University of Malta academic Dr Robert Camilleri presented his research at the UK Heat Transfer Conference (UKHTC), held at the University of Nottingham.
The UK Heat Transfer Conference is organised under the aegis of the UK National Heat Transfer Committee. For the last 35 years, this has been the premier forum for the international heat transfer community to meet, disseminate ongoing work and discuss the latest advances in the field of heat transfer.
Dr Camilleri presented a paper titled “Predicting the temperature distribution in a lithium ion battery cell for different cooling strategies”.
Lithium-Ion batteries are a major enabler in energy storage, particularly for electrical transportation. With the ever-growing environmental awareness, the uptake in electric vehicles has increased significantly. EV customers demand vehicles that rival their gasoline counterparts, both in performance and quick re-charging ability. However, when dis/charged at high rates, heat generated within battery cell electrodes causes a rapid increase in core temperature. This accelerates degradation and may lead to thermal runaway posing a threat to the safety of the battery and/or surroundings. Therefore, electric vehicle manufacturers have to consider more efficient cooling modes that guarantee performance, reliability and safety. While several ideas for a battery thermal management system have been developed, the effect of the cooling mechanism on the cell’s temperature distribution has not been thoroughly explored. This and was therefore the subject of this paper which investigates this through validated Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations.
This paper demonstrates that:
• Different cooling mechanisms provide a characteristic battery cell temperature distribution, along the radial or axial direction (dependent on cooling mode). This in turn has an effect on the battery life and behavior.
• In modelling battery systems, it is often assumed that every cell is at a single temperature. Large temperature gradients across battery cells however are known to affect their electrochemical performance and/or life. The paper therefore produces a link between battery cooling mechanism and cell degradation. The authors argue for caution when designing battery cell cooling systems and for further studies in this field.
• EV manufacturers have to consider occasions where the cooling circuit should remain powered ON even while the vehicle is technically OFF. This is particularly true for fast charging operations.
Project NEVAC is financed by the Malta Council for Science & Technology, for and on behalf of the Foundation for Science and Technology, through the FUSION: R&I Technology Development Programme.
The project is led by Dr Robert Camilleri from the Institute of Aerospace Technologies with industrial partner Abertax Kemtronics.