Executive Summary : | At the high temperature, the Li-ion batteries encountered adverse effects, such as capacity fade, thermal runway, reduced life, etc. To avoid such effects, an efficient and reliable battery thermal management system (BTMS) is of utmost importance. Various types of cooling techniques based on the phase change cooling (liquid to gas, or solid to liquid), heat pipes, refrigerant cooling, air cooling, liquid cooling, liquid immersion, etc. have been applied to develop an efficient BTMS (Liu, 2017). The objective of the proposed project is to develop a battery thermal management system of a higher efficiency that will keep the Li-ion batteries within the safe temperature limit by maximizing the heat transfer from the batteries to the heat sink. In this proposal, direct flow boiling of a working fluid consisting of water, bi-phasic catalyst with the nanoparticle suspension will be used as a heat sink for the Li-ion batteries. Bi-phasic catalysts, of low boiling temperature than that of water, will enhance the turbulence in the vаpor form at low temperatures due to nucleate boiling and nanoparticles will improve the thermal conductivity of the Bi-phasic catalyst. By using both, bi-phasic catalyst and nanoparticles, simultaneously, an improved heat transfer in the proposed BTMS will occur at a very low particle concentration, which will maintain the Li-ion batteries in the safe temperature limits. To optimize the design parameters of BTMS, a numerical model will be developed and simulated for the different boundary conditions as well as different charging and discharging rate of the Li-ion batteries. Based on the optimized design parameters and simulated results, an experimental setup will be fabricated to investigate the performance of BTMS. The experimental setup will consist of the bi-directional DC power supply for the charging and discharging of the batteries, a test chamber, where temperature and humidity will be maintained constant, a flow circuit of nanofluid connecting the test chamber and a refrigerated circulator, and a data acquisition system with work-station for the recording of measured temperature and pressure, and a heat exchanger. The proposed BTMS will improve the life cycle of Li-ion batteries in all weather conditions, and will support the growth of electric vehicles to reduce the emission of green-house gases from the vehicles running on the conventional fuels. |