Performance investigation of thermal management system on battery energy storage cabinet

Abstract

Energy storage like batteries is essential for stabilizing the erratic electricity supply. High temperatures when the power is charged and discharged will pro-duce high temperatures during the charging and discharging of batteries. To maintain optimum battery life and performance, thermal management for battery energy storage must be strictly controlled. This study investigated the battery energy storage cabinet with four cases studies numerically. The results show that Case 1, as the initial design not performing optimally. Thermal buoyancy occurs, resulting in the temperature in the top area being warmer than the lower area. The battery surface temperature is steadily at 47?C. Case 2 added fans on the center of the cabinet bottom surface to overcome the problem, while Case 3 added fans on the left side of the cabinet bottom surface. The battery surface temperatures in Cases 2 and 3 are steady at 39?C and 37?C. However, high temperatures still accumulated in the top area for both cases. Contrarily, Case 4 per-forms a better thermal distribution by adding exhaust air to the top side of the cabinet. The results revealed that the placement of exhaust air could enhance the removal of heat generated from the batteries accumulated in the top area. The battery surface temperature in Case 4 is relatively at 35?C. Case 4 also performs the best thermal distribution, which desired temperature could be successfully achieved faster compared to other cases.