Enhanced temperature uniformity with minimized pressure drop in electric vehicle battery packs at elevated C-rates

Abstract

The trend of transition from fossil fuel to electrification in transportation is a result of no carbon emission produced by electric vehicles (EVs) during their daily operations. Furthermore, the global carbon footprint of EVs can be minimized if the electricity is generated from renewable sources such as wind and solar. On the other hand, there are some drawbacks of these vehicles such as charging time being very long and the mileage range of vehicles not at the desired level. Battery cells are being charged at relatively high C-rates to eliminate these problems, yet high current rates accelerate the aging of batteries and capacity losses due to the generated heat. Generated heat causes overheating, and excess temperature triggers degradation and thermal runaway risks. This paper uncovers how the battery pack temperature uniformity and strict thermal control can be achieved with heat transfer enhancement by conduction (cold plates) and convection (vascular channels). We aimed to reduce the energy consumption of the EV battery pack system while increasing the thermal performance. The impact of the thermal contact resistance is also considered for many realistic scenarios. The results indicate that an integrated system with cold plates and vascular channels satisfies the temperature uniformity requirement (over 81%) with comparatively less pumping power (∼72%) of advanced electric vehicles for relatively high C-rates. Furthermore, findings show the temperature level can increase up to 4°C as thermal contact resistance increases. The proposed cooling technique, which has low cost, easy application, and lower energy consumption superiorities, can be implemented in palpable EV battery packs.