Abstract
This article encompasses thermal management of lithium ion battery packs for electric vehicle applications. The battery pack serves as heart of electric vehicle and the battery is subjected to heating when operated for a prolonged interval of time. During charging, battery packs are subjected to heating which affects the battery performance. Chemically it increases the discharging rate which in turn reduces the range of electric vehicles. Optimized cooling system remains as key factor in improving battery characteristics. The spacing between the cells in a battery pack has greater influence in heat transfer rate from the batteries since heat generation is involved. The spacing between each cell is varied from 1 to 4 mm, corresponding temperature distribution is estimated. Better heat dissipation is one of the prerequisites in battery packs which are achieved by different cell arrangements with different spacing between them. Optimized cooling system is achieved by keeping the temperature of cells in the specified range and hence the spacing between the cells is adjusted for betterment in battery performance.
Keywords: Thermal management system, Lithium ion battery, Cooling system, CFD analysis, Cell arrangement