High thermal conductivity component (flat heat pipe) for battery thermal management

What is it about?

Thermal management is directly linked with performance, safety and aging of modern batteries. This paper explores and presents experimental thermal properties of a modern very wide flat heat pipe variant called Thermal Ground Planes (TGP). The impact of orientation, power and operating temperatures are considered in this analysis for aircraft batteries.

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Photo by Chris Leipelt on Unsplash

Photo by Chris Leipelt on Unsplash

Why is it important?

Thermal ground planes are a very wide flat heat pipe variant. When combined with external air or liquid cooling, they can act as the internal thermal management component of batteries reaching performances such as over 10x the thermal conductivity of copper. Because they are fluid dependent, they do not have constant thermal properties like metals and an understanding of this variation is required before using them as a BTMS.