基于相变材料的电动汽车电池热管理研究进展

As the essential power source, Lithium-ion batteries (LiBs) pack has direct impact on the driving range of electric vehicles. The charge-discharge performance and life span of batteries are affected by temperature. With a brief introduction of the heat generation mechanism and the impact of temperature, this paper mainly reviews the development of phase change material (PCM) thermal management techniques for EV batteries. PCM with favorable thermophysical properties such as melting temperature, latent heat and thermal conductivity are discussed and compared. It concludes that organic PCM are more popular because they have proper melting temperature and latent heat. Means of enhancing their thermophysical properties are discussed. It has been reported that adding modifiers can effectively enhance thermal conductivity and mecha-nical properties such as compressive strength. Compared with conventional thermal management system (TMS), PCM thermal management modules lead to a more uniform temperature distribution and less temperature fluctuation of cells, as well as less energy cost. When integrated with conventional modules, the hybrid TMS even shows improved synergistic performance. A few experimental studies regarding the battery packs integrated with PCM are found. Computational fluid dynamics study has shown that with the help of PCM, the performance of battery packs is improved. In the end, a prospect direction of novel PCM thermal management system of EV batteries is discussed in term of research and production possibilities.