of high energy consumption components in real
J. Ma et al.
Fig. 15. The coolant inlet and outlet temperatures by adjusting different compressor and electronic fan speed combinations.
Table 1
The thermal management system performances under different compressor and electronic fan speed combinations when the battery system is discharging at the speed
of 80 km/h at ambient temperature 40 ◦ C.
Performance
Battery temperature rise (◦ C)
Coolant inlet temperature variation (◦ C)
Coolant outlet temperature variation (◦ C)
Energy consumptions (kWh)
The relative energy-saving rate compared with the prototype vehicle
Fig. 16. The thermal management system performances during two consecu­
tive rounds of tests at high-speed discharging +0.8C fast charging at ambient
temperature 40 ◦ C.
applications.
4.1.1. Temperature characteristics of the battery system
Based on the experimental setup in Fig. 4, the average temperatures
of the battery system, coolant inlet, and outlet with thermal
Energy 270 (2023) 126860
Thermal management methods
Prototype vehicle S1 S2 S3
↑1 (39 → 40) ↑1 (40 → 41) 0 (40 → 40) ↑1 (39 → 40)
↓11 (41 ◦ C→30 ◦ C) ↓10 (41 ◦ C→31 ◦ C) ↓12 (41 ◦ C→29 ◦ C) ↓12 (42 ◦ C→30 ◦ C)
↓9 (41 ◦ C→32 ◦ C) ↓8 (41 ◦ C→33 ◦ C) ↓10 (41 ◦ C→31 ◦ C) ↓10 (42 ◦ C→32 ◦ C)
3.514 3.213 3.163 2.799
– 8.56% 9.99% 20.34%
management are tested and compared with the results of natural cooling
during urban condition discharging, then fast charging condition at
different ambient temperatures are illustrated in Fig. 7.
As shown in Fig. 7(a), the temperature rise of the battery system with
thermal management can be kept within 3 ◦ C and 10 ◦ C during dis­
charging and fast charging, respectively, in contrast to 8 ◦ C and 15 ◦ C
during natural cooling. Moreover, the battery temperature can be
effectively controlled by the thermal management system, the maximum
temperature is 38 ◦ C at the end stage of fast charging, which enables the
battery system to operate safely and efficiently.
At 40 ◦ C ambient temperature, the temperatures of the battery sys­
tem are presented in Fig. 7(b). It can be seen from the natural cooling
curve that the process of fast-charging is interrupted (SOC = 79.6%) due
to the temperature protection triggered by the high temperature in case
of battery thermal runaway. Conversely, the thermal management sys­
tem can effectively restrict the temperature rise of the battery.
At the ambient temperature of 25 ◦ C and 40 ◦ C, the temperatures of
the battery system, coolant inlet and outlet through the thermal man­
agement and natural cooling during high-speed condition discharging,
then fast charging condition are illustrated in Fig. 8.
As can be seen from Fig. 8(a), the temperature rise of the battery
system is severe when the thermal management mode is natural cooling
during the process of high-speed condition discharging, then fast
charging condition. This phenomenon is further aggravated in Fig. 8(b)
when the ambient temperature is 40 ◦ C; even the process of fast-
charging is interrupted (SOC = 53.2%) due to the temperature protec­
tion triggered. In contrast, the effect of the thermal management system
is positive, and effective temperature rise control is revealed clearly in
Fig. 8.
It is a rather remarkable outcome from Figs. 7 and 8 that the
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J. Ma et al. Energy 270 (2023) 126860

Table 2
The thermal management system performances comparisons of the developed strategy and the prototype vehicle during two consecutive rounds of tests at high-speed
discharging +0.8C fast charging at ambient temperature 40 ◦ C.
Performance Thermal management methods

Prototype vehicle S3

Round1 Round2 Round1 Round2

Discharging Battery temperature variation ( C)

◦
↑2 (39 ◦
C→41 C)
◦
↓9 (49 C→40 C)
◦ ◦
↑1 (40 C→41 C)
◦ ◦
↓5 (47 ◦ C→42 ◦ C)
Coolant inlet temperature variation (◦ C) ↓9 (41 ◦
C→32 ◦ C) ↓3 (30 ◦ C→27 ◦ C) ↓10 (41 ◦ C→31 ◦ C) ↓4 (35 ◦ C→31 ◦ C)
Coolant outlet temperature variation (◦ C) ↓7 (41 ◦
C→34 ◦ C) ↓3 (33 ◦ C→30 ◦ C) ↓8 (41 ◦ C→33 ◦ C) ↓2 (35 ◦ C→33 ◦ C)
Charging Battery temperature variation (◦ C) ↑8 (41 ◦
C→49 ◦ C) ↑7 (40 ◦ C→47 ◦ C) ↑7 (41 ◦ C→48 ◦ C) ↑6 (42 ◦ C→48 ◦ C)
Coolant inlet temperature variation (◦ C) ↓2 (32 ◦
C→30 ◦ C) ↑2 (27 ◦ C→29 ◦ C) ↓1 (31 ◦ C→30 ◦ C) 0 (31 ◦ C→31 ◦ C)
Coolant outlet temperature variation (◦ C) ↓1 (34 ◦
C→33 ◦ C) ↑2 (30 ◦ C→32 ◦ C) 0 (33 ◦ C→33 ◦ C) 0 (33 ◦ C→33 ◦ C)
Total Total battery temperature variation (◦ C) ↑10 ↓2 ↑8 ↑1
Total coolant inlet temperature variation (◦ C) ↓11 ↓1 ↓11 ↓4
Total coolant outlet temperature variation (◦ C) ↓8 ↓1 ↓8 ↓2

Further research sets out to assess the energy-efficient optimization,

focusing on the collaborative control of the electronic water pump, the
electronic fan, and the compressor under the premise that the battery
temperature is controlled within the appropriate range.

4.2. Analysis of energy saving potential of each component of the thermal

management system

This section systematically analyses the components’ data for

affecting thermal management performance, aiming to establish optimal
thermal management strategies. The optimization problem is formu­
lated as minimizing energy consumption of the electronic water pump,
the electronic fan, and the compressor subject to constant ambient
temperature and feasible operating temperature of the battery.

4.2.1. Electronic water pump

Fig. 17. The thermal management energy consumptions during two consecu­
tive rounds of tests at high-speed discharging +0.8C fast charging at ambient
temperature 40 ◦ C.
integrated thermal management system proposed in this paper is
effective when the battery system operates under real-vehicle operating
conditions at different ambient temperatures.
4.1.2. Energy consumption of the battery thermal management system
With regard to the thermal management system of the prototype
vehicle presented in section 4.1.1, the energy consumptions under
different operating conditions at two ambient temperatures are sum­
marized, as shown in Fig. 9.
As expected, the energy consumption caused by thermal manage­
ment at high temperatures is more significant than that at normal
temperatures, which directly drives the cruising range to be greatly
reduced under high temperatures. Particularly, the thermal manage­
ment energy consumption under urban operating condition discharging
at 40 ◦ C is 11.361 kWh, taking up 14% of the rated energy of the battery
system. In addition, the thermal management energy consumption by
urban operating condition discharging uses up much more energy than
the high-speed condition discharging; this result may be explained by its
long operation time and regenerated brake energy recovery.
Currently, the mileage range of electric vehicles is still greatly
restricted due to the limitation of the onboard battery energy and long
charging time. Therefore, a comprehensive energy consumption opti­
mization of the thermal management system is necessary to guarantee
the normal use of electric vehicles.
To investigate the cooling characteristics of each component of the
thermal management system, analyze the effects of threshold values in
real applications, and conduct studies of control strategies, an integrated
energy consumption analysis based on a real vehicle prototype is
proposed.
Take the case of the high-speed condition discharging, then fast
charging condition at 40 ◦ C ambient temperature, the dependences of
flow rate and power on the duty ratio of the electronic water pump are
depicted in Fig. 10.
At 40 ◦ C ambient temperature, the battery system operates at the
condition of high-speed discharging, then fast charging, the temperature
variations of the battery system over time at different duty ratios are
illustrated in Fig. 11. Under the same operating conditions, the coolant
inlet temperature variations are shown in Fig. 12.
As shown in Figs. 11 and 12, an optimal value of the electronic water
pump duty ratio (30%) enables the temperatures of both the battery
system and coolant inlet to be the lowest. Conversely, the cooling effect
is the worst when the electronic water pump duty ratio is 90%, while the
average battery temperature is 4 ◦ C higher and the coolant inlet tem­
perature is 8 ◦ C higher than the values of 30% duty ratio.
When the ambient temperature is 25 ◦ C, the same consequence
emerges from the data of Figs. 13 and 14: the optimal performance of the
battery system and coolant inlet is at 30%. Therefore, the current find­
ings clearly support the relevance of the electronic water pump duty
ratio. Hence, an electronic water pump duty ratio of 30%, correspond­
ingly, a coolant flow rate is 7.7 L/min is selected as the optimization
value of the water pump in the following study.
4.2.2. Electronic fan and compressor control
Each electronic fan is controlled by a dedicated controller, which
receives the inlet and outlet water temperature set points from the zonal
temperature sensors and varies the compressor speed to control the
water temperature at the set value. A series of laboratory tests have been
conducted with different compressor and electronic fan speed combi­
nations, aiming at investigating an optimal control strategy to minimize
the energy consumption of the thermal management system.
The control strategies of the battery cooling system are applied to
design a non-linear controller to stabilize the coolant temperature at the
outlet by regulating the compressor and electronic fan speeds. A set of

8
J. Ma et al.
Fig. 18. The temperature comparisons of the battery system, coolant inlet and outlet during high-speed and urban conditions discharging +0.8C charging process at
two representative ambient temperatures.
three schemes tests is experimentally investigated to study the cooling
abilities and power consumption as follows,
S1. Adjustment of the compressor speed;
S2. Adjustment of the electronic fan speed;
S3. Adjustment of the compressor and fan speed combination.
At an ambient temperature of 40 ◦ C, when the battery system is
discharging at the speed of 80 km/h, the inlet and outlet temperatures
by adjusting different compressor and electronic fan speed combinations
are depicted in Fig. 15.
The battery system average temperatures and thermal management
energy consumptions are shown in Table 1, and the values of the pro­
totype vehicle are also listed as compared.
It can be seen clearly from Table 1 that under the premise that the
battery system average temperatures are within the appropriate tem­
perature range, the energy consumptions of thermal management differ
markedly by adjusting compressor and electronic fan speed combina­
tions. Compared with the prototype vehicle, the energy consumption of
the thermal management system during the discharging process is
reduced significantly when adjusting different compressor and elec­
tronic fan speed combinations. Especially, for S3, by accommodating the
compressor and fan speed simultaneously, the energy consumption de­
creases to 2.799 kWh, with a dropping rate of 20.34%. Therefore, the
compressor and electronic fan speed combinations S3 is used as
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Energy 270 (2023) 126860
compressor and electronic fan operating condition in the following
study.
4.3. Strategy verification under extreme operating conditions
According to the application characteristics of pure electric transport
vehicles, the charging process takes place immediately after the vehicle
battery is depleted, and then the vehicle continues to operate after fully
charged, so the temperatures of the battery system and energy con­
sumptions are discussed under extreme operating conditions. Pure
electric transport vehicle discharges from SOC = 100% at high-speed
until battery depletion, then fully charges immediately at 0.8C, and
once again, constructing two consecutive rounds of tests at ambient
temperature 40 ◦ C. The battery system average temperatures of the
proposed strategy based on the optimization described above and the
prototype vehicle are compared in Fig. 16 and Table 2.
From the data in Fig. 16 and Table 2, it is apparent that the battery
system average temperatures are within the appropriate temperature
range, and there is little difference in the temperature of the two
strategies.
The comparisons of thermal management energy consumption are
summarized in Fig. 17.
It is remarkable from the date of the proposed strategy in Fig. 17 that
J. Ma et al.
Fig. 19. The comparisons of thermal management energy consumption during high-speed and urban conditions discharging +0.8C charging process at two
representative ambient temperatures.
there is a significant reduction in energy consumption by comparison
with the prototype strategy. The thermal management energy con­
sumption of the battery system during the first and second rounds of
discharging is reduced by 16.62% and 51.16%, respectively. Notably,
the thermal management energy consumption of the second round of
discharging is optimized significantly, and the total energy consumption
in two consecutive rounds is reduced by 30.01%.
4.4. Thermal management system characteristics for the proposed strategy
The thermal management system characteristics of the battery sys­
tem during high-speed and urban conditions discharging +0.8C
charging process at two representative ambient temperatures are vali­
dated and analyzed.
As indicated in Fig. 18(a) and (b), the average temperatures of the
battery system (<40 ◦ C) are all within the optimum temperature range.
Furthermore, the temperatures of the proposed strategy are higher than
the values of the prototype vehicle; this result may be explained by the
fact that there is without thermal management during the discharging
process, which can be seen from the constant inlet and outlet tempera­
tures. For Fig. 18(c), the proposed strategy can effectively control the
battery system temperature during high-speed discharging + 0.8C fast
charging operating condition. The temperatures of the proposed strategy
are lower than the values of the prototype vehicle during the entire
process. Besides, the energy consumption of the thermal management
system is reduced, as shown in Fig. 19.
From Fig. 19(a), it can be seen that the thermal management energy
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Energy 270 (2023) 126860
consumption for discharging process of the proposed strategy is just
0.051 kWh, which is mainly consumed by the low-pressure electronic
valves, due to the fact that the opening condition of thermal manage­
ment component is not met when the battery system operates at the
high-speed discharging process. The whole process energy consumption
of the proposed strategy is 2.041 kWh, and the relative energy-saving
rate is 46.13% compared with the prototype vehicle. There are similar
results shown in Fig. 19(b) that the whole process energy consumption
of the proposed strategy is 1.827 kWh, and the relative energy-saving
rate is 50.72% compared with the prototype vehicle.
The energy consumption of the thermal management system is high
when the battery system operates at high ambient temperature, which
can be concluded from Fig. 19(c) and (d). The proposed strategy can
effectively reduce energy consumption even when the ambient tem­
perature is up to 40 ◦ C. Significantly, the thermal management energy
consumption can be reduced from 10.746 kWh to 2.297 kWh for the
proposed strategy when the battery discharges at urban condition; for
the whole discharging-charging process, the relative energy-saving rate
is 78.63% compared with the prototype vehicle.
In summary, optimizing the electronic water pump, electronic fan,
and compressor combinations based on the proposed thermal manage­
ment strategy ensure the battery system temperature rise within a
reasonable range. In addition, the proposed strategy can reduce the
thermal management system’s energy consumption effectively.
J. Ma et al.
5. Conclusions
To explore the energy-saving potential of the thermal management
system in real applications, a test bench of integrated battery thermal
management system for pure electrical transportation vehicles is
established in this study. Based on the analysis of the thermal manage­
ment performances of a real vehicle prototype, a collaborative control
strategy of the electronic water pump, the electronic fan, and the
compressor is proposed. The thermal management system characteris­
tics applied to the proposed strategy of the battery system when oper­
ating under real-vehicle operating conditions at representative ambient
temperatures are validated and analyzed.
The main results of the study can be summarized as follows.
1. The performances of thermal management system based on a real
vehicle prototype test are investigated and verified. The thermal
management energy consumption at 40 ◦ C ambient temperature is
high, taking up 14% of the rated energy of the battery system.
Therefore, energy-efficient optimization analysis is essential.
2. The energy-saving potential of each component of the thermal
management system is analyzed. The experimental results show that
the optimal duty ratio value of the electronic water pump is 30%; the
collaborative control of compressor and electronic fan speed com­
binations is beneficial to minimize the energy consumption of the
thermal management system under the premise that the battery
temperature is at the appropriate range.
3. The temperatures of the battery system implemented in the proposed
strategy are verified under extreme operating conditions of con­
structing two consecutive rounds of tests at an ambient temperature
of 40 ◦ C. There is a significant reduction in energy consumption of
the proposed strategy by comparison with the prototype strategy,
and the total energy consumption in two consecutive rounds is
reduced by 30.01%.
4. The thermal management characteristics of the battery system dur­
ing high-speed and urban conditions processes at two representative
ambient temperatures are validated and analyzed. The energy con­
sumption of the thermal management system of the proposed strat­
egy is significantly reduced, especially at high ambient temperatures.
The relative energy-saving rate is 78.63% for the whole urban
operating condition compared with the prototype vehicle.
Credit author statement
Jing Ma: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology,
Validation, Supervision, Writing – original draft, Writing – review &
editing. Yongfei Sun: Data curation, Formal analysis, Writing – original
draft, Visualization. Shiang Zhang: Investigation, Validation
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.
Data availability
The authors do not have permission to share data.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (51976014), Special Grade of the Financial Sup­
portfrom the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019T120874),
the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
(30010229305). The authors appreciate the permission of all the
copyrighted figures used in this paper.
11
Energy 270 (2023) 126860
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