A Review of Advanced Cooling Strategies for Battery Thermal Management Systems in Electric Vehicles

Abstract

Electric vehicles (EVs) offer a potential solution to face the global energy crisis and climate change issues in the transportation sector. Currently, lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have gained popularity as a source of energy in EVs, owing to several benefits including higher power density. To compete with internal combustion (IC) engine vehicles, the capacity of Li-ion batteries is continuously increasing to improve the efficiency and reliability of EVs. The performance characteristics and safe operations of Li-ion batteries depend on their operating temperature which demands the effective thermal management of Li-ion batteries. The commercially employed cooling strategies have several obstructions to enable the desired thermal management of high-power density batteries with allowable maximum temperature and symmetrical temperature distribution. The efforts are striving in the direction of searching for advanced cooling strategies which could eliminate the limitations of current cooling strategies and be employed in next-generation battery thermal management systems. The present review summarizes numerous research studies that explore advanced cooling strategies for battery thermal management in EVs. Research studies on phase change material cooling and direct liquid cooling for battery thermal management are comprehensively reviewed over the time period of 2018–2023. This review discusses the various experimental and numerical works executed to date on battery thermal management based on the aforementioned cooling strategies. Considering the practical feasibility and drawbacks of phase change material cooling, the focus of the present review is tilted toward the explanation of current research works on direct liquid cooling as an emerging battery thermal management technique. Direct liquid cooling has the potential to achieve the desired battery performance under normal as well as extreme operating conditions. However, extensive research still needs to be executed to commercialize direct liquid cooling as an advanced battery thermal management technique in EVs. The present review would be referred to as one that gives concrete direction in the search for a suitable advanced cooling strategy for battery thermal management in the next generation of EVs.