Thermal management of a lithium ion battery pack connected to a solar panel using a comparison of two cavities filled with phase change materials: Oval and rectangular

Abstract

In this paper, the temperature of three 18,650 lithium-ion battery cells in an air duct is studied using a numerical method. The batteries are housed in a PCM pack with two different oval or rectangular shapes. This battery pack and PCM are placed in the air duct with (Re) 50 or 150. The aim of this study was to investigate the temperature of all three battery cells, the maximum temperature (T-MX) of the battery cells and the amount of frozen PCM at different times. For this study, help was obtained from Comsol software. The results of this study showed that the use of battery pack and PCM in the shape of an ellipse, compared to the rectangular shape caused a lower temperature on all battery cells. Also, the use of PCM ellipse pack has resulted in lower average and T-MX for the battery cell and more solid PCM volume fraction than the rectangular shape of PCM pack. Using (Re) 150 instead of 50 causes the battery cell temperature to be much lower and also the amount of solid PCM to be higher. The (Re) change in airflow, as well as the shape of the battery pack and PCM, affects the first battery cell more than any other battery cell.