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Improving the performance of a passive battery thermal management system based on PCM using lateral fins

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Abstract

Phase-change materials (PCMs) combine the latent and sensible heat adsorption capabilities which makes them promising candidates in a wide range of heat transfer applications such as battery thermal management systems (BTMSs) in hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs), battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs). PCM must preserve the battery cells in the desired temperature range. However, pure PCMs face some challenges due to their low thermal conductivities. To mitigate this issue, one possible solution is employing fins to enhance the heat transfer across the PCM. Since the PCM melting is affected by buoyancy forces, alignment of employed fins may have an essential role in the performance of BTMSs. In the current investigation, six different BTMSs using PCM with dissimilar fin alignments are simulated and evaluated. The time evolution of liquid fraction contours are depicted for simulated cases. The results indicate that the BTMS employing horizontal fins provides the best cooling effect with the largest melt fraction after a prescribed period of time. Besides, the results demonstrate that the breaking manner of solid PCM can be greatly affected by the alignment of fins.

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Abbreviations

C :

Mushy zone number in Eq. (4) (kg/(m3.s))

g :

Gravitational acceleration (m/s2)

G b :

Turbulence kinetic energy generation by buoyancy forces (kg/(m.s3))

G k :

Turbulence kinetic energy generation caused by mean velocity gradients (kg/(m.s3))

h :

Specific enthalpy (J/kg)

k :

Thermal conductivity (W/(m.K))

L :

Latent heat for phase change material (J/kg)

\( {\dot{m}}_{pq} \) :

Mass transfer rate from phase p to phase q (kg/s)

\( {\dot{m}}_{qp} \) :

Mass transfer from phase q to phase p (kg/s)

p :

Pressure (Pa)

S :

Source term

t :

Time (s)

T :

Temperature (K)

u i :

ith component of velocity vector (m/s)

\( \overrightarrow{V} \) :

Velocity vector (m/s)

α :

Volume fraction

γ :

Liquid fraction

μ :

Dynamic viscosity (kg/(m.s))

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

b :

Buoyancy

eff :

Effective

L :

Liquidus

ref :

Reference value

s :

Solidus / Sensible

BEV:

Battery electric vehicle

BTMS:

Battery thermal management system

CENG:

Compressed extended natural graphite

FCEV:

Fuel cell electric vehicle

HEV:

Hybrid electric vehicle

PCM:

Phase change material

RNG:

Renormalized group

VOF:

Volume of fluid

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Laboratory of Automotive Fluids and Structures Analysis, School of Automotive Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Narmak Ave., Tehran, 16846-13144, Iran

    M. H. Shojaeefard, G. R. Molaeimanesh & Y. Salami Ranjbaran

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  1. M. H. Shojaeefard
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  2. G. R. Molaeimanesh
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  3. Y. Salami Ranjbaran
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Correspondence to G. R. Molaeimanesh.

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Shojaeefard, M.H., Molaeimanesh, G.R. & Ranjbaran, Y.S. Improving the performance of a passive battery thermal management system based on PCM using lateral fins. Heat Mass Transfer 55, 1753–1767 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-018-02555-0

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