Generative Design and Optimization of Battery Packs with Active Immersion Cooling | IEEE Conference Publication | IEEE Xplore

Generative Design and Optimization of Battery Packs with Active Immersion Cooling


Abstract:

Among different battery packaging technologies, cell-to-pack is a widely used method to reduce the cost and increase the volumetric density of battery packs. Unlike the t...Show More

Abstract:

Among different battery packaging technologies, cell-to-pack is a widely used method to reduce the cost and increase the volumetric density of battery packs. Unlike the traditional cell-to-module technology, it requires more robust management to keep the temperature uniformity of all cells within a desirable range to ensure good pack performances. Besides active cooling controls, the layout of cells within the battery pack plays an important role in cooling performances, and thus needs to be optimized for lower cooling costs considering the geometry limitations of the pack. This paper presents the layout optimization of the battery pack with active immersion cooling for the 21700 cylindrical battery pack under harsh loading conditions. Based on the experiment testing, the finite element model with electric and thermal couplings has been built in COMSOL Multiphysics. To reduce the high computational cost, a data-driven generative design method based on variational autoencoder has been developed, which could autonomously mine useful properties from the data set of existing battery layout designs and performance metrics. With the generative design method, candidate designs that optimize the layout decisions can be identified. Based on the computational studies, the cooling cost can be lowered by more than 90% with the identified optimal layout design.
Date of Conference: 21-23 June 2023
Date Added to IEEE Xplore: 25 July 2023
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ISSN Information:

Conference Location: Detroit, MI, USA

I. Introduction

The application of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) has been greatly extended in recent years thanks to the blooming of electric vehicles (EVs) [1]–[3]. At the same time, enormous efforts have been made to develop battery power management systems [4] and thermal management systems [5], [6]. Researchers need to provide an optimal cooling system for the batteries' long-lasting energy and high-power supply performances [6]–[8]. Developing a comprehensive and advanced cooling system capable of optimizing battery layout design with active system control is of great signif-icance. However, most commercial battery cooling systems are designed separately regarding battery layout and electrical management. As a result, they can only produce suboptimal results with low cooling efficiency [9]. Motivated by the imperfections of existing battery management systems, we are targeting to explore the potential active cooling systems for battery packs with the lowest cooling cost. Control co-design is a well-studied field in mechanical design that aims to enhance design performances by leveraging effective control strategies. Among various control algorithms to regulate the system performance [10], applying proportional control to the coolant flow rate can efficiently achieve active cooling for batteries based on their temperatures. Since we set the inlet coolant temperature as a constant, the coolant pump energy consumption determines the cooling cost. In EVs, cell-to-pack (CTP) has become a more and more popular method. It omits the cell module assembly, so the volume utilization rate is improved by 15%-20% [11]. However, CTP also requires batteries to be inserted into nonstandard containers so that the space can be more efficiently utilized. Recent advances in additive manufacturing [12]–[14] have enabled the customized adjustment of battery layout for each EV since they have different containers for batteries. But the custom design of battery layout still needs a tremendous amount of effort if using the traditional experimental or simulation methods. In this study, we developed a data-driven approach to optimizing the battery layout in a specific pack to lower the cooling cost while keeping all the battery cells' temperatures in the high-performance range.

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