Thermal Efficiency Enhancement in Battery Thermal Management Systems by Incorporating Phase Change Materials in Nano-Encapsulated Form into the Base Fluid

Abstract

The increasing variety of mechanisms and sources for energy extraction has drawn considerable attention to the long-term storage of energy. Phase change materials (PCMs) can retain heat for extended periods. This research presents a case study of lithium battery thermal management (BTM) via numerical simulation. We aim to store energy and enhance heat transfer by utilizing nano-encapsulated phase change materials (NEPCMs). We performed simulations of both steady and unsteady forced convection using C++ − based OpenFOAM solvers. The pimpleFOAM and simpleFOAM solvers have been improved to incorporate the effects of NEPCMs within the governing equations. The simulations demonstrate that, under both steady and unsteady conditions with high heat flux, the addition of NEPCM particles reduces the battery surface temperature. Specifically, integrating 5% nanoparticles into water results in a decrease in temperature of up to 2 K in steady-state simulations and up to 4 K in unsteady-state simulations. However, at elevated Reynolds numbers, the presence of nanoparticles diminishes pressure. Moreover, incorporating NEPCMs into water promotes a more uniform temperature distribution across the battery cell surface. In particular, adding 5% NEPCM to water resulted in a nearly 36% reduction in UT values.