Experimental Analysis of an Innovative Electrical Battery Thermal Management System

Luca Cattani (), Matteo Malavasi, Fabio Bozzoli, Valerio D’Alessandro and Luca Giammichele
Additional contact information
Luca Cattani: Department of Architecture and Engineering, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 181/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
Matteo Malavasi: Department of Architecture and Engineering, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 181/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
Fabio Bozzoli: Department of Architecture and Engineering, University of Parma, Parco Area delle Scienze 181/A, 43124 Parma, Italy
Valerio D’Alessandro: Department of Industrial Engineering and Mathematical Science, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy
Luca Giammichele: Department of Industrial Engineering and Mathematical Science, Università Politecnica delle Marche, 60131 Ancona, Italy

Energies, 2023, vol. 16, issue 13, 1-17

Abstract: The aim of the present work is to develop and test an innovative cooling system for the thermal management of batteries for electric vehicles (EVs). At present, the technology most used for electric propulsion is based on lithium-ion cells. The power supply unit must often deliver a large amount of power in a short time, forcing the batteries to produce a considerable amount of heat. This leads to a high working temperature that can cause a sharp decrease in the battery performance or even a malfunction. Moreover, their working outside of the prescribed temperature range (20–40 °C) or with a significant temperature gradient across the battery meaningfully accelerates their aging or breakage. In this case, a battery thermal management system (BTMS) is necessary to allow the batteries to work as efficiently as possible. In the present work, a pulsating heat pipe with a three-dimensional structure is proposed as cooling technology for a battery pack. At first the performance of the proposed PHP is evaluated in a dedicated experimental setup under different boundary conditions and a wide spectrum of power input values. Then the PHP is tested by applying, as load at the evaporator section, heat power distribution corresponding to three different discharging processes of a battery. These tests, directly referring to an applicative case, show that the proposed 3D PHP has an optimal cooling ability and the possibility to offer a powerful solution for electrical battery thermal management.

Keywords: pulsating heat pipes; batteries for electric vehicles; thermal management system (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/13/5071/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/16/13/5071/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:13:p:5071-:d:1183882

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().