Parameterization of Battery Electrothermal Models Coupled With Finite Element Flow Models for Cooling

Developing and parameterizing models that accurately predict the battery voltage and temperature in a vehicle battery pack are challenging due to the complex geometries of the airflow that influence the convective heat transfer. This paper addresses the difficulty in parameterizing low-order models which rely on coupling with finite element simulations. First, we propose a methodology to couple the parameterization of an equivalent circuit model (ECM) for both the electrical and thermal battery behavior with a finite element model (FEM) for the parameterization of the convective cooling of the airflow. In air-cooled battery packs with complex geometries and cooling channels, an FEM can provide the physics basis for the parameterization of the ECM that might have different convective coefficients between the cells depending on the airflow patterns. The second major contribution of this work includes validation of the ECM against the data collected from a three-cell fixture that emulates a segment of the pack with relevant cooling conditions for a hybrid vehicle. The validation is performed using an array of thin film temperature sensors covering the surface of the cell. Experiments with pulsing currents and drive cycles are used for validation over a wide range of operating conditions (ambient temperature, state of charge, current amplitude, and pulse width).