Modeling and analysis of a peltier-hybrid cooling system for electric vehicle batteries

Abstract

Efficient thermal management of lithium-ion batteries is essential to ensure safety, performance, and extended lifespan in electric vehicles (EVs). Conventional cooling methods, such as air and liquid cooling, often underperform at high charging rates because of insufficient heat removal or excessive energy consumption, while thermoelectric cooling alone remains highly energy-intensive. To address this, the present study proposes and numerically evaluates a hybrid thermal management strategy that integrates thermoelectric (Peltier) modules with forced air convection. A detailed electrochemical heat generation model, coupled with heat transfer equations for air, oil, and thermoelectric cooling, is developed in MATLAB for a 24 Ah, 48 V cylindrical battery pack. Simulation results show that air cooling at 298 K requires unrealistically high velocities (> 47.5 m/s), consuming about 710.4 kWh per charge cycle at 1C to maintain a safe temperature of 313 K. Oil cooling achieves the same target at 0.8 m/s with 2.11 kWh but rises drastically to 1474.28 kWh at 3C (7.1 m/s). Incorporating thermoelectric pre-cooling lowers the required flow velocities but introduces an additional energy penalty of up to 3308.4 W/h for air and 7427.52 W/h for oil. These results highlight the trade-off between enhanced thermal control and increased energy demand, providing design-level insights for next-generation EV battery cooling systems. This study demonstrates that thermoelectric hybrid cooling has high energy requirements and is unsuitable for efficient operation at higher charging rates.