Experimental study on the performance of vehicle integrated thermal management system for pure electric vehicles

The thermal management of electric vehicles is mainly to regulate the temperatures of battery, motor, electric control, and crew cabin, so as to ensure that they are working at the most appropriate temperature. The integrated thermal management system, which stands at the perspective of the vehicle system, coordinates and controls the heat dissipating capacity of the vehicle. In this paper, a novel vehicle integrated thermal system, consisting of the Li-ion battery packs circuit, the electric motor and power electronics cooling circuit, as well as the air conditioning circuit, etc., is proposed to obtain the integrated optimization of the vehicle system. The results, expressed through thermal parameters, discharging and charging parameters of the battery system, are initially evaluated utilizing theoretical analysis and numerical model of the vehicle system and then experimentally analyzed with the arrangement of a 1:1 scale laboratory test bench. The collections of results demonstrate the excellent design and performance of the proposed integrated thermal management system in satisfying the real-time operating conditions under general temperature requirements. These experimental investigations are expected to afford a practical insight into the design and optimization of thermal management systems in electric vehicles.