Investigation on Passive Thermal Management Using Phase Change Materials Encapsulated Over 18,650 Lithium-Ion Battery

Lithium-ion battery (LIB) performance highly depends upon the operating temperature. Thermal management of batteries using phase-changing material (PCM) has drawn attention recently because of zero or negligible power requirement to perform cooling compared to air/liquid-based cooling. In the present study, a numerical model has been developed to simulate the phase change behavior of phase-changing material encapsulated over a 18,650 LIB (capacity 2.4 Ah and nominal voltage of 3.6 V). Investigations were performed to see the response of temperature under different charging/discharging rates (C-rates). To visualize the effect of PCM module thickness on battery temperature under 3 C-rate, three different thicknesses of insulation were taken and the temperature of the cell was tracked. A comparison between the magnitude of solidification and melting time is also performed for cell operating under 3 C-rate. The complete solidification and melting cycle took 370 min. PCM takes 170 min to melt entirely from the initial state. The current in the battery is switched off at this moment to regenerate the PCM in solid state. PCM takes 97 min to solidify, and cell regains its initial configuration at about 200 min (i.e., 370–170 min).