Thermal Analysis of Wavy Thermal Management System With Phase Change Composite and Pyrolytic Graphite Sheet for Cylindrical Lithium-Ion Battery Packs

Abstract In the present study, a wavy designed thermal management system (TMS) is introduced for cylindrical lithium-ion battery pack modules incorporating a phase change composite (PCC) surrounding the cells, a cooling tube, and a pyrolytic graphite sheet (PGS) integrated into the wavy design on both sides of the cooling tube. We systematically investigate its cooling behavior via thermal analysis in Ansys FLUENT. This thermal management system takes advantage of the PCC’s capabilities to maintain temperature uniformity and PGS’s thermal conductivity to increase the rate of heat removal. The 1S20P battery pack design was simulated at different cell volumetric heat generation rates from normal to uphill conditions to observe cooling capabilities under different thermal loads.