Thermal Analysis and Effect of Cell Arrangement on Air Cooled Cylindrical Cell Battery Pack Performance

The arrangement of multiple cells within a battery pack is crucial to have an optimized thermal performance and pressure drop. This paper presents a comparative analysis of thermal battery cooling performance of an air-cooled battery pack using inline and staggered arrangement of 18650 cylindrical cells with different cell spacings. The key parameters such as air pressure drop and cell (average/maximum/minimum) temperatures are compared for operations at different C-rates, air inlet temperature, and air inlet velocities. The results demonstrate that the staggered configuration with optimal spacing offers better thermal performance and temperature stratification compared to the inline one. Specifically, the staggered setup with optimal gap achieves a lower cell average and maximum temperatures indicating more efficient cooling and uniform thermal distribution. This study highlights the advantages of battery spacing and configuration for improved thermal and pressure drop performance which can lead to more efficient cooling with less energy consumption.