Investigation and optimization of a thermal management system for lithium-ion batteries combining closed air-cooling with phase change material

To maintain the maximum temperature , temperature difference of batteries in electric vehicles within a reasonable range, a battery thermal management system combining closed air-cooling with phase change material(PCM) is proposed and investigated. A three-dimensional numerical model is developed and validated by experiment. The results indicate that the temperature rise of batteries decreases with the increase of ambient temperature. The increasing filling amount of PCM reduces the maximum temperature difference of batteries as well as the effect of the airflow rate on maximum temperature of batteries. The energy consumption is minimum when the filling amount of PCM is 0.28kg.