PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF MINI-CHANNEL HEAT EXCHANGER FOR E-VEHICLE BATTERY COOLING

Electrical Vehicles (EVs) are the environment friendly solutions to energy crisis and tremendous emissions from the transport vehicles. EVs Lithium-Ion battery although are the best option which undergoes the process of charging and discharging. This led to the internal heat generation in the battery due to the chemical reactions occurring in the battery. For the efficient working and to maintain the life cycle of the battery, it should be operated with in the certain range of temperature. The present study focuses on maintaining optimum range of operating temperatures for improved performance of the battery, thus emphasizes on Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) in particular. There are several BTMS which are developed over the years such as air-cooling system, heat transfer using PCM materials, liquid cooling system, thermoelectric cooling system, cooling by using fins, etc. Among all these available techniques BTMS using mini-channel heat exchangers is one of the most effective and efficient techniques. This study illustrates the use of mini-channels for the cooling of Lithium-Ion battery. Various designs of the mini-channels are investigated through ANSYS fluent (CFD) software to achieve optimum battery temperature, multiple materials and coolants are explored and the comparative conclusion is put forward. The optimum working temperature of the li-ion battery is 20 0C 𝑡𝑜 40 0C. The battery is first simulated without BTMS for 1 hour with the discharge rate of 1C. The maximum temperature attained is 42.42 0C. which is above optimum temperature, it can rise to the extreme point if battery runs on the higher discharge rates and for longer duration. After applying BTMS using mini-channels and by using various coolants the battery temperature is successfully brought down in the temperature range of 26.973 0C 𝑡𝑜 26.980 0C, which is well under optimum operating temperature limits.