Numerical investigation on geometrical parameter effects of metal foams in liquid cooling efficiency of battery thermal management within phase change materials

The objective of this numerical study is to evaluate the effects of geometrical parameters of a metal foam inserted along with a chosen PCM material on the efficiency of liquid cooling of lithium polymer-based batteries. A three-dimensional model of a lithium manganese dioxide battery module is chosen for the analysis purpose. The analysis is performed by placing the module inside a parallelopiped based arrangement at the centre position, which is cooled by liquid flowing through the tubes by means of convection phenomenon. The tubes placed in the arrangement are assumed at a constant temperature and the entire module is adiabatic in nature. The governing physical equations involved in the analysis are based on the Local Thermal Non-Equilibrium constrains. The numerical model is solved using the finite volume technique using the Ansys-Fluent software. The study involves the analysis of thermal management for different pore density values of metal foam such as 5, 10, 20 and 40 with different C-rates of 0.5 and 1C respectively. The change in the internal resistance of the battery is determined using the Generalized Reduced Gradient technique. The analysis is interpreted by the temperature and liquid fraction profiles of the battery module.