Hybrid battery thermal management by coupling fin intensified phase change material with air cooling

Phase change material (PCM) based passive battery thermal management (BTMS) is a promising strategy for controlling lithium-ion battery temperature during operation. However, the drawbacks of low thermal conductivity and poor secondary heat dissipation of PCM still need to be addressed. Herein, the metal fin intensified PCM system coupling with air cooling is proposed for battery thermal management. The effects of PCM thickness, metal fin diameter and number, air inlet velocity, and airflow temperature on the performance of the proposed BTMS are numerically investigated. Results indicate that the novel hybrid BTMS exhibits a superior cooling performance than fin-air BTMS without PCM and PCM-air BTMS without fins, reducing the maximum battery temperature by 18.6% and 3.2%, respectively. The embedded fins can improve the heat dissipation of the battery and PCM. Increasing air velocity can help recover the PCM latent heat but consume additional power. The proposed BTMS is investigated and optimized considering the cooling performance and power consumption tradeoff. The optimal design has a 1.0mm PCM thickness, 162fin numbers, and a 3.0mm fin diameter. Under such an optimal design, battery temperature can be controlled below the desired value of 40°C with less power consumption. The run-out of PCM latent heat is also effectively prevented in continuous cycle operation with an air velocity of 2.0m/s. This study can provide new insights into an advanced BTMS design for next-generation battery systems with high charging and discharging rates.