Development of an Advanced Simulation Model for Thermal Management of Battery Packs in Electric Vehicles

: Development of an Advanced Simulation Model for Thermal Management of Battery Packs in Electric Vehicles

Abstract

An extensive study of different Battery Thermal Management systems (BTMs) in the state of art revealed the importance to control the temperature for large scale battery packs in Electric Vehicles. Situations when temperature is not taken into account lead to premature failure of the battery pack and possible safety risks. Literature confirms that Phase Change Materials (PCMs) have a very high potential to be a cheap, effective, simple, durable and completely passive solution if mainly the thermal conductivity of these materials can be improved.
A fully coupled electro-thermal battery model is proposed with a very performant and user friendly thermal interface in Comsol MultipysicsTM such different driving profiles can be tested on their thermal behaviour. This set-up is validated at BOL which can be easily expanded towards EOL with appropriate battery data since temperature control should be investigated and controlled over the whole lifetime of the battery application.
The phase change behaviour of PCMs is simulated and validated together with the natural convection effect in Comsol MultiphysicsTM. The appropriate choice of the applied driving profile and battery configuration seems to be crucial in the design stage of this thermal management system. An increase in thermal conductivity of the PCM is clearly needed to optimize the efficiency of the heat capture. From the results can be concluded that the PCM should ideally have the same thermal conductivity in the direction it is connected to the battery.
A porous PCM-metal matrix model is built such the thermal conductivity is increased and an important PCM optimization is proved. In addition seemed the influence of natural convection be completely insignificant in the case of this metal matrix enhanced as well as pure PCM heat sink.

Date of Award	30 Jun 2015
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Supervisor	Noshin Omar (Advisor) & Joeri Van Mierlo (Promotor)