Effect of module structure on the performance of battery thermal management system based on PCM

To maintain the performance and to extend the lifetime of Li-ion batteries in electric vehicles employing thermal management systems (TMSs) is inevitable. Using phase change materials (PCMs) in TMSs has significant advantages such as establishing uniform temperature distribution among cells, prohibiting the excessive temperature rise without consuming energy, and so forth. On the other hand, low controllability of PCMs is considered to be one of their unpleasant drawbacks for which lots of engineers have made attempt to eliminate or at least, lessen the relative effect. However, the role of the module structure in PCM-based TMSs is not still well-understood. In the current study, four PCM-based TMSs for four battery modules with different structures in terms of cells arrangement (i.e., four linear, rectangular, hexagonal and octagonal arrangements of cells in each module with the same number of cells and the same amount of PCM) are simulated, and their performances are analyzed. The results demonstrate the critical role of the cells arrangement. Besides, the results show that the rectangular and the hexagonal arrangements are the most appropriate module structure when PCM is employed for battery thermal management

کلیدواژه ها:

Thermal management system (TMS) ، phase change material (PCM) ، Li-ion battery ، battery module ، cells arrangement ، module structure.