Optimization of Battery Thermal Management for Real Vehicles via Driving Condition Prediction Using Neural Networks

In the context of the global energy transition, thermal management of electric vehicle batteries faces severe challenges due to temperature rise and energy consumption under dynamic operating conditions. Traditional strategies rely on real-time feedback and suffer from response lag and energy efficiency imbalance. In this study, we propose a neural network-based synergistic optimization method for driving conditions prediction and dynamic thermal management, which collects multi-scenario real-vehicle data (358 60-s condition segments) by naturalistic driving data collection method, extracts four typical conditions (congestion, highway, urban, and suburbia) by combining with K-means clustering, and constructs a BP (backpropagation neural network) model (20 neurons in the input layer and 60 neurons in the output layer) to predict the vehicle speed in the next 60 s. Based on the prediction results, the coupled PID control and temperature feedback mechanism dynamically adjusts the coolant flow rate (maximum reduction of 17.6%), which reduces the maximum temperature of the battery by 3.8 °C, the maximum temperature difference by 0.3 °C, and the standard deviation of temperature fluctuation at ambient temperatures of 25~40 °C is 0.2 °C in AMESim simulation and experimental validation. The results show that the strategy significantly improves battery safety and system economy under complex working conditions by prospectively optimizing heat dissipation and energy consumption, providing an efficient solution for intelligent thermal management.