Thermal Management System of Battery Using Nano-coolant

Abstract

It is important to choose an efficient cooling method for thermal control of lithium-ion battery system, so that these strategies should provide cost worthy solutions of energy saving for rise in temperature of the system during the operation of battery. Battery is one of the main parts of electric vehicles and as compared to other batteries like lead-acid, nickel-cadmium, etc., lithium-ion batteries are receiving more attention of automobile industries and other industries due to its high energy density, power density, voltage, life cycle, and low self-discharge rate of energy. The heat generation within the Li-ion battery reduces its performance and life of battery as well. This paper investigates the thermal control of the battery using air, water, and graphene (0.4%)-water nanofluid as coolant having thermal conductivities of 0.0242, 0.60, and 0.6203 W/m·K. In this paper, the NTGK method is used to simulate the thermal analysis of Li-ion batteries under the MSMD model of a battery in ANSYS Fluent. The simulations have been carried out for estimating the maximum temperature of the battery under different velocities of fluid using air, water, and nanofluid coolants. The result shows that the maximum temperatures 308.782, 302.734, and 300.656 K have been obtained after cooling with air, water, and nanofluid with flow velocities of 20, 0.01, and 0.015 m/s. After comparing the maximum temperatures obtained after using different coolants, it is found that nanofluid reduces the maximum temperature more as compared to air and water.