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This study contains experimental and numerical investigation of the shape effect of the pack on the performances of PCM (or GNP/PCM) based passive thermally protected battery packs. Also, the performances of the PCM and thermally enhanced GNP/PCM composite for battery thermal protection are compared from low to high discharge rates. The thermal response results show that the cylindrical pack performs worse than the rectangular pack in terms of the maximum temperature and maximum temperature difference performance criteria. For the maximum temperature restriction criteria, 7% GNP/RT44 composite, that has enhanced thermal conductivity, performs better at first, but then its performance deteriorates compared to RT44 depending on the increase of its viscosity. It was determined that 7% GNP/RT-44 extend the effective protection times by 95.8%, 73.3% and 28.0% at the discharge rates of 4.4 W, 6.6 W and 8.8 W, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To reduce the internal resistance of battery cells or electrolyte leakage, stacked type battery packs are typically assembled and are tightly compressed by fixture structures such as endplates. Endplates must have enough rigidity to uniformly compress a battery stack, especially for large-formatted battery stacks. The present study proposes a computational approach to analyze and predict the bending deformation of endplates of stacked type battery packs. Computational result agrees well with the actual measurement of bending deformation in a flow battery stack. Analyzing the stress distribution of endplates, nine stiffener models are considered to minimize the bending deformation by reinforcing the endplates. It is found that the endplate with three vertical stiffeners is the most effective design. Additionally, response surface method (RSM) is conducted to find the optimal value of design parameters for the stiffeners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]