Study on the battery thermal management system for cylindrical lithium-ion battery with nano-doped phase change material and liquid cooling

Abstract

Abstract The rapid rise in global warming pushes the automobile industry towards adopting Electric vehicles globally. The battery is considered a core element of electric cars and must operate in extreme conditions. Therefore, a suitable heat recovery system must be implemented to make the battery reach its higher performance. This work explores and tests a hybrid-based Battery Thermal Management System under various operating conditions. To enhance the property of paraffin (Phase Change Material) in the passive method, Al2O3 nanoparticles have been added with paraffin in three different ratios of 5%, 10%, and 15%. In the case of the active method, the water is circulated in a counterflow direction through the copper coil. A detailed experimental investigation was carried out at free convection, pure paraffin, PCM with Al2O3 (5%, 10%, and 15%), and hybrid (both active and passive). Each investigation was carried out under different C rates (0.5 C, 1 C, 2 C, 3 C). The result shows that under natural convection for a 3 C discharge rate, the temperature rises to 51.16 °C, and it is reduced to 40.81 °C for hybrid conditions. Finally, after incorporating the hybrid-based thermal management system, a temperature reduction of around 10.35 °C is observed when compared with natural convection conditions. A detailed computational study was also carried out to validate the experimental results. The maximum temperature of 47 °C is obtained for a pure PCM battery module at a 3 C discharge rate, and it is well matched with experimental results.