Experimental Investigation on Prototype Latent Heat Thermal Battery Charging and Discharging Function Integrated with Solar Collector

This paper reports the performance investigation of a newly developed Latent Heat Thermal Battery(LHTB)integrated with a solar collector as the main source of heat.The LHTB is a new solution in the field of thermal storage and developed based on the battery concept in terms of recharge ability,portability and usability as a standalone device.It is fabricated based on the thermal battery storage concept and consists of a plate-fin and tube heat exchanger located inside the battery casing and paraffin wax which is used as a latent heat storage material.Solar thermal energy is absorbed by solar collector and transferred to the LHTB using water as Heat Transfer Fluid(HTF).Charging experiments have been conducted with a HTF at three different temperatures of 68°C,88°C and 108°C and three different flow rates of 30,60 and 120 l/h.It is followed by discharging experiments on fully charged LHTB at three different temperatures of 68°C,88°C and 108°C using HTF at three different flow rates of 30,60 and 120 l/h.It is found that both higher HTF inlet temperature and flow rate have a positive impact on stored thermal energy.However,charging efficiency was decreased by increasing the HTF flow rate.The highest charging efficiency of 29%was achieved using HTF of 108°C at a flow rate of 30 l/h.Most of paraffin melted in this case,while part of the paraffin remained solid in other experiments.On the other hand,the results from discharging experiments revealed that both recovered thermal energy and recovery efficiency increased by either increasing the LHTB temperature or HTF flow rate.Highest recovered thermal energy of 5,825 KJ at 35%recovery efficiency achieved at LHTB of 108°C using 120 l/h of HTF.

Heat transfer enhanced inorganic phase change material compositing carbon nanotubes for battery thermal management and thermal runaway propagation mitigation

Developing technologies that can be applied simultaneously in battery thermal management(BTM)and thermal runaway(TR)mitigation is significant to improving the safety of lithium-ion battery systems.Inorganic phase change material(PCM)with nonflammability has the potential to achieve this dual function.This study proposed an encapsulated inorganic phase change material(EPCM)with a heat transfer enhancement for battery systems,where Na_(2)HPO_(4)·12H_(2)O was used as the core PCM encapsulated by silica and the additive of carbon nanotube(CNT)was applied to enhance the thermal conductivity.The microstructure and thermal properties of the EPCM/CNT were analyzed by a series of characterization tests.Two different incorporating methods of CNT were compared and the proper CNT adding amount was also studied.After preparation,the battery thermal management performance and TR propagation mitigation effects of EPCM/CNT were further investigated on the battery modules.The experimental results of thermal management tests showed that EPCM/CNT not only slowed down the temperature rising of the module but also improved the temperature uniformity during normal operation.The peak battery temperature decreased from 76℃to 61.2℃at 2 C discharge rate and the temperature difference was controlled below 3℃.Moreover,the results of TR propagation tests demonstrated that nonflammable EPCM/CNT with good heat absorption could work as a TR barrier,which exhibited effective mitigation on TR and TR propagation.The trigger time of three cells was successfully delayed by 129,474 and 551 s,respectively and the propagation intervals were greatly extended as well.

Functional thermal fluids and their applications in battery thermal management:A comprehensive review

With the increasing requirements for fast charging and discharging,higher requirements have been put forward for the thermal management of power batteries.Therefore,there is an urgent need to develop efficient heat transfer fluids.As a new type of heat transfer fluids,functional thermal fluids mainly includ-ing nanofluids(NFs)and phase change fluids(PCFs),have the advantages of high heat carrying density,high heat transfer rate,and broad operational temperature range.However,challenges that hinder their practical applications remain.In this paper,we firstly overview the classification,thermophysical prop-erties,drawbacks,and corresponding modifications of functional thermal fluids.For NFs,the high ther-mal conductivity and high convective heat transfer performance were mainly elaborated,while the stability and viscosity issues were also analyzed.And then for PCFs,the high heat carrying density was mainly elaborated,while the problems of supercooling,stability,and viscosity were also analyzed.On this basis,the composite fluids combined NFs and PCFs technology,has been summarized.Furthermore,the thermal properties of traditional fluids,NFs,PCFs,and composite fluids are compared,which proves that functional thermal fluids are a good choice to replace traditional fluids as coolants.Then,battery thermal management system(BTMS)based on functional thermal fluids is summarized in detail,and the thermal management effects and pump consumption are compared with that of water-based BTMS.Finally,the current technical challenges that parameters optimization of functional thermal fluids and structures optimization of BTMS systematically are presented.In the future,it is necessary to pay more attention to using machine learning to predict thermophysical properties of functional thermal fluids and their applications for BTMS under actual vehicle conditions.

Dynamic discharging characteristics of absorption thermal battery under different capacity regulation strategies

Thermal battery plays an important role in renewable energy utilization towards carbon neutrality.The novel absorption thermal battery(ATB)has excellent performance but suffers from serious capacity attenuation.To address this problem,two capacity regulation methods,i.e.,variable solution flow and variable cooling water flow,are proposed to achieve a demanded discharging rate.The effects of the two regulation strategies on the dynamic discharging characteristics and overall storage performance are comparatively investigated.To demon-strate the adjustability of the output capacity,several stable discharging rates are successfully maintained by the proposed methods.To maintain a higher discharging rate,the stable discharging time has to be sacrificed.As the demanded output increased from 0.5 kW to 6.0 kW,the stable discharging time decreased from 781.8 min to 27.9 min under variable solution flow and from 769.9 min to 30.7 min under variable cooling water flow.With the increase of solution or water flow rate,the energy storage density is improved,while the energy storage efficiency is slightly increased first and decreased later.The regulation method of variable water flow shows relatively lower energy storage efficiency due to the larger pump power.This study could facilitate reasonable development and application of ATB cycles.

Reinforcement Learning-Based Electric Vehicles Energy Management Strategy with Battery Thermal Model

The promotion of electric vehicles(EVs)is restricted due to their short cruising range.It is desirable to design an effective energy management strategy to improve their energy efficiency.Most existing work concerning energy management strategies focused on hybrids rather than the EVs.The work focusing on the energy management strategy for EVs mainly uses the traditional optimization strategies,thereby limiting the advantages of energy economy.To this end,a novel energy management strategy that considered the impact of battery thermal effects was proposed with the help of reinforcement learning.The main idea was to first analyze the energy flow path of EVs,further formulize the energy management as an optimization problem,and finally propose an online strategy based on reinforcement learning to obtain the optimal strategy.Additionally,extensive simulation results have demonstrated that our strategy reduces energy consumption by at least 27.4%compared to the existing methods.

Performance of a Phase Change Material Battery in a Transparent Building

This research evaluates the performance of a Phase Change Material(PCM)battery integrated into the climate system of a new transparent meeting center.The main research questions are:a.“Can the performance of the battery be calculated?”and b.“Can the battery reduce the heating and cooling energy demand in a significant way?”The first question is answered in this document.In order to be able to answer the second question,especially the way the heat loading in winter should be improved,then more research is necessary.In addition to the thermal battery,which consists of Phase Change Material plates,the climate system has a cross-flow heat exchanger and a heat pump.The battery should play a central role in closing the thermal balance of the lightweight building,which can be loaded with hot return or cold outdoor air.The temperature of the battery plates is monitored by multi-sensors and simulated by the use of PHOENICS(Computational Fluid Dynamics)and MATLAB.This paper reports reasonable agreement between the numerical predictions and the measurements,with a maximum variance of 10%.The current coefficient of performance for heating and cooling is already high,more than 27.There is scope for increasing this much further by making use of the very low-pressure difference of the battery(below 25 Pascal),low pressure fans and the ventilation system as a whole.

Thermal Management of Air-Cooling Lithium-Ion Battery Pack

Lithium-ion battery packs are made by many batteries, and the difficulty in heat transfer can cause many safety issues. It is important to evaluate thermal performance of a battery pack in designing process. Here, a multiscale method combining a pseudo-two-dimensional model of individual battery and three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics is employed to describe heat generation and transfer in a battery pack. The effect of battery arrangement on the thermal performance of battery packs is investigated. We discuss the air-cooling effect of the pack with four battery arrangements which include one square arrangement, one stagger arrangement and two trapezoid arrangements. In addition, the air-cooling strategy is studied by observing temperature distribution of the battery pack. It is found that the square arrangement is the structure with the best air-cooling effect, and the cooling effect is best when the cold air inlet is at the top of the battery pack. We hope that this work can provide theoretical guidance for thermal management of lithium-ion battery packs.

A Numerical Investigation of the Thermal Performances of an Array of Heat Pipes for Battery Thermal Management

A comparative numerical study has been conducted on the thermal performance of a heat pipe cooling system considering several influential factors such as the coolant flow rate,the coolant inlet temperature,and the input power.A comparison between numerical data and results available in the literature has demonstrated that our numerical procedure could successfully predict the heat transfer performance of the considered heat pipe cooling system for a battery.Specific indicators such as temperature,heat flux,and pressure loss were extracted to describe the characteristics of such a system.On the basis of the distributions of the temperature ratio of the battery surface,together with the heat flux and the streamlines around the heat pipe condenser,we conclude that the low disturbance of the coolant is the cause of the temperature gradient along the fluid flow direction.

Bifunctional Liquid Metals Allow Electrical Insulating Phase Change Materials to Dual-Mode Thermal Manage the Li-Ion Batteries

Phase change materials(PCMs)are expected to achieve dual-mode thermal management for heating and cooling Li-ion batteries(LIBs)according to real-time thermal conditions,guaranteeing the reliable operation of LIBs in both cold and hot environments.Herein,we report a liquid metal(LM)modified polyethylene glycol/LM/boron nitride PCM,capable of dual-mode thermal managing the LIBs through photothermal effect and passive thermal conduction.Its geometrical conformation and thermal pathways fabricated through ice-template strategy are conformable to the LIB’s structure and heat-conduction characteristic.Typically,soft and deformable LMs are modified on the boron nitride surface,serving as thermal bridges to reduce the contact thermal resistance among adjacent fillers to realize high thermal conductivity of 8.8 and 7.6 W m^(−1) K^(−1) in the vertical and in-plane directions,respectively.In addition,LM with excellent photothermal performance provides the PCM with efficient battery heating capability if employing a controllable lighting system.As a proof-of-concept,this PCM is manifested to heat battery to an appropriate temperature range in a cold environment and lower the working temperature of the LIBs by more than 10℃ at high charging/discharging rate,opening opportunities for LIBs with durable working performance and evitable risk of thermal runaway.

Investigation on the Transient Thermal Performance of a Mini-Channel Cold Plate for Battery Thermal Management

Cold plate is an important component for a liquid battery thermal management system.In order to study the transient thermal performance of the cold plate under conditions with sharply increasing heat loads,the numerical model of a battery cold plate is established.The validation experiment shows that the error between the simulation and experiment is around 2.5%to 5%.Effects of the coolant flow rate,the increase in heat flux,and the channel number are analyzed to study the transient thermal performance of the cold plate.Results show that the average temperature of the cold plate at 540 s is lowered from 28.3℃ to 26.9℃ when the coolant flow rate is raised from 0.065 kg/s to 0.165 kg/s.The temperature deviation is decreased when the coolant flow rate is increased from 0.065 kg/s to 0.115 kg/s;however,it is slightly increased if the coolant flow rate is further increased.Both average temperature and temperature deviation are raised if the final heat flux is increased from11000 W/m^(2) to 16500 W/m^(2),which are 2 and 3 times of the initial,respectively.In addition,increasing the channel number has slightly positive effect on the average temperature of the cold plate,while the temperature deviation is increased when the channel number is increased from 3 to 11 due to the non-uniform velocity distribution between each channel.The results of this study will be helpful during the design of cold plate for battery thermal management,especially for transient conditions with sudden rising heat loads like thermal runaway.

Performance of a thermally regenerative ammonia-based battery using gradient-porous copper foam electrodes

Gradient-porous copper foam electrodes were applied to alleviate the adverse effects of the uneven current distribution of electrodes along the electrolyte flow direction in thermally regenerative ammonia-based batteries(TRABs).The results indicated that gradient-porous copper foam with a decreasing pore size(TRAB-LMS)provided the most uniform current distribution and generated the highest power density(15.5 W/m^(2)),total charge(1800 C)and energy density(1224 W h/m^(3)).With the increase in flow rate,the power density of the TRAB-LMS increased considerably within a certain range and then decreased slightly,with the optimal flowrate at 15 mL/min.Under the optimal flow rate,the performance of TRAB-LMS increased when the ammonia concentration rose from 0.5 to 2 M(1 M=1 mol L^(-1));however,it decreased slightly when the ammonia concentration further increased to 3 M.The slight decrease in the cathode potential suggested that the flow and ammonia concentration beyond the optional values facilitated not only the transfer of ammonia into the porous anode,but also the crossover of ammonia from the anode to the cathode.

Scalable synthesis of Na_(3)V_(2)(PO_(4))_(3)/C with high safety and ultrahigh-rate performance for sodium-ion batteries

NASICON-type Na_(3)V_(2)(PO_(4))_(3) is a promising electrode material for developing advanced sodium-ion batteries.Preparing Na_(3)V_(2)(PO_(4))_(3) with good performance by a cost-effective and large-scale method is significant for industrial applications.In this work,a porous Na_(3)V_(2)(PO_(4))_(3)/C cathode material with excellent electrochemical performance is successfully prepared by an agar-gel combined with freeze-drying method.The Na_(3)V_(2)(PO_(4))_(3)/C cathode displayed specific capacities of 113.4 mAh·g^(-1),107.0 mAh·g^(-1) and 87.1 mAh·g^(-1) at 0.1 C,1 C and 10 C,respectively.For the first time,the 500-mAh soft-packed symmetrical sodium-ion batteries based on Na_(3)V_(2)(PO_(4))_(3)/C electrodes are successfully fabricated.The 500-mAh symmetrical batteries exhibit outstanding low temperature performance with a capacity retention of 83%at 0℃ owing to the rapid sodium ion migration ability and structural stability of Na_(3)V_(2)(PO_(4))_(3)/C.Moreover,the thermal runaway features are revealed by accelerating rate calorimetry(ARC)test for the first time.Thermal stability and safety of the symmetrical batteries are demonstrated to be better than lithium-ion batteries and some reported sodium-ion batteries.Our work makes it clear that the soft-packed symmetrical sodium ion batteries based on Na_(3)V_(2)(PO_(4))_(3)/C have a prospect of practical application in high safety requirement fields.

Numerical and Experimental Investigation on the Performance of Battery Thermal Management System Based on Micro Heat Pipe Array

Battery thermal management is very crucial for the safe and long-term operation of electric vehicles or hybrid electric vehicles.In this study,numerical simulation method is adopted to simulate the temperature field of Li-ion battery cell and module.It is proved that the maximum temperature and maximum temperature difference of battery cell and module increase with the increase of charge/discharge rate(C-rate)of the battery.For battery module,it can reach a maximum temperature of 61.1℃at a C-rate of 2 under natural convection condition with the ambient temperature of 20.0℃.A battery thermal management system based on micro heat pipe array(BTMS-MHPA)is deeply investigated.Experiments are conducted to compare the cooling effect on the battery module with different cooling methods,which include natural cooling,only MHPA,MHPA with fan.The maximum temperature of battery module which is cooled by MHPA with a fan is 43.4℃at a C-rate of 2,which is lower than that in the condition of natural cooling.Meanwhile,the maximum temperature difference was also greatly reduced by the application of MHPA cooling.The experimental results confirm that the feasibility and superiority of the BTMS-MHPA for guaranteeing the working temperature range and temperature uniformity of the battery.

Thermal Performance of a Micro Heat Pipe Array for Battery Thermal Management Under Special Vehicle-Operating Conditions

The thermal management of battery systems is critical for maintaining the energy storage capacity,life span,and thermal safety of batteries used in electric vehicles,because the operating temperature is a key factor affecting battery performance.Excessive temperature rises and large temperature differences accelerate the degradation rate of such batteries.Currently,the increasing demand for fast charging and special on-vehicle scenarios has increased the heat dissipation requirements of battery thermal management systems.To address this demand,this work proposes a novel micro heat pipe array(MHPA)for thermal management under a broadened research scope,including high heat generation rates,large tilt angles,mild vibration,and distributed heat generation conditions.The experimental results indicate that the temperature difference is maintained 3.44°C at a large heat generation of 50 W for a limited range of tilt angles.Furthermore,a mild vehicle vibra-tion condition was found to improve temperature uniformity by 3.3°C at a heat generation of 10 W.However,the use of distributed heat sources results in a temperature variation of 3.88°C,suggesting that the heat generation distribution needs to be considered in thermal analyses.Understanding the effects of these special battery-operating conditions on the MHPA could significantly contribute to the enhancement of heat transfer capability and temperature uniformity improvement of battery thermal management systems based on heat pipe technologies.This would facilitate the realization of meeting the higher requirements of future battery systems.

Graphene oxide modified membrane for alleviated ammonia crossover and improved electricity generation in thermally regenerative batteries

Thermally regenerative batteries(TRBs) are promising for harvesting low-grade waste heat into electrical power. However, the ammonia crossover from anode to cathode causes self-discharge and then leads to the decay of capacity. To alleviate the ammonia crossover and improve electricity generation, a stable graphene oxide(GO) modified anion exchange membrane(AEM) was proposed. Compared with the original AEM, the GO modified AEM with a 39.5% lower ammonia permeability induces a 24.3% higher maximal power output and 20.2% higher energy density in TRBs. Together with the visualization result,it was demonstrated the ammonia crossover was effectively alleviated by GO modifying the AEM not at a cost of the reduced battery performance, indicating the promising application in future TRBs.

A Lightweight Compact Lithium-Ion Battery Thermal Management System Integratable Directly with EV Air Conditioning Systems

This paper discusses an improved thermal management system to ameliorate the performance of lithium-ion battery storage systems for electric vehicles(EVs) applications. A compact and lightweight cold plate is designed and fabricated to fit 18650-type lithium-ion batteries, using aluminum-finned copper tubes. A dynamic temperature PID(proportional, integral, differential) control algorithm for electronic expansion valves is developed to study using EV air conditioning refrigerant, R134a, to control battery modules’ temperature with this compact and lightweight thermal management system. The experimental results show that the proposed battery thermal management system can effectively control the battery module’s temperature. In addition, during 1C discharge, when the PID temperature algorithm control scheme is used, the maximum temperature difference across the battery module peaks at less than 4℃, and the maximum temperature within the battery module is less than 36℃.

High-temperature liquid Sn-air energy storage cell

A new type of a high temperature liquid metal-air energy storage cell based on solid oxide electrolyte has been successfully demonstrated at 750 ℃ by feeding metal Sn. In order to understanding the initial size effect of metal as a liquid fuel, we report here the impact of the thermal and electrochemical oxidation behavior of nano Sn （-100 nm）, comparing with micro-sized （-5 μm） and macro-sized （4350 μm） Sn. The thermogravimetric analysis and the monitoring OCV test indicate that the distinct property of nano-sized Sn results in a favorable thermal oxidation behavior near the melting point and a promising power performance due to enhanced fuel transport to the anode. However, the accumulated Sn oxide at the reaction interface during a discharge test towards the limitation of further electrochemical oxidation.

Thermal Transfer During the Activation Process in LiSi/FeS2 Thermal Batteries

Thermal batteries（TBs） as primary power sources are widely applied in defense and military affairs, and used in electronic packages and nuclear weapons. The activation time（AT） of TBs restricts the reactive speed of them. Therefore, it is a remarkably important parameter and needs to be studied in detail. In our previous study, the thermal transfer model has already been found during the activation process in TBs. In this work, the experimental TBs were fabricated and tested for validating the model. The error between the average value of test and calculation value from this model is less than 1%. As a result, the thermal transfer function for the activation process in the given TBs[FeSJLiC1-KCI（MgO）/LiSi containing Fe/KC104 heat pellet] is suggested.

Electrochemical performance of NiCl_(2) with Br-free molten salt electrolyte in high power thermal batteries

NiCl_(2) with high theoretical voltage and thermal decomposition temperature attracts much attention as cathode material for thermal batteries with the requirement of high power density, high energy density and long work time. Unfortunately, the practical utilization of thermal batteries with NiCl_(2) cathode is limited by their poor electrochemical performance under large current, even with the conventional Li F-Li Cl-Li Br all-lithium molten salt electrolyte which proposes ultrahigh lithium ion conductivity. In this work, an unexpected ionic exchange reaction between NiCl_(2) and Li Br in Li F-Li Cl-Li Br was found, which would be the main reason for the poor electrochemical behavior of thermal batteries with NiCl_(2) cathode and Li F-Li Cl-Li Br molten salt. On this basis, Li F-Li Cl-Li_(2)SO_(4), another all-lithium molten salt free of Li Br, was investigated as the new electrolyte for NiCl_(2) cathode. For the single cell of Li(Si)/Li F-Li Cl-Li_(2)SO_(4)/NiCl_(2), a discharge capacity of 377 mA h g^(-1)(with a cut-off voltage of 1.2 V) was achieved with large current density(500 mA cm^(-2)) applied at 520℃, which is almost twice of that of Li(Si)/Li F-Li Cl-Li Br/NiCl_(2)(190 mA h g^(-1)) at the same conditions.

Challenges and recent progress in thermal management with heat pipes for lithium-ion power batteries in electric vehicles

Electric vehicles(EVs)are globally undergoing rapid developments,and have great potentials to replace the traditional vehicles based on fossil fuels.Power-type lithium-ion batteries(LIBs)have been widely used for EVs,owing to high power densities,good charge/discharge stability,and long cycle life.The driving ranges and acceleration performances are gaining increasing concerns from customers,which depend highly on the power level of LIBs.With the increase in power outputs,rising heat generation significantly affects the battery performances,and in particular operation safety.Meanwhile,the cold-start performance is still an intractable problem under extreme conditions.These challenges put forward higher requirements for a dedicated battery thermal management system(BTMS).Compared to traditional BTMSs in EVs,the heat pipe-based BTMS has great application prospects owing to its compact structure,flexibility,low cost,and especially high thermal conductivity.Encompassing this topic,this review first introduces heat generation phenomena and temperature characteristics of LIBs.Multiple abuse conditions and thermal runaway issues are described afterward.Typical cooling and preheating methods for designing a BTMS are also discussed.More emphasis on this review is put on the use of various heat pipes for BTMSs to enhance the thermal performances of LIBs.For lack of wide application in actual EVs,more efforts should be made to extend the use of heat pipes for constructing an energy-efficient,cost-effective,and reliable BTMS to improve the performances and safety of EVs.