Experimental research on the effective heating strategies for a phase change material based power battery module

Constructing a complete battery thermal management (BTM) system consisting of both the heating and cooling functionalities is critical to guarantee the cycling life and safety of the power battery pack. In this work, we focus on the neglected issue of replenishing a cooling system with a heating functionality in a standardized power battery module. Two kinds of heating strategies, including forced air convection (FAC) heating and silicone plate (SP) heating are developed and then optimized on an advanced phase change material (PCM)-cooling based battery module. The experimental results show that the performance of the FAC heating strategies can be optimized by constructing a “close-ended” battery pack and increasing the fan number to recycle the waste heat and uniform the air flow field, respectively. The strategy of SP heating at 90 W demonstrates the most effective heating performance. For instance, an acceptable heating time of 632 s and a second lowest temperature difference of 3.55 °C can be obtained, resulting in a highest comprehensive evaluation factor of 0.42, much higher than those of other heating strategies (0.29-0.32). These encouraging results may raise concerns about constructing suitable cooling and heating functionalities simultaneously in a BTM system to realize a target oriented use, particularly those targeting various harsh operating environments.