Li-ion battery thermal management and thermal runaway suppression method of combining phase change material and annular thermoelectric cooler

This paper proposes a thermal management system that incorporates an annular thermoelectric cooler (ATEC) and a phase change material (PCM) for the purpose of thermal management and suppression of thermal runaway (TR) in Li-ion batteries. The cooling effect generated by the ATEC cold end is utilized to cool both the PCM and the battery. Under the normal operating mode of the lithium-ion battery, PCM played a primary role in the thermal management system, while ATEC played an auxiliary role. In this case, a small current was applied to ATEC to extend the period of time during which the PCM undergoes a phase transition, thus extending the duration of the battery's temperature control. In the event of abnormal heat generation from the battery, PCM was replaced by ATEC into a major role. In this case, a high current was applied to ATEC to avoid the battery temperature reaching the trigger temperature of TR, so as to avoid the occurrence of irreversible TR. Besides, the effects of ATEC single loop thermocouple logarithm, thermocouple angle ratio and shape parameters on system performance were investigated through numerical simulations. According to the results, the optimal temperature control time can be obtained when each ring of ATEC has thermocouples of 4, angle ratio of 0.75 and shape parameter of 1.3, and the irreversible TR caused by abnormal heat generation can be effectively suppressed.