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Battery Cooling Techniques in Electric Vehicle CFD Flow Engineering
Battery Cooling Techniques in Electric Vehicle CFD Flow Engineering
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The high battery temperature leads to poor performance, a short lifetime, and the
risk of blasting. Therefore, a BTMS is essential for all battery modules.
The main purpose of a BTMS is to maintain the battery system in the optimum
temperature range and keep uniform temperature variation in the battery modules
Other factors for battery selection are weight, size, reliability, and the cost
The following figure shows the most used thermal management techniques for
battery module
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Air Cooling
Air is easily available for cooling purposes and it is widely used in many industries.
However, air is not an effective coolant because of its lower heat capacity and low
thermal conductivity
All two-wheelers use an air cooling system. It does not need any maintenance cost.
The battery is placed at the bottom of the seat. During the discharging, air flows
increase with an increase in the speed of the bike or scooter.
Due to low maintenance of costs, the following type of air cooling system is popular
in some automobile industries like Toyota Prius and Nissan Leaf
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The cooling is possible either by forced convection (active cooling) mode and
natural convection (passive cooling) mode
Natural convection cooling is suitable only for low-density batteries, and typically
blowers/fans can be used to enhance the convection heat transfer rate
When air is used for cooling of battery modules arranged in series, the middle and
rear portion of batteries are at high temperature to the low heat capacity of air. The
temperature of the battery pack near the outlet is very high and the temperature
distribution is highly non-uniform. To cool effectively, we need to increase the flow
rate and turbulence of airflow.
CFD study of different battery modules can be carried out for different
configurations of airflow rates and electric vehicles
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The following are popular battery pacts with air cooling in electrical vehicles
Honda Insight
Honda FitEV
Hyundai IONIQ
Nissan e-NV 200
Nissan Leaf
Renault Zoe
Toyota Prius Prime
A liquid cooling system is more compact than an air system. We can save up to 40%
of separate power compared to the fans required for air cooling.
Moreover, liquid cooling can reduce the noise level. However, the complexity of the
liquid cooling system and its leakage potential can be defined into direct and
indirect cooling.
Water has been an effective coolant for several industrial applications But the main
challenge is the short-circuited potential for direct cooling of batteries
To avoid the short-circuit issue, indirect methods are effective to avoid electrical
conduction with cells while maintaining high thermal diffusion
The addition of electrical resistance may resist thermal diffusion. But its effects on
cooling is not significant.
Some EV manufacturers such as General Motors, and Tesla are using indirect
cooling in their cars. General Motor used cold plates between each prismatic cell.
The cold plates have several micro-channels for convective heat removal from
batteries.
Tesla has used wavy tubes placed between cylindrical cells. Thermally conductive
and electrically insulated material is used to fill the gaps between the battery cells
and cooling ducts.
The wavy tubes may not be effective for cooling because of the small heat transfer
contact area, it is safer from the mechanical and electrical point of view. All the
connections of coolants are kept outside of the enclosure to avoid the leakage of
coolant.
Liquid cooling of batteries is shown below and heat transfer takes place from the
cells to cooling channels
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The design strategy of thermal management system for battery modules, controller,
and electric motor
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Direct cooling is also called immersion cooling, covers the entire surface of the cell
and cools it uniformly
Immersion cooling removes hot or cold spots in the cell and significantly improves
the performance of the cell.
Ideal coolant mush be dielectric with minimum viscosity and high thermal
conductivity and thermal capacity
Immersion cooling is widely used for data center servers and high-power electronics
devices
BTMS for this method is not suitable for most mass-produced EV due to high cost
and safety concerns
Immersion cooling is useful for batteries of high-performing EVs and EV racing.
The fluid has a boiling point between 60 – 80 °C to prevent overheating of the cells
and avoid thermal runaway. Modular type containers are used for the cells where
they can be submerged in the liquid
The following are popular battery pacts with liquid cooling in electrical vehicles
Audi R8 e-Tron
Ford Focus
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PCM as paraffin has a melting point in the range of 32-38°C which is mixed with
graphite flakes to improve thermal conductivity
The graphite flakes will also create a semi-matrix block which will contain the
paraffin particles. When the paraffin melts, it stays within this matrix and the whole
composition remains as the solid form
The basic equation for phase change material (PCM): V*ρ*L = P*t, where
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The advantage of solid PCM is that they also act as shields, in case one cell enters a
thermal runaway
Classification of PCM materials for battery cooling is given below
Select the phase change material which can maintain the temperature of cell 25-35
°C
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Multiphase modeling needs to be considered for phase change materials during the
cooling of batteries
Heat Pipe
Heat pipes have been considered versatile in many industrial applications for their
efficient cooling and
thermal management
Similar to the passive cooling method of PCM, applying the heat pipes to cool or
remove heat energy from the battery provides efficient
heat transfer t low power consumption
In this mechanism, heat is transferred through latent heat of vaporization (phase
change) from the evaporator to the condense
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The working fluid can be passively transported back to the evaporator by capillary
pressures it is developed
within a porous wick lining. Operating in this situation the heat is continuously
absorbed and released.
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Mode of cooling: forced convective or nature draft cooling. CFD simulations are
useful to decide the rate of cooling and thermal design of the cooling circuit
Thermal interface and fitting of battery packs
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The following figure shows the temperature contours of battery units with PCM materials.
High temperature is observed in the middle portion of the battery unit.
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Summary
Several methods for battery cooling have been developed in the last two decades
for the effective cooling of batteries in electric vehicles
The air cooling system is simple but the heat removal rate is low. In contrast,
immersion cooling is fast but it can lead to short circuit or corrosion issues
Operating and environment conditions, safety, battery back, coolant, mode of
cooling (forced or natural) and thermal interface are key parameters for battery
thermal management systems
CFD modeling will help for the optimum design of the battery cooling system. The
data can be used for the development of an AI algorithm for battery management
with a better life for cells
YouTube Videos
Click here: CFD Modeling of battery with Heap Pipe
Reference
A.Chu, Y.Yuan, J. Zhu, X. Lu, C. Zhou, The Design and Investigation of a Cooling System
for a High Power Ni-MH Battery Pack in Hybrid Electric Vehicle, (2020), 10 (1660)
Applied Sciences
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Reza Kalantar
Dear Sir
How can we get access to the geometry of this system in the youtube video?
and Is the file of the simulation available?
Thanks
Reza Kalantar
Reply
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