Comparison of Hybrid Cooling Concepts with PCM Cooling for Electric Battery Packs

In this paper, a hybrid thermal management strategy is proposed to increase the temperature uniformity and improve cooling within a Lithium-ion battery pack. Three different configurations are developed and compared. In all three configurations, the phase change material is placed directly with the cells, and liquid channels are placed in the battery pack to extract heat from the phase change materials. Furthermore, an air duct is placed at the top of the battery to extract heat from the fluids that are stationary within the liquid channels. In the first configuration, the liquid channels are placed in between the phase change material. In the second configuration, the location of the liquid channel is changed such that a part of it is in direct contact with the cells. This configuration is then modified for the third configuration such that for every three cells, there are two liquid channels. A baseline battery pack is also developed which contains only PCM cooling. Transient numerical studies were conducted, and the results indicated that through the first configuration, the maximum temperature was limited to 31.5 °C and the temperature uniformity to 1.75 °C. Moreover, this strategy does not require excessive pumping fluid power and high air velocities, which implies that less energy is required for the operation of the thermal management system.