Experimental investigation of lithium-ion battery cells for model-based thermal management systems

Thermal management is one of the most investigated features of modern energy storage systems,especially in automotive applications. The design of a battery pack in an electric vehicle requires accurateknowledge of the electric and thermal behavior of every single component. This work presentsexperimental measurements and numerical analysis for the simulation of the electro-thermal status of abattery cooled utilizing either natural convection or direct liquid cooling. The effect of different dischargingcurrents, and ambient temperature has been experimentally investigated in natural convection, then a multidomainmodel has been validated with the measurements and used to simulate the battery-electric andthermal status with liquid cooling. The most critical condition is characterized by low temperature and highcurrent. Results carried out evaluating the overall input/output energy balance have highlighted that thebattery performance at low temperatures is improved using low current rates.