Novel Battery Cold Plate Design for Increased Passive Cooling

The present study discusses the benefits of using a phase change material (PCM) based cold plate for more efficient energy storage system (ESS) cooling in Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEV). This paper numerically demonstrates the benefits that a PCM cold plate has over a more conventional aluminum cold plate design. These benefits include six times more passive cooling capacity and a 66% mass reduction. Further investigations into improving the system were conducted in an effort to maximize passive cooling.