Abstract:

The significant amount of thermal energy released by the battery cluster during operation can readily rise the temperature of the battery module, thereby affecting the system's efficiency and safety. Effective cooling methods are extremely important to maintain battery clusters' safe and efficient operation. Herein, computational fluid dynamics technology is used to numerically simulate the flow and heat transfer properties of cold air in a battery cluster under two air supply systems: cold air enters from above and cold air enters from below. Additionally, according to the simulation results of the cold air flow and temperature fields, the impact of various cold air supply techniques on the cooling effect of the battery cluster is compared and examined. The simulation results show that when the cold air enters from above, it flows downward and forward, and there is a cooling blind area below the cold air inlet, and the surface temperature of the battery module in this area is high. In this air supply system, full coverage of cold air is achieved at a distance of 2 m from the air inlet. As the cold air comes from below, it flows upward and forward, and there is a cooling blind area above the cold air inlet. As opposed to the air supply method where the cold air is introduced from above, the cooling blind area is reduced in this method. When the cold air arrives from below, the full coverage of cold air is achieved at a distance of 1.5 m from the air inlet, the coverage of cold air is increased, and the average temperature of the section is dropped. It is determined that when the cold air comes from below, the cooling effect of the battery cluster is improved.

Key words: storage battery cluster, air supply method, cooling effect, numerical simulation