Study on the battery thermal management system for cylindrical lithium-ion battery with nano-doped phase change material and liquid cooling

The rapid rise in global warming pushes the automobile industry towards adopting Electric vehicles globally. The battery is considered a core element of electric cars and must operate in extreme conditions. Therefore, a suitable heat recovery system must be implemented to make the battery reach its higher performance. This work explores and tests a hybrid-based Battery Thermal Management System under various operating conditions. To enhance the property of paraffin (Phase Change Material) in the passive method, Al₂O₃ nanoparticles have been added with paraffin in three different ratios of 5%, 10%, and 15%. In the case of the active method, the water is circulated in a counterflow direction through the copper coil. A detailed experimental investigation was carried out at free convection, pure paraffin, PCM with Al₂O₃ (5%, 10%, and 15%), and hybrid (both active and passive). Each investigation was carried out under different C rates (0.5 C, 1 C, 2 C, 3 C). The result shows that under natural convection for a 3 C discharge rate, the temperature rises to 51.16 °C, and it is reduced to 40.81 °C for hybrid conditions. Finally, after incorporating the hybrid-based thermal management system, a temperature reduction of around 10.35 °C is observed when compared with natural convection conditions. A detailed computational study was also carried out to validate the experimental results. The maximum temperature of 47 °C is obtained for a pure PCM battery module at a 3 C discharge rate, and it is well matched with experimental results.