Three-dimensional thermal analysis of a compartmentalized metal-foam-enhanced PCM system for high-rate Li-ion battery thermal management

The increasing thermal load of lithium-ion batteries during high-rate operation necessitates effective passive battery thermal management systems (BTMS) to control peak temperatures and improve thermal uniformity. This study investigates a three-dimensional compartmentalized copper-casing BTMS incorporating metal-foam-enhanced phase change materials (PCMs) under a 5C discharge condition. The numerical model employs the NTGK battery model, the enthalpy–porosity method, and the Brinkman–Darcy porous-medium formulation, with the electrical response validated against published experimental data and the thermal formulation benchmarked against published numerical results. Without thermal management, the battery temperature increases from approximately 300 K to 363 K. In contrast, the RT-35/copper-foam configuration achieves the maximum temperature reduction of 49.51 K, corresponding to a final temperature of approximately 313.5 K. Pure RT-35 provides a 44.77 K reduction. The RT-31/copper-foam configuration exhibits the highest energy-based thermal effectiveness (0.8367), while its temperature-based exergy index is 6.95%, compared with 7.21% for pure RT-31 PCM. Liquid-fraction and heat-flux analyses further demonstrate enhanced PCM melting and reduced localized thermal accumulation in the presence of metal foam. The results highlight the potential of integrating metal foam with a compartmentalized PCM architecture to improve the thermal management of high-rate lithium-ion batteries.