Design approaches for Li-ion battery packs: A review

Nowadays, battery design must be considered a multi-disciplinary activity focused on product sustainability in terms of environmental impacts and cost. The paper reviews the design tools and methods in the context of Li-ion battery packs. The discussion focuses on different aspects, from thermal analysis to management and safety. The paper aims to investigate what has been achieved in the last twenty years to understand current and future trends when designing battery packs. The goal is to analyze the methods for defining the battery pack's layout and structure using tools for modeling, simulations, life cycle analysis, optimization, and machine learning. The target concerns electric and hybrid vehicles and energy storage systems in general. The paper makes an original classification of past works defining seven levels of design approaches for battery packs. The final discussion analyzes the correlation between the changes in the design methods and the increasing demand for battery packs. The outcome of this paper allows the reader to analyze the evolutions of the design methods and practices in battery packs and to understand future developments.