Designing battery thermal management systems (BTMS) for cylindrical Lithium-ion battery modules using CFD

Abstract: Renewable Energies have the capability to cut down the severe impacts of energy and environmental crisis. Integrating renewable energy generation into the global energy system calls for state of the art energy storage technologies. The lithium-ion battery is introduced in this paper as a solution with a promising role in the storage sector on the grounds of high mass and volumetric energy density. Afterward, the advantages of proper thermal management, including thermal runaway prevention, optimum performance, durability, and temperature uniformity are described. In particular, this review detailedly compares the most frequently adopted battery thermal management solutions (BTMS) in the storage industry including direct and indirect liquid, air, phase-change material, and heating. In this work, four battery thermal management solutions are selected and analyzed using Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) simulations for accurate thermal modeling. The outcome of the simulations is compared using parameters e.g. temperature distribution in battery cells, battery module, and power consumption. Liquid cooling utilizing the direct contact higher cooling performance to the conventional air cooling methods. However, there exist some challenges being adopted in the market. Each of the methods proves to be favorable for a particular application and can be further optimized.