Effective thermal management of Lithium-Ion Batteries with inorganic PCMs and mini-channel cold plate*

The share of electric mobility in passenger vehicle sector is increasing rapidly. Neat electric vehicles work with battery, controller and electric motor as its essential components.Among different types of batteries, Lithium-Ion batteries have gained popularity for electric vehicle application owing to its important characteristics such as high energy and power density and nominal voltage. However, the functioning of these batteries is hindered by temperature under high discharge rates and high ambient temperatures, causing thermal runaway and related catastrophic issues. Many thermal management approaches have been in vogue to bring down the battery temperature to threshold limit. Among various Phase Change Materials[PCMs], inorganic type being non-flammable offer high thermal conductivity and thus tending provide better cooling. An attempt is made to implement inorganic PCMs with different thickness under high discharge rate conditions. A computational study, with ANSYS 21 R, is aimed at to achieve better thermal management both with inorganic PCMs and mini-channel cold plate. The numerical work is performed on a single cell, module and a battery pack with LiFePO4 as chosen battery cathode material.It is observed combination of PCM and cold plate could bring down the peak battery temperature to a safer limit.