Immersion Cooling of Lithium-ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles

The successful thermal management of lithium-ion batteries as used in electric vehicles is crucial in maximizing their performance and lifespan. Direct contact liquid cooling, in particular two-phase immersion cooling, is viewed as a potential means of providing enhanced heat transfer and thermal homogenization within a battery pack. This study experimentally investigates the performance of a 26650 cylindrical lithium-ion cell completely immersed in a dielectric fluid under both single and two-phase cooling. The cell is discharged at increasing rates up to a maximum of 8C, with high-speed photography employed to further study the boiling process at the cell's surface during operation.