A numerical study on the influence of geometric cell configurations over the thermal performance in a lithium-ion battery module

Lithium-ion batteries are used in many applications and their performance can be seriously affected by the operation temperature. In this paper, a numerical approach is employed to evaluate the thermal performance of three different cell configurations in a battery module. Sixteen cylindrical 18650 LIBs were discharged under 1C, 2C, 3C and 4C-rate at 1 m/s and 2 m/s airflow. Numerical simulations were implemented using ANSYS Fluent software. Findings evidence that there exists different thermal behaviour in the battery module associated with the cell arrangement and the location of the inlet and outlet airflow in on the LIB module case. The maximum cell temperature was 64.88 °C, reached at 4C for cells arranged in a rhombus pattern under 1 m/s air speed, and the minimum temperature was 28.10 °C at 1C for a triangular arrangement of cells with air cooling under 2 m/s. The location of the inlet and outlet airflow influences the cooling process of the battery module.