Experimental Investigation on Affecting Air Flow against the Maximum Temperature Difference of a Lithium-Ion Battery with Heat Pipe Cooling

Abstract

Research on battery thermal management systems (BTMSs) is particularly significant since the electric vehicle sector is growing in importance and because the batteries that power them have high operating temperature requirements. Among them, heat pipe (HP)-based battery thermal management systems have very high heat transfer performance but fall short in maintaining uniform temperature distribution. This study presented forced air cooling by an axial fan as a method of improving the cooling performance of flat heat pipes coupled with aluminum fins (FHPAFs) and investigated the impact of air velocity on the battery pack’s maximum temperature differential (ΔTmax). All experiments were conducted on lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC) pouch battery cells with a 20 Ah capacity in seven series connections at room temperature, under forced and natural convection, at various air velocity values (12.7 m/s, 9.5 m/s, and 6.3 m/s), and with 1C, 2C, 3C, and 4C discharge rates. The results indicated that at the same air velocity, increasing the discharge rate increases the ΔTmax significantly. Forced convection has a higher ΔTmax than natural convection. The ΔTmax was reduced when the air velocity was increased during forced convection.

Keywords

• battery thermal management system
• lithium-ion battery
• heat pipe
• cooling performance
• air flow
• electric vehicle