Innovative Thermal Management System for Electric Vehicle Batteries: Phase Change Material, Heat Pipe and Heat Sink Box Integration

Abstract

The adoption of electric vehicles has significantly contributed to the reduction of greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions. However, the high heat release generated by the vehicle batteries poses a challenge. To tackle this issue, a passive cooling thermal management system was developed for the batteries, utilizing a combination of a heat sink box, phase change material, and heat pipe. Phase change material of soy wax was employed as the cooling medium, alongside an L-shaped heat pipe equipped with fins. Temperature measurements were conducted using a type-K thermocouple connected to the NI DAQ 9214 module, while the electric current power varied between 1.2 and 52.5 W. The results demonstrate that the implementation of heat pipes in the battery thermal management system led to temperature reductions of approximately 31%, while the utilization of box heat sinks resulted in temperature decreases of up to about 40% compared to cases without passive cooling. Moreover, when combining the heat sink box with soy wax phase change material and heat pipe, the temperature dropped by about 66% under maximum heat load conditions. This integrated approach showcases the effectiveness of a passive cooling method for battery thermal management in electric vehicles, particularly as soy wax’s melting temperature aligns with the recommended working temperature range of the batteries.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Directorate of Research and Community Service, Universitas Indonesia, for funding this research project under the PUTI Q2 Program 2020.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Data availability statement

Data will be made available on request.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mohamad Wafirul Hadi

Mohamad Wafirul Hadi is a master’s degree graduate of Mechanical Engineering from Universitas Indonesia, fully funded by the Indonesia Endowment Funds for Education (LPDP) under the LPDP master scholarship scheme. His main research is the application of heat pipes, heat sinks and phase change material as a means of passive cooling technology.

Nandy Putra

Nandy Putra completed his Dr.-Ing. at the Universität der Bundeswehr Hamburg Germany. He is a Professor of Heat Transfer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia. His research focuses are on the applied aspects of heat transfer and energy conversion especially on heat pipe, thermoelectric, phase change material, heat exchangers and nanofluids.

Titin Trisnadewi

Titin Trisnadewi is a lecturer at the Sampoerna University Indonesia. She earned her Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Universitas Indonesia in 2022. She is the beneficiary of the Indonesian Ministry of Education’s PMDSU scholarship, which is an expedited program leading to master’s and doctoral degrees. She worked on several topics in phase change materials such as the discovery of new natural PCM with its properties, thermal management in buildings, box heaters for VCO production, and thermal cycling for PCM durability tests.

Ragil Sukarno

Ragil Sukarno is a lecturer at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universitas Negeri Jakarta, Indonesia. He earned his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Universitas Indonesia in 2021. He worked on the application of heat pipe heat exchangers to improve the energy efficiency of HVAC systems. His research interests include energy conversion, enhanced heat transfer with heat pipes, and waste heat energy recovery in buildings and automotive applications.

Andhy M. Fathoni

Andhy M. Fathoni is a doctoral student at the department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Indonesia. He earned his M.Phil. degree from the Joint Graduate School of Energy and Environment, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand. Currently, he is working on the heat transfer characteristics of multiple evaporator loop heat pipe coupled with phase change material.

Nyoman Ari Bhaskara

Nyoman Ari Bhaskara is a bachelor’s degree graduate of Mechanical Engineering from Universitas Indonesia. His main research is on the application of metal additive manufacturing in the field of heat transfer, mainly incorporating the traditional design of Batik with heatsink to compare its added values against conventional designed heatsinks.