A lithium-ion battery-thermal-management design based on phase-change-material thermal storage and spray cooling

Lithium-ion battery has attracted tremendous attention by a surge of growing interest in electric vehicles. However, its performance highly depends on its operating temperature. In this article, we propose a compact and efficient battery-thermal-management design to attack thermal deterioration of lithium-ion battery at low and high temperatures. Different from previous work, this design integrates phase change material, heat pipe and spray cooling, and can offer both heating and cooling services on demand for lithium-ion battery. These dual functions are examined by discharging experiments of lithium iron phosphate battery at room temperatures T₀=-10^°C, 25^°C and 40^°C. The results show the heating service of such a battery-thermal-management design effectively protects battery from low-temperature degradation–its electric energy outputs in the two discharges increase by 39.5% and 62.5% as compared with those without any thermal-management supports. As to its cooling performance, the proposed design succeeds in controlling growth of average surface temperature within 8^°C even at a large discharging current, 24A, and a high room temperature, 40^°C. The corresponding maximum temperature difference on battery surfaces is firmly suppressed less than 2.6^°C. This experimental study demonstrates the proposed battery-thermal-management design essentially improves thermal states of lithium-ion battery, and ensures its reasonable performance in a wide spectrum of thermal conditions.