Coupled Electrochemical-Thermal Simulations and Validation of Minichannel Cold-Plate Water-Cooled Prismatic 20 Ah LiFePO<sub>4</sub> Battery

This paper discusses the quantitative validation carried out on a prismatic 20 Ah LiFePO<sub>4</sub> battery sandwiched between two minichannel cold-plates with distributed flow having a single U-turn. A two-way coupled electrochemical-thermal simulations are performed at different disch...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chaithanya Akkaldevi, Sandeep Dattu Chitta, Jeevan Jaidi, Satyam Panchal, Michael Fowler, Roydon Fraser
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-11-01
Series:Electrochem
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2673-3293/2/4/40
Description
Summary:This paper discusses the quantitative validation carried out on a prismatic 20 Ah LiFePO<sub>4</sub> battery sandwiched between two minichannel cold-plates with distributed flow having a single U-turn. A two-way coupled electrochemical-thermal simulations are performed at different discharge rates (1–4 C) and coolant inlet temperatures (15–35 °C). The predicted battery voltage response at room temperature (22 °C) and the performance of the Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) in terms of the battery surface temperatures (maximum temperature, <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><msub><mi>T</mi><mrow><mi>m</mi><mi>a</mi><mi>x</mi></mrow></msub></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> and temperature difference, <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mo>Δ</mo><mi>T</mi></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>) have been analyzed. Additionally, temperature variation at ten different locations on the battery surface is studied during the discharge process. The predicted temperatures are compared with the measured data and found to be in close agreement. Differences between the predicted and measured temperatures are attributed to the assumption of uniform heat generation by the Li-ion model (P2D), the accuracy of electrochemical property input data, and the accuracy of the measuring tools used. Overall, it is suggested that the Li-ion model can be used to design the efficient BTMS at the cell level.
ISSN:2673-3293