Thermal encapsulation of large battery packs for electric vehicles operating in cold climate
Anandh Ramesh Babu, Blago Minovski, Simone Sebben
Abstract
Thermal management for electric vehicles is becoming ever more significant for ensuring prolonged driving range. Climatization of batteries to the optimal operating temperatures is crucial for their performance and lifetime, and therefore they need to be heated when operating in cold climate. This often results in reduced driving range. This work numerically investigates the potential of thermal encapsulation of large battery packs for electric truck applications. Vehicle-level simulations were performed under drive cycle conditions at different operating temperatures to study its influence on the battery performance. Parking–driving cycles at various ambient temperatures and a parametric study on the encapsulation characteristics were carried out to assess the energy consumption under each condition. The study shows that high thermal resistance of the insulation material significantly reduced the heat loss to the environment acclimatizing the battery pack close to near-optimal operating temperatures, which can result in potential energy savings of about 15% at −25 °C when operating after a 12-h parking period.