Liquid Cooled Battery Thermal Management System for 3S2P Li-Ion Battery Configuration

Lithium-ion batteries are the future of the automotive industry. Due to their zero-emission technology, lithium-ion powered electric vehicles are hyped as the power source of the future. However, one of the main drawbacks of the cell is its high heat generation, which, in turn, affects the performance of the vehicle. Currently, research is being conducted into developing an efficient battery thermal management system (BTMS). The present study will be looking into developing a liquid battery thermal management system. To determine the efficiency of the cooling system, heat generation on a smaller battery pack was modelled with the help of the MSMD model on Ansys fluent. A smaller battery pack of a 3s2p configuration was selected to validate the results. The parameters of the cell were available on the datasheet. Materials were selected based on the data present on Ansys fluent. The simulation was conducted for two discharge rates 1C and 2C. As a result, it was observed that for the 3s2p configuration, the maximum temperatures go up to 320 K and 335 K for a discharge rate of 1C and 2C, respectively. After this, the battery pack is subjected to a liquid thermal management system. The effect of various mass flow rate on temperature are as follows at flow rate of 1e-5 the maximum temperature decreases by 5.31%, whereas the maximum temperatures at 1e-4 and 1e-3 flowrate decreases by 5.93% and 6.01% respectively at 1C discharge rate. In case of 2C discharge rate, at the mass flow rate of 1e-5, the maximum temperature decrease is by 8.65%, whereas for 1e-4 and 1e-3, the maximum temperature decrease is by 9.85% and 10.14%, respectively. A crossflow design is adopted and was compared with the normal flow; it is observed that there is no significant effect of flow direction on temperature.