Thermal control of lithium-ion batteries for electric cars by metal foam partially filled with Phase Change Material

A viable solution to environmental problems related to pollutant emissions from internal combustion engine vehicles is electric cars. The main problem with electric vehicles, which also limits their widespread use, is due to lithium batteries and in particular their thermal control. Thermal control of lithium batteries is an extremely topical issue since it is not only related to the performance of the vehicles on which they are mounted, but also to the safety of the vehicles and drivers. For this purpose, both factors internal to the battery itself and external causes such as environmental conditions must be considered. In this work, a thermal control system based on metal foams partially filled by the phase change material (PCM) was numerically investigated as a possible application for cooling lithium batteries. For this purpose, a two-dimensional numerical model was constructed in which the PCM partially fills the metal foam. The finite volume method used through the ANSYS Fluent code was used for the governing equations, which are written assuming local thermal equilibrium. Several cases were simulated for different values of the external convective heat transfer coefficient. The results obtained, are reported in terms of temperatures and liquid fractions. Comparisons with partially filled and totally filled cases by PCM in the thermal control system are reported to show the advantage obtained, in terms of thermal control, with a composite system of metal foam and PCM.