An experimental and comparative study on passive and active PCM cooling of a battery with/out copper mesh and investigation of PCM mixtures

The carbon emission contribution to global warming accelerated both research on and transition to electric vehicles (EVs). Drivers demand high power, fast acceleration and less charging times. All these demands require high C rate charging/discharging demands from batteries. The rate of heat generation is exponentially proportional to C rates which decreases battery lifetime and may lead to thermal runaway. However, a battery thermal management system decreases thermal runaway risk and decelerates battery degradation via controlling battery temperature. In this paper, we first document the thermal conductivity enhancement via copper foam into phase change material (PCM) domain to uncover their possible use in EV thermal management applications. Maximum 15.93 times increment is achieved with a specific copper foam. Then, physical properties and behaviors of distinct PCM mixtures are documented. Homogeneity of mixtures is associated with the chemistry of PCMs and the mixture melting point is proportional to the volume weighted average of melting temperatures. The results document that the PCM with relatively lower melting point is beneficial when end of discharge temperatures considered, except for high discharge rate of 2C. Temperature uniformity across the battery increases with relatively higher melting point PCM. Experiments also document that the amount of PCM volume lost via insertion of copper foam yields higher end of discharge temperatures. Overall, both PCM and copper foam enhances temperature homogeneity and their benefit becomes more sensible during drive cycles relative to continuous charge/discharge use cases.