Optimization and Numerical Analysis of an Air and Phase Change Material Cooled Lithium‐Ion Battery Pack

ABSTRACT Increasing demand for fast charging in electric vehicles requires battery cooling. This research article explored the outcome of air cooling and phase change material (PCM) on battery thermal management at several charging rates. Initially, the numerical investigation was carried out on two different models of the air and PCM (paraffin wax, n‐eicosane, and copper foam) cooling. Outcomes of the air‐cooling show that air cooling is not feasible for higher charging rates, especially more than 2 C. Consequently, response surface methodology was used to determine the consequence of air inlet velocity, air inlet temperature, and charging rates on the temperature of the battery pack. The optimum conditions for air cooling are heat generation 42 102 W/m 3 , air inlet velocity 0.5 m/s, and inlet air temperature 20°C, for which the responses are, namely, maximum cell temperature 332.62 K, cooling efficiency 9.73%, pressure drop 6.53 Pa, and outlet air temperature 313.92 K. The copper foam gives a lower temperature and also maintains uniformity in the maximum cell temperature as associated to other PCM. The PCM materials fail to cool all the cells uniformly due to the lesser thermal conductivity of the PCM materials. The current simulation study validated with the experimental study of previous researchers, which shows that the copper foam gives better performance than the composite PCM. At 50 min of charging, the copper foam and CPCM enhance the maximum cell temperature up to 66°C and 71°C. The copper foam performed best at the 3 C charging with 50 min, at which the maximum cell temperature was 339 K.