Thermal Analysis of Battery Module

The rate of development of Electric Vehicles has gained momentum in the recent times. The factors like cost, lifetime and safety of the battery are becoming very important. One of the most important components, which are presently in one way deciding the cost and also very important hurdle in the development of the EVM is the battery. Thermal management of vehicle battery plays important part in deciding the battery performance and therefore the proper analysis of the battery thermal management system (BTMS), it is very essential for proper functioning. Analysis of the BTMS can be done in three ways; analytically by solving equations, numerical simulations using ANSYS FLUENT and on MATLAB/Simulink. In this work, simulations are done using ANSYS to understand the amount of heat produced and cooling required for the battery. This work focuses on analysis of lithium-ion battery cell using ANSYS FLUENT in order to study the flow characteristics of air flowing overbattery module. It is observed that such a battery module is prone to overheating and therefore, requires proper cooling arrangement to ensure it efficient operation. Here we mainly focused on finding heat transfer rate and it is observed that optimum air flow rate has to be maintained to ensure maximum cooling and better performance.