Optimization and experimental validation of the air intake holes of the lithium-ion battery pack

Abstract

Energy storage systems enable the storage of energy and provide access to carbon-neutral, environmentally friendly energy whenever or wherever it is needed. Lithium-ion batteries are currently the most preferred type among various battery technologies and are widely used in energy storage systems. Some of the features that make lithium-ion batteries advantageous include high energy density, long life, low maintenance requirements, and high operating voltage. The growing demand for energy throughout the day increases the need for batteries with high storage capacity. However, the increased capacity also leads to heating issues in lithium-ion batteries. The heating problem in lithium-ion batteries can result in nonhomogeneous temperature distribution, shortened lifespan, thermal runaway, increased internal resistance, and performance loss. Therefore, an effective thermal management system is essential for cooling lithium-ion batteries. This study aims to provide insight into the forced air cooling of prismatic 280 Ah LiFePo4 batteries, which have limited information in the literature and are more prone to overheating compared to lower-capacity batteries. In this study, five different battery pack case designs, each with different sizes and numbers of air intake holes, were determined and modelled using the SolidWorks program. Within the battery pack cases, 16 280 Ah lithium-ion batteries are placed, and an axial fan is used to cool these batteries. Initially, computational fluid dynamics analyses of the five different designs were performed in the SolidWorks Flow Simulation program. An experiment was then conducted on the design that provided the most efficient thermal management to validate the numerical results. The selected design, fulfilling the purpose of homogeneous temperature distribution and having the minimum temperature difference between batteries, was designated as Design 5. It exhibited a 62 % improvement in cooling performance with a 0.25 °C temperature difference, indicating successful temperature homogeneity between batteries. During a two-hour experiment with a 140 A discharge current, temperature measurements were taken from the surfaces of the batteries using thermocouples. Finally, the maximum error rate between experimental and numerical studies was determined to be 1.47 %, indicating successful validation of the numerical study. The air intake hole optimization, a novel design approach, prevents temperature distribution inhomogeneity caused by the distance of the batteries to the fan and offers an effective way to cool down high-capacity 280 Ah batteries.