Effect of the Fly Ash Nano Fluid in the Serpentine Channel on Cooling Efficiency Enhancement of EV Battery Thermal Management System

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries are the most environmentally friendly energy storage option for existing electric cars and are essential to their operation. Among their many uses are powering electrical gadgets like laptops and cell phones. However, controlling battery temperature is a major design difficulty, especially because charging and discharging operations generate a lot of heat. Li-ion cell performance can be hampered by inadequate heat transmission between densely packed cells, which can potentially result in safety risks like explosions. Temperatures over or below might affect the vehicle's battery life and range. Therefore, improving heat transport and cooling mechanisms throughout the electric vehicle's battery pack is the goal of this research. The current work focuses on the use of fly ash nanoparticles dispersed in water as a base fluid as coolant in indirect liquid cooling systems. An ANSYS FLUENT model has been developed for 52 NMC cylindrical cells with a 13s4p arrangement and a serpentine cooling channel between the cells. Simulation results show that the incorporation of fly ash Nano fluids decreases the peak temperatures of the battery and ensures uniform temperature distribution, thus optimizing LIB performance. This paper reveals that with the increase in fly ash in water from 0.01% to 0.5%, the heat removal rate has been enhanced by 1.6%. Also, with the increase in the velocity of fly ash-based Nano fluid, from 1 m/s to 5 m/s, heat removal has been increased by 84.14%. The results encourage the use of fly ash-based cooling systems for effective and environmentally friendly EV technology.