Development of cooling strategy for an air cooled lithium-ion battery pack

• A transient battery thermal model is developed to predict battery thermal behavior.
• A design of experiments approach is developed to identify battery cooling strategy.
• An optimal design concept of air-cooled battery pack has been proposed.
• The cooling strategy to improve battery temperature uniformity has been studied.

This paper describes a cooling strategy development method for an air cooled battery pack with lithium-ion pouch cells used in a hybrid electric vehicle (HEV). The challenges associated with the temperature uniformity across the battery pack, the temperature uniformity within each individual lithium-ion pouch cell, and the cooling efficiency of the battery pack are addressed. Initially, a three-dimensional battery pack thermal model developed based on simplified electrode theory is correlated to physical test data. An analytical design of experiments (DOE) approach using Optimal Latin-hypercube technique is then developed by incorporating a DOE design model, the correlated battery pack thermal model, and a morphing model. Analytical DOE studies are performed to examine the effects of cooling strategies including geometries of the cooling duct, cooling channel, cooling plate, and corrugation on battery pack thermal behavior and to identify the design concept of an air cooled battery pack to maximize its durability and its driving range.