Simulation of Uniform Heat Sources in Restricted Space for Battery Module Configurations

Abstract

Battery is known as one of the key technologies in Electric Vehicles (EV). Since these batteries in every EV may cost almost half of the total EV price, it is required to ensure that the batteries work in the most efficient way. Furthermore, due to the weight limitations and limited space available in the EV, hundreds or thousands of battery cells are typically arranged with a very narrow space in between. Since the performance of a battery cell is highly affected by the change of temperature, its heat dissipation needs to be carefully controlled. In this manuscript, two battery-like arrangements are proposed and numerically evaluated, particularly in terms of the cooling airflow and temperature profiles. These configurations are directly compared to the rectangular arrangement as the base case. The so-called triangle configuration has the lowest temperature at the far downstream, while the other arrangement offers the lowest pressure difference between the inlet and outlet.