Design of thermal management system for a battery pack with malfunctioning battery: - a numerical parametric study

In this study, a hybrid cooling technology comprising phase change material (PCM) and active cooling was employed for a battery pack arrangement with a circular configuration. The numerical model comprised simulated Li-ion batteries made of aluminium, which generate heat, housed within a cylindrical steel casing filled with a PCM. Numerical simulations were carried out using the ANSYS-FLUENT 2023 R2 edition. A comparative study was conducted on various battery configurations, including 4-battery and 6-battery setups, subjected to constant heat loads of 5W and 15W, cyclic heat loads where batteries generate a constant 5W or 15W for 500 seconds within each cycle, followed by a 500-second interval with no heat load, and charge-discharge cycle analyses. In the latter study, three batteries operated at 5W while one malfunctioning battery operated at 15W. Two configurations were tested, including a single pipe and four pipes. Preliminary results revealed that the hybrid cooling system with a single pipe reached a maximum temperature of 90°C for the malfunctioning battery configuration, whereas the four-pipe configuration resulted in a maximum of 56°C before achieving a steady-state condition. These findings underscore the effectiveness of the proposed cooling mechanism, even when handling heat loads exceeding the batteries’ rated capacities.