A statistical analysis of the effect of design factors of the cylindrical battery module on the thermal behavior by C-rate

In real-world driving scenarios of electric vehicles, the C-rate fluctuates with changes in speed, and a Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) design that does not account for a range of C-rates may fail to ensure thermal safety of the battery. In this study, we statistically analyzed the effects of cooling plate geometry and coolant velocity on battery thermal behavior using Design of Experiments (DoE) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) across various C-rates. The ANOVA results by C-rate demonstrate that the influence of design factors on BTMS thermal behavior varies with the C-rate. Specifically, at 0.5C, the percentage contribution of the cooling plate outer width to the temperature difference is 41.56 %, whereas at 3C, it is reduced to 39.41 %. Conversely, the percentage contribution of the cooling plate outer height to the temperature difference increases from 6.88 % at 0.5C to 9.13 % at 3C. These findings suggest that to ensure the thermal safety of the BTMS, it is crucial to consider the thermal behavior under various C-rate conditions during the design process.