Preliminary analysis of a novel battery thermal management system based on a low boiling dielectric fluid

Abstract

Abstract In this paper a novel battery thermal management system was experimentally studied. The batteries are submerged in a low boiling dielectric fluid with the aim to reduce the batteries surface temperature when subjected to high charge or discharge currents. The fluid change of phase allows to create a thermal buffer in case of instantaneous peak of absorbed current. This innovative system was studied on a battery pack composed of 3 cells in series and 3 cells in parallel connection for several discharge currents. For the sake of comparison, two battery packs of same dimensions were investigated: one submerged in the dielectric fluid and the second without the fluid. The cells potential and surface temperature were measured during discharges. Moreover, also the fluid temperature was evaluated in the external region. The results show a significant improvement of the thermal management since the increase of temperature is very restricted. This effect is even more evident when the fluid reaches the boiling point.