Cooling Techniques in

Electric Vehicle
Effect of temperature on battery life
• Ensure battery operation under optimal temperature range (15 C
to 35 C).
• Monitor the state of the battery and detect the critical point of
battery failures and deliver alarm messages.
• Suppress thermal runway propagation.
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.
• 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.
Air cooling
• 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.
Liquid cooling of Battery
• Liquid coolants have a high convective heat removal rate due to
higher density and heat capacity compared to air.
• 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.
Indirect liquid 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.
Indirect liquid cooling
• 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.
 Indirect liquid cooling
The design strategy of thermal management system for
battery modules, controller, and electric motor.
Laser cleaning

• Laser cleaning: Thermal Interface Material (TIMs) must remain

bonded at all times. The best way to improve the bonding quality and
durability is to properly clean the parts to be bonded. Lasers provide a
fast, precise, and efficient way to achieve this objective.

• Laser texturing: Heat transfer depends on the surface area of the

material that transfers heat: the greater the surface area, the better the
heat transfer. Lasers can texture the surface to generate a roughness
that improves heat transfer.
Battery laser texturing

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL-4I-CvuQk
 Short video on powertrain liquid cooling

https://youtu.be/R7xPSp9xf8o?si=UgZ_m0Iyv6NAvHRm
Direct liquid cooling (Immersion)
• 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 must be dielectric (very low electrical conductivity)
with minimum viscosity and high thermal conductivity and
thermal capacity.
• 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.
Phase change Material (PCM) Cooling
• The phase change material absorbs heat significantly due to high
latent heat during battery discharge.
• The PCMs have been used for thermal management have a
melting point in the optimum performing range of lithium cells.
The cell temperature needs to remain for a long time.
• 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
Heat Pipes
• 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 and lower power consumption.
• In this mechanism, heat is transferred through latent heat of
vaporization (phase change) from the evaporator to the condense.