Thermal Management

This report provides a comprehensive overview of thermal management system strategies, modeling, and simulation within the RHODaS project. 

It focuses on detailing the thermal interface between inverters and cooling systems, exploring estimated junction temperatures, and analysing the potential impacts of design choices on equivalent thermal resistance, as well as advanced 3D thermal and power loss modeling, employing Finite Element Analysis, with COMSOL Multiphysics playing a crucial role in heatsink design. Fundamental simulations cover aspects like liquid-cooled heatsink design and sensitivity studies.

This paper presents an exhaustive review of diverse thermal management approaches at both the component and system levels, focusing on electric vehicle air conditioning systems, battery thermal management systems, and motor thermal management systems. In each subsystem, an advanced heat transfer process with phase change is recommended to dissipate the heat or directly cool the target. Moreover, the review suggested that a comprehensive integration of AC systems, battery thermal management systems, and motor thermal management systems is inevitable and is expected to maximize energy utilization efficiency.

This article reviews relevant researching work and current advances in the ever-broadening field of modern vehicle thermal management (VTM). Based on the systematic summaries of the design methods and applications of integrated thermal management (ITM), future tasks and proposals are presented. This article aims to promote innovation of ITM, strengthen the precise control and the performance predictable ability, furthermore, to enhance the level of research and development (R&D).

This article begins with a bibliographic overview of research conducted on battery thermal management systems (BTMS). The paper then analyzes lithium-ion battery types, the processes of chemical reaction, the generation of electrical energy, and the mechanisms of heat generation within the battery. In addition, the impact of temperature on thermal phenomena in batteries, including thermal runaway and lithium dendrite, is examined. The study then provides a comprehensive and critical evaluation of the thermal management strategy in recent experimental, simulation, and modeling research within the organized category of BTMS for all-electric and hybrid vehicle battery packs.

This document reports on the laboratory testing of the Thermal Management System (TMS) for a 150 kW High-Power Converter (HPC). Two prototype heatsinks, one made of copper and the other of aluminium, were tested. The aluminium heatsinks showed significant weight reduction while maintaining heat dissipation efficiency. The TMS is integral to the RHODAS project's 150 kW Integrated Motor Drive (IMD), ensuring optimal temperature for power converters in electric vehicles. The TMS, including the aluminium heatsink module, radiator, fan system, coolant pump, and piping, demonstrated effective performance under various thermal loads in laboratory conditions.
 

Supported by Computer Aided Engineering (CAE) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analyses, the TMS design proved to be robust and scalable. Test results will guide future optimizations to enhance thermal efficiency and system integration for vehicle applications. The TMS is critical in preventing overheating, improving reliability, and extending the lifespan of components in electric vehicles (EVs).