AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE THERMAL MANAGEMENT OF PRISMATIC LITHIUM BATTERY UTILIZING LIQUID-VAPOR PHASE CHANGE COOLING

Integrating a thermal management system for batteries can be a potent means of reducing their operational temperatures. This paper introduces a thermal management system that employs direct contact between the battery and a refrigerant. Through a series of tests examining the battery’s cooling performance under conditions of natural convection, passive cooling, and active cooling, a comprehensive evaluation of the battery thermal management system was conducted. Comparing the maximum temperature of the battery at the end of discharge, passive cooling provides reductions of 11.99%, 26.07%, and 32.98% compared to the natural convection at the rate of 1C, 2C, and 3C discharge process, respectively. Furthermore, the effectiveness of active cooling increases as the temperature of the cooling water decreases. There is a temperature drop primarily stemmed from the refrigerant’s phase change during the high-rate discharge process. Moreover, the temperature decrease at the moment of phase transition becomes more marked as the ambient temperature rose. In the 3C discharge with 5°C cooling water circulation, T_top T_middle, T_bottom, and T_sides decreased by 1.63%, 1.90%, 5.21%, and 6.31%, respectively, during the refrigerant phase moment.