Numerical Analysis of the Thermal Management Strategies of Electric Vehicle Battery: A Review

In highly fluctuating ambient conditions, the effective Thermal Management Strategies of the Battery guarantee the safe and stable operation of an electric vehicle as high-power density batteries like lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are temperature dependent. Exceeding the thermal limits of the LIB, initially degrades the battery’s performance, leading to serious problems of thermal runway, and fire hazards. The battery thermal management system (BTMS) of the electric vehicle aids in overcoming this by thermally comforting the battery by employing various strategies based on the environmental conditions. This significance of a BTMS of EVs with the increasing concerns of reducing conventional energy and transportation systems due to environmental and efficiency issues has allowed for extremely consistent growth in the BTMS as a research field resulting in the development of many types of thermal management systems which can limit the battery’s operating temperature and maintain temperature homogeneity. The present review focuses the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis on the thermal performance of newly developed and modified BTMS depicting the temperature fields with the pressure drop, as a function of structural and operational parameters, to the closest value of the actual experimental approach which requires high cost and consumes more time. Thereby, the numerical analysis of recently developed BTMS strategies with the obtained results and suggestions for further improvement is summarized providing a clear idea to the readers and upcoming researchers for their future research.