Optimized cooling and thermal analysis of lithium-ion pouch cell under fast charging cycles for electric vehicles

This study used a multidomain modeling approach to perform a thermal analysis of commercial 65 Ah pouch-type batteries configured in a 1P4S configuration (1 parallel and 4 series battery). The study aimed to analyze the thermal behavior of four different cooling configurations, namely single cell with ambient cooling, 1P4S with ambient cooling, 1P4S with only bottom liquid cooling, and 1P4S with two-side liquid cooling. The Newman, Tiedemann, Gu, and Kim (NTGK) model was used for the subscale electrochemical modeling, while Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) was used to analyze the thermal behavior during different fast charging rates that are commonly used for electric vehicles. The results of the study showed that using two cooling plates with opposing flow directions instead of one-side cooling reduced the maximum temperature difference by 50 % from 10 °C to 5 °C and reduced the maximum temperature by 7 °C during charging at 1.98C. This suggests that the use of two-side liquid cooling can significantly improve the thermal performance of the battery, which is essential for fast charging and overall battery performance. The implications of this study for the industry are significant, as it provides insight into how to improve the design and thermal management of battery packs for electric vehicles. By using multidomain modeling and CFD analysis, battery manufacturers can optimize the design of their battery packs to improve thermal management, reduce the risk of thermal runaway, and improve battery performance and longevity. This can lead to the development of more reliable and efficient electric vehicles, which can help to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles worldwide.