Sustainability, Vol. 11, Pages 5020: Experimental Investigation of a Lithium Battery Cooling System (Sustainability)

To improve the heat dissipation performance of power batteries in electric racing cars in the Formula Student Electric China (FSEC), a battery cooling system was researched. A battery thermal model and a temperature experimental platform were established. The thermal model was verified by comparing the results of the ANSYS/Workbench simulations with the experimental results, and the maximum error was 7.2%. Based on the FSEC dynamic conditions, the cooling demand was analyzed according to the heat transfer theory. Then, an orthogonal method was used to optimize the position of the cooling fan and the arrangement of the cells, and a parameterized battery simulation model based on ANSYS/Icepak was established. The simulation results show that the maximum temperature difference was optimized by 38.35%. The results of the simulation were in good agreement with the experimental results, and the maximum error was less than 2 °C. This indicates that this design can ensure a car battery system that has a good heat dissipation performance in the FSEC; thus, the intended goal was achieved.