Experimental investigation on heat pipe cooling for Hybrid Electric Vehicle and Electric Vehicle lithium-ion battery

•A heat pipe cooling system was designed and a full size prototype was built.•Experimental investigation was performed under 3 input power levels.•Several cooling conditions were experimented to minimize the power consumption.•The system's performance was evaluated under different grade road conditions.

In this work, we explored the use of heat pipe as cooling device for a specific HEV lithium-ion battery module. The evaporator blocks of heat pipe modules were fixed to a copper plate which played the role of the battery cooling wall. A flat heater was glued to the other surface of the copper plate and reproduced heat generated by the battery. The temperature at the cooper plate/heater interface corresponds to that of the battery module wall. An AMESim model of the battery was developed to estimate the cells' temperature within the battery. In inclined positions, a very slender evolution of the cooper plate/heater interface temperature was noticed, which means heat pipe works efficiently under different grade road conditions. Even though natural convection and chimney effect are not enough, coupling heat pipes with a confined ventilation structure is an efficient way to keep cells' temperature within its optimal range with an even temperature distribution. Furthermore, only low rate ventilation is necessary, which helps avoid parasitic power consumption and noise level in the vehicle.