Accepted Manuscript

A comparative study on battery thermal management using Phase Change Ma-

terial (PCM)

Ashima Verma, Sumanth Shashidhara, Dibakar Rakshit

PII: S2451-9049(18)30647-4
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsep.2019.03.003
Reference: TSEP 317

To appear in: Thermal Science and Engineering Progress

Received Date: 25 November 2018

Revised Date: 4 March 2019
Accepted Date: 4 March 2019

Please cite this article as: A. Verma, S. Shashidhara, D. Rakshit, A comparative study on battery thermal management
using Phase Change Material (PCM), Thermal Science and Engineering Progress (2019), doi: https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.tsep.2019.03.003

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 A comparative study on battery thermal

management using Phase Change Material (PCM)

Ashima Vermaa, Sumanth Shashidharab, Dibakar Rakshita*

a
Centre For Energy Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, India, 110016
b
PES University, Bangalore 560085

_________________________________________________
*
Corresponding Author: Email: dibakar@iitd.ac.in, Ph: +91-11-26597313, Fax: +91-11-2658-2037

1
Highlights:

1. Battery thermal management of electrical vehicles using passive cooling method has

been studied.

2. PCM has been incorporated in the battery pack for reducing the high temperature

reached during different ambient conditions.

3. CFD simulation has been carried out for analyzing the Battery temperature under

different ambient conditions.

4. Close relationship of the Battery temperature with different discharge rates has been

examined.

5. Performance of Fatty acid as a PCM has been compared with the other traditionally

used PCMs.

2
Abstract

The present study aims at battery thermal management of Electric Vehicles (EV). Li-

ion battery used in EVs has an optimum operating range of 25℃ to 60℃ beyond which

battery doesn’t perform efficiently. Thus thermal management of EV is catching importance

in the industry. There are two ways in which Thermal management of EV’s can be done. First

is from inside by controlling the dimensions of Electrode and reducing the resistance. This

helps in reducing the Power dissipation and hence preventing the Electrolyte explosion which

can result in overall battery damage. Second is from outside by employing various methods

(i) by Air (ii) by liquid (iii) by PCM which is called the battery thermal management of the

vehicle System. The first two methods of cooling are active cooling methods and involve lot

of auxiliary parts which calls for balancing of the system. Moreover, active cooling method

also lowers the vehicle’s efficiency. The heat generation is closely dependent upon the

discharge rates and the ambient condition. Therefore, current study is focussed on passive

methods of cooling through the use of PCM (Capric acid) which has been placed around the

periphery in the battery pack. Different thickness of PCM layer 3 mm, 7 mm, 9 mm and 12

mm have been taken. Two ambient conditions of 294 K and desert condition (323 K) has

been explored in this study and the effect of Capric acid as a PCM has been tested and

compared with the traditionally used paraffins. PCM layer of 3 mm thickness proves to be

optimum and lowered the maximum temperature in the battery to 305 K.

Keywords: Phase Change Material (PCM); Battery; Thermal management; Thermal

runaway; Heat generation