Electrochemical-thermal Modeling to Evaluate Active Thermal Management of a Lithium-ion Battery Module

Lithium-ion batteries are commonly used in hybrid electric and full electric vehicles (HEV and EV). In HEV, thermal management is a strict requirement to control the batteries temperature within an optimal range in order to enhance performance, safety, reduce cost, and prolong the batteries lifetime. The optimum design of a thermal management system depends on the thermo-electrochemical behavior of the batteries, operating conditions, and weight and volume constraints. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of various operating and design parameters on the thermal performance of a battery module consisted of six building block cells. An electrochemical-thermal model coupled to conjugate heat transfer and fluid dynamics simulations is used to assess the effectiveness of two indirect liquid thermal management approaches under the FUDC driving cycle. In this study, a novel pseudo 3D electrochemical-thermal model of the battery is used. It is found that the cooling plate thickness has a significant effect on the maximum and gradient of temperature in the module. Increasing the Reynolds number decreases the average temperature but at the expense of temperature uniformity. The results show that double channel cooling system has a lower maximum temperature and more uniform temperature distribution compared to a single channel cooling system.