Design and Simulation of Thermal Management Structure for a HEV Li-ion Battery Pack

In hybrid electric vehicle (HEV) battery, thermal management is critical to maintain the battery safety and a longer useful life. A novel thermal management structure (TMS) for a HEV lithium ion (Li-ion) battery pack is designed in this research. First, two air cooling structures: series thermal management structure (STMS) and parallel thermal management structure (PTMS) are proposed and optimized by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) flow field analysis. CFD temperature field analysis shows that STMS's performance is interior to the PTMS, with a larger internal temperature rise and a more significant internal temperature difference. Based on the CFD analysis results, PTMS is chosen to be applied in this battery pack design. Further structural analysis of the battery pack with PTMS confirms the reliability of modal and vibration performances. After Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) simulation, a prototype pack of the battery is built. The thermal management performance of the battery pack is tested on a test bench in a thermal chamber. The experimental results verify the accuracy of the CFD analysis results and prove the effectiveness of the parallel structure in temperature control.