Thermal Analysis of a High-Power Lithium-Ion Battery System with Indirect Air Cooling

Thermal behavior of a lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery module for hybrid electrical vehicle (HEV) applications is analyzed in this study. The module is stacked with 12 high-power pouch Li-ion battery cells. The cells are cooled indirectly with air through aluminum fins sandwiched between each two cells in the module, and each of the cooling fins has an extended cooling surface exposed in the cooling air flow channel. The cell temperatures are analyzed using a quasi-dimensional model under both the transient module load in a user-defined cycle for the battery system utilizations and an equivalent continuous load in the cycle. The cell thermal behavior is evaluated with the volume averaged cell temperature and the cell heat transfer is characterized with resistances for all thermal links in the heat transfer path from the cell to the cooling air. Simulations results are compared with measurements. Good agreement is observed between the simulated and measured cell temperatures. The results of this analysis demonstrate that the method developed in this study is reliable for characterizing thermal behavior of the Li-ion battery systems with similar structures and cooling methods.