Experimental Study on Dielectric Fluid Immersion Cooling for Thermal Management of Lithium-Ion Battery

Abstract

The rapidly growing commercialization of electric vehicles demands higher capacity lithium-ion batteries with higher heat generation which degrades the lifespan and performance of batteries. The currently widely used indirect liquid cooling imposes disadvantages of the higher thermal resistance and coolant leakage which has diverted the attention to the direct liquid cooling for the thermal management of batteries. The present study conducts the experimental investigation on discharge and heat transfer characteristics of lithium-ion battery with direct liquid cooling for the thermal management. The 18,650 lithium-ion cylindrical battery pack is immersed symmetrically in dielectric fluid. The discharge voltage and capacity, maximum temperature, temperature difference, average temperature, heat absorbed, and heat transfer coefficient are investigated under various conditions of discharge rates, inlet temperatures, and volume flow rates of coolant. The operating voltage and discharge capacity are decreasing with increase in the volume flow rate and decrease in the inlet temperature for all discharge rates. At the higher discharge rate of 4C, the lowest battery maximum temperatures of 60.2 °C and 44.6 °C and the highest heat transfer coefficients of 2884.25 W/m2-K and 2290.19 W/m2-K are reported for the highest volume flow rate of 1000 mLPM and the lowest inlet temperature of 15 °C, respectively.

Keywords

• discharge characteristics
• heat transfer characteristics
• immersion cooling
• thermal management
• lithium-ion battery