Simulation and Analysis of Airflow for Heat Transfer from NMC Lithium-Ion Batteries in Electric Vehicles Using CFD Methods
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
Electric vehicles have advanced significantly and are now widely used in daily life, with the potential to replace internal combustion engine vehicles. One of the key technologies in electric vehicles is the battery, which determines the driving range. Currently, one of the most important battery types used in electric vehicles is lithium-ion NMC due to its high energy density. However, a major drawback is that its efficiency is highly sensitive to temperature, making the design of an effective cooling system crucial. Heat is primarily generated during the charging and discharging processes of the battery. A study by Mohsen Akbarzadeh and colleagues simulated airflow and heat transfer using CFD. Their findings suggested that an airflow rate of 21 l/s combined with 5 mm air channels was sufficient to cool a system of twelve 3.7 V 43 Ah NMC battery cells, maintaining the battery temperature within an optimal operating range. This research was then applied to a system of twenty-four 3.7V 180 Ah NMC battery cells. However, CFD simulations indicated that the battery temperature exceeded the normal operating range. To address this issue, the volumetric flow rate was increased to 127 l/s, which successfully maintained the battery temperature within the optimal range. However, this resulted in a high pressure drop. Consequently, the air channel size was increased to 7 mm, reducing the pressure drop but causing the battery temperature to exceed the optimal range by 10 °C, making the setup impractical for real-world applications.
Article Details
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Copyright belongs to Srinakharinwirot University Engineering Journal
References
M. A. Hannan, M. M. Hoque, A. Mohamed and A. Ayob, "Review of energy storage systems for electric vehicle applications: Issues and challenges," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 69, pp. 771–789, 2017.
[M. M. Thackeray, C. Wolverton and E. D. Isaacs, "Electrical energy storage for transportation—approaching the limits of, and going beyond, lithium-ion batteries," Energy & Environmental Science, vol. 5, no. 7, pp. 7854–7863, 2012.
B. Nykvist and M. Nilsson, "Rapidly falling costs of battery packs for electric vehicles," Nature Climate Change, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 329–332, 2015.
K. T. Chau, C. C. Chan and C. Liu, "Overview of permanent-magnet brushless drives for electric and hybrid electric vehicles," IEEE Trans. Ind. Electron., vol. 55, no. 6, pp. 2246–2257, Jun. 2008.
G. Zubi, R. Dufo-López, M. Carvalho and G. Pasaoglu, "The lithium-ion battery: State of the art and future perspectives," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, vol. 89, pp. 292–308, 2018.
A. Pesaran, M. Keyser, G. H. Kim, S. Santhanagopalan and K. Smith, "Lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles: Thermal issues and mitigation strategies," SAE Int. J. Altern. Powertrains, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 1–10, 2013.
Y. Wang, X. Zhang, J. Li and B. Wu, "A review of lithium-ion battery thermal management systems and strategies for electric vehicles," Energy Reports, vol. 6, pp. 65–91, 2020.
[R. Zhao, J. Liu and J. Gu, "The effects of thermal management strategies on the cycle life of lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles," Applied Energy, vol. 240, pp. 8–21, 2019.
X. Feng et al., "Thermal runaway mechanism of lithium-ion battery for electric vehicles: A review," Energy Storage Materials, vol. 10, pp. 246–267, 2018.
T. M. Bandhauer, S. Garimella and T. F. Fuller, "A critical review of thermal issues in lithium-ion batteries," J. Electrochem. Soc., vol. 158, no. 3, pp. R1–R25, 2011.
M. Akbarzadeh et al., "A comparative study between air cooling and liquid cooling thermal management systems for high-energy lithium-ion battery module," Energy, vol. 233, 121108, 2022.
Thermodynamics Society, "Flow regime in pipes [Figure]," ThermoFluid Engineering, Apr. 12, 2020.
R. D. Moser and P. Moin, "A numerical study of turbulent channel flow at low Reynolds number," J. Fluid Mech., vol. 275, pp. 41–78, 1999.
H. Schlichting and K. Gersten, Boundary-Layer Theory, 8th ed. Berlin, Germany: Springer, 2000, pp. 607–609.
Y. A. Çengel and M. A. Boles, Thermodynamics: An Engineering Approach, 8th ed. New York, NY, USA: McGraw-Hill Education, 2015.
D. C. Wilcox, Turbulence Modeling for CFD, La Cañada, CA, USA: DCW Industries, 1998.
H. K. Versteeg and W. Malalasekera, An Introduction to Computational Fluid Dynamics: The Finite Volume Method, 2nd ed. Harlow, UK: Pearson Education, 2007.
Y. Wang and J. Xu, "Effect of airflow distribution on thermal performance in battery thermal management system for electric vehicles," Applied Thermal Engineering, vol. 130, pp. 254–261, 2018.
Z. Li and J. Dong, "Effect of flow velocity and distribution on heat dissipation in a lithium-ion battery pack," J. Power Sources, vol. 446, 227324, 2020.
