Using Phase-changing Materials for the Thermal Management of Hybrid Vehicle Battery

One of the most useable parts and, in fact, the heart of a Hybrid vehicle is its Lithium Bromide battery. In these batteries, a large quantity of heat is generated, and if this heat is not managed properly, the useful cycle life of the battery will be reduced progressively. Thus, the vital issue of these batteries is their cooling. Since the Phase Change Material (PCM) absorbs a great deal of energy due to its Latent heat capacity during its melting process, PCM can wonderfully be effective for quick and great heat dissipations. Hence, in this paper, it is tried to investigate the simultaneous effects of the application of PCM and fins on the cooling process of these hybrid batteries; in other words, it is tried to present the optimum fin sizes to minimize the battery temperature rise during its recharge process. The results indicate that 6-fin batteries show the highest performance when the fin length is 11.67mm.