Simulation Study on Thermal Behavior of Pouch-Type Lithium-Ion Power Battery

The escalating market demand for electric unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has engendered significant attention towards their high-rate power battery. However, the research on the temperature characteristic exhibited during battery discharge remains inadequately comprehensive. In this paper, we develop an electrochemical thermal coupling model to simulate the thermal behavior of a pouch-type power battery. A detailed analysis was conducted to examine the factors that influence the temperature uniformity of the battery under the conditions of high-rate discharge and high-intensity heat dissipation encountered during high-speed UAV flight. These factors include cooling conditions, discharge rate, battery thickness, and thermal conductivity in the thickness direction. The results show that high-intensity heat dissipation, high-rate discharge, or excessive thickness of the battery will lead to excessive temperature difference between the battery core and the surface. However, increasing the thickness direction of thermal conductivity and decreasing the duration of high-rate discharge can reduce the temperature difference. The results of this work contribute to an in-depth understanding of the thermal behavior of a pouch-type lithium-ion power battery and the optimization of battery design.