Modeling Temperature Development of Li-Ion Battery Packs Using Phase Change Materials (PCM) and Fluid Flow

This paper presents a dynamic model for simulating the heat generation and the impact of Phase Change Materials (PCMs) on the maximum temperature in LiFePO₄ battery cells. The model is constructed by coupling a one-dimensional electrochemical model with a two-dimensional thermal model and fluid flow model in a battery pack array. Two different realizations are analysed and compared, one when the heat equation is considered for the PCM (no-flow case) and another one when fluid flow is considered. The results show that by using PCMs, the maximum temperature drops considerably for both cases. The temperature differences between the two cases is found to be insignificant, with the observation that by adding fluid flow, the phases mixture is smoother. Moreover, by using fluid flow, the calculation time increases excessively due to the high non-linearity.