Realizing rapid cooling and latent heat recovery in the thermoelectric-based battery thermal management system at high temperatures

Luo, Ding; Wu, Zihao; Jiang, Li; Yan, Yuying; Chen, Wei-Hsin; Cao, Jin; Cao, Bingyang

Abstract

To realize rapid cooling of the battery at high temperatures and effective latent heat recovery from phase change materials (PCMs), a thermoelectric-based battery thermal management system (BTMS) is proposed. Additionally, a transient multiphysics numerical model is developed to predict the system's thermal performance, and the concept of the latent heat recovery rate of PCMs is introduced. Results show that the introduction of thermoelectric coolers (TECs) significantly enhances the system's efficiency in cooling the battery at high temperatures (Stage 1) and recovering PCM latent heat (Stage 2). The overall thermal performance can be further improved by utilizing PCMs with a higher mass fraction of expanded graphite (EG) or increasing the TEC input current. Moreover, after the end of Stage 2, the power supply for TECs is interrupted, and the system enters Stage 3, which only relies on PCMs to control the battery temperature. The duration of Stage 3 increases with the EG mass fraction, achieving a peak of 3830 s at an EG mass fraction of 12%. Considering the thermal performance and power consumption of the system, the optimal solution is determined as an EG mass fraction of 12% and a TEC input current of 4 A. In this situation, the required time for Stage 1 and Stage 2 is 170 s and 620 s, with the latent heat recovery rate of PCMs up to 361.94 J/kg/s. The findings will provide new insights for the development of the thermoelectric-based BTMS.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Jun 3, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jun 8, 2024
• Publication Date: Sep 15, 2024
• Deposit Date: Jun 14, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 9, 2026
• Journal: Applied Energy
• Print ISSN: 0306-2619
• Electronic ISSN: 1872-9118
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 370
• Article Number: 123642
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2024.123642
• Keywords: battery thermal management system; thermoelectric; phase change material; latent heat recovery; numerical mode
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/36014575