Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
Numerical modeling of a direct refrigerant two-phase cooling system for the thermal management of electric vehicle battery
Submission Author:
Ernane Silva , SC
Co-Authors:
Ernane Silva, Thiago Dutra
Presenter: Ernane Silva
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-1077
Abstract
The heating of battery cells represents one of the most challenging aspects for the development of electric vehicles, since higher temperatures reduce their life, performance and safety. Nowadays, lithium-ion batteries are seen as the most prominent energy storage devices for this application and generate heat due to different physical and chemical processes that occur during charge and discharge periods. In order to avoid the battery cells to overheat and to increase mileage of current electric vehicles, several thermal management systems have been developed, some of which are based on the vapor compression cycle. Among them, the direct refrigerant two-phase cooling is seen as a promising technology due to its superior cooling performance when compared to cabin air cooling systems and reduced complexity and weight when compared to secondary liquid loop cooling systems. It consists of extending the vehicle AC system by including an additional evaporator in the battery, usually named cooling plate, in parallel with the cabin evaporator. The adoption of numerical models for the design of these systems is of paramount importance, since plenty of configurations can be simulated without the expense of experimental tasks. This study presents a comprehensive simulation model for direct refrigerant two-phase cooling systems applied for the thermal management of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. The refrigeration system under analysis is composed of compressor, condenser, expansion device and two evaporators, one for cooling of the cabin air and the other for battery cooling, the latter being in direct contact with the battery cells. In the numerical model, the compressor is represented by means of volumetric and overall isentropic efficiencies, the expansion device is described by an orifice equation and the heat exchangers are simulated using multi-zone models. The results reveal how the system operational parameters change as a function of the variable cooling load.
Keywords
electric vehicle, Battery Thermal Management Systems, Automotive Air Conditioning
