Comparative assessment of new liquid-to-vapor type battery cooling systems

Various battery thermal management systems have been proposed in the literature to keep the battery operating temperature within the optimum operating range of 15 degrees C to 35 degrees C. Doing so leads to increased battery pack service life, safer operation, and reduced costs. Here, a comparative assessment of battery thermal management systems is presented, focusing on the development of the most recent proposed category of battery thermal management systems, liquid-to-vapor phase change cooling systems, and a competitive assessment is performed among these systems and with other battery thermal management systems. It is found that for prismatic battery packs it is best to use the tube based system, where the coolant fills tubes that are embedded within a metallic cold plate that separates the batteries. However, for cylindrical battery packs only one configuration of the cooling system has been proposed in the literature and it is determined that the best coolant among the possible options is ammonia. Ammonia performs the best for both cylindrical and prismatic battery packs. Further research is recommended to adapt tube based systems for cylindrical battery packs, and to investigate other integrations between conventional cooling systems and liquid-to-vapor phase change systems. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.