Examination of the Effect of Battery Shape Factor and Phase Change Material Properties on Battery Thermal Management System

In this work, a numerical investigation of a prismatic Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) using Phase Change Material (PCM) is carried out. The effect of the shape factor coupled with the effect of PCM properties on the temperature distribution in a prismatic battery was investigated. The model is validated using experimental results with satisfactory results. The result shows that the shape factor affects the temperature distribution. Furthermore, temperature difference of 3 K was obtained when high to low thermal conductivity PCM was used. The sizing due to the shape factor shows that 40% and 23.33% materials could be saved for high and low thermal conductivity materials respectively. Besides, when high thermal conductivity PCM is used, the corner PCM melts slightly as compared to the low thermal conductivity PCM, but this is at low PCM thickness. Therefore, the corner PCM may be removed and used to probe the PCM nearer to the cell wall using other cooling strategies. In addition, it is found that the PCM properties determine the sizing and thus, a universal thickness is not optimum. Summarily, this work shows that shape factor, PCM properties, and corner PCM should be taken into consideration in designing a compact PCM-based BTMS.