Thermal Management Analysis of a Lithium-Ion Battery Pack using Flow Network Approach

Among various issues that high power application lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries are encountered, thermal issues have received more attention because of their potential to degrade battery performance. In the present work, a lumped capacitance heat transfer model was developed in conjunction with a flow network approach to investigate thermal performance of a commercial-size Li-ion battery pack under various operating conditions. Air and silicon oil were chosen as cooling media in the battery pack for two conventional flow arrangements, Uand Z-configurations. Numerical results have revealed that the temperature distributions inside the battery pack can be significantly affected by the coolant type and the flow configuration. The calculated parasitic losses due to the fan/pump power demand as well as the temperature dispersion within the battery pack can be used to devise and optimize the battery thermal management system (BTMS).