Three Dimensional Thermal Modeling of Li-Ion Battery Pack

What is it about?

A three-dimensional multiphysics-based thermal model of a battery pack is shown. The model demonstrates how cooling works inside the battery pack. Coupled heat transfer (HT) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) physics are used for both time-dependent and steady-state simulation. Inside the battery cells in the pack, a lumped value of heat generation (HG), which serves as a volumetric heat source, is applied. The HG from the cell-level isothermal calorimeter experiment is used for this purpose. The batteries inside the pack start with the same initial thermal state in each simulation case. Simulating the pack reveals a temperature gradient over its surfaces. Temperature evolution results are also obtained through simulation. It is proven that this developed pack model can offer detailed thermal spatio-temporal behavior. This result aids in understanding how cells within a battery pack act thermally.

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Photo by Sean Sinclair on Unsplash

Photo by Sean Sinclair on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This research presents a thermal model that demonstrates how a battery pack is cooled using three-dimensional multiphysics. This can help in designing more efficient and better thermal management systems for batteries. By coupling heat transfer (HT) and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) physics for both time-dependent and steady-state simulations, the temperature gradient over the surfaces of the battery pack was explored. A lumped value of heat generation was used as a volumetric heat source which helped in understanding how much energy each cell within the pack generated. The simulation results showed that cell-to-cell temperature gradients within packs were affected by uneven distribution or dissipation measures leading to poor performance from some cells compared with others. Therefore, it’s important to have proper thermal management design inside a battery pack so all cells perform optimally without overheating or underperforming. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into developing effective strategies for managing temperatures during operation while ensuring optimal performance across all individual cells present in large-scale lithium-ion batteries commonly found today such as electric vehicles’ power sources, etc., making them more reliable than ever before!

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