Heat dissipation structure research for rectangle LiFePO 4 power battery

Under hard acceleration or on a hill climb of (hybrid) electronic vehicles, the battery temperature would increase rapidly. High temperature decreases the battery cycle life, increases the thermal runaway, and even causes a battery to explode, that making the management of battery temperature an important consideration in the safety using of electronic vehicles. A study of increasing heat transfer area from the beginning design phase has been conducted to determine and enhance the heat dissipation on the battery surface. Both experiment and simulation methods were used to analyze the cooling performance under identical battery capacities and heights. Optimal external dimensions and cell sizes with the consideration of better battery workability was obtained from the analysis. The heat transfer coefficients were investigated in order to regulate the battery temperature under safety operating range. It was found that the temperature of the experiment battery would be controlled under safety critical when the cell was designed for 180 mm × 30 mm × 185 mm sizes and the surface heat transfer coefficient was 20 W m−2 K−1 at least.