Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries have emerged as a promising energy source for electric vehicle (EV) applications owing to the solution offered by their high power, high specific energy, no memory effect, and their excellent durability. However, they generate a large amount of heat, particularly during the fast discharge process. Therefore, a suitable thermal management system (TMS) is necessary to guarantee their performance, efficiency, capacity, safety, and lifetime. This study investigates the thermal performance of different passive cooling systems for the LTO Li-ion battery cell/module with the application of natural convection, aluminum (Al) mesh, copper (Cu) mesh, phase change material (PCM), and PCM-graphite. Experimental results show the average temperature of the cell, due to natural convection, Al mesh, Cu mesh, PCM, and PCM-graphite compared with the lack of natural convection decrease by 6.4%, 7.4%, 8.8%, 30%, and 39.3%, respectively. In addition, some numerical simulations and investigations are solved by COMSOL Multiphysics^®, for the battery module consisting of 30 cells, which is cooled by PCM and PCM-graphite. The maximum temperature of the battery module compared with the natural convection case study is reduced by 15.1% and 17.3%, respectively. Moreover, increasing the cell spacing in the battery module has a direct effect on temperature reduction.

This article attempts to study the thermal characteristic and behavior of a large commercial prismatic lithium-ion battery cell (50 Ah) for the application of rechargeable energy storage in electric vehicles. The anode of the cell is based on graphite, whereas nickel, cobalt, and manganese make up the cathode of the cell. With the experiments, two different load protocols were applied to the cell in three initial ambient temperature conditions. With the help of thermal sensors and a thermal camera, the surface temperature of the cell is recorded. Moreover, temperature growth and distribution were compared with the variable loads and initial temperature conditions. Furthermore, a three-dimensional thermal model is built and the results are validated with the experiments. A maximum of around 2 °C temperature fluctuation is recorded. Finally, it was concluded that temperature distribution is affected by the load profile in different ambient conditions.

Jute is a cheap, eco-friendly, widely available material well-known for its cooling properties. In electric vehicles (EVs), dissipating a huge amount of the heat generated from lithium-ion batteries with an efficient, light, and low-power consumption battery thermal management system (BTMS) is required. In our previous study, jute fibers were proposed and investigated as a novel medium to enhance the cooling efficiency of air-based battery thermal management systems. In this paper, as the first attempt, jute was integrated with a phase change material (PCM) passive cooling system, and the thermal performance of a 50 Ah prismatic battery was studied. Temperature evolution, uniformity, and cooling efficiency were investigated. A comparison between the thermal behavior of the air-based BTMS and PCM-assisted cooling system was performed. The results indicated that adding jute to the BTMS increased the cooling efficiency and especially decreased the temperature development. Furthermore, the temperature difference (ΔT) efficiency was enhanced by 60% when integrating jute with PCM, and temperature uniformity improved by 3% when integrating jute with air-based BTMS. This article compared the integration of jute with active cooling and passive cooling; thus, it shed light on the importance of jute as a novel, eco-friendly, lightweight, cheap, available, and nontoxic material added to two strategies of BTMS. The setup was physically made and experimentally studied for the purpose of BTMS optimization.