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It is well known that thermal management is a key factor in design and performance analysis of Lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery, which is widely adopted for hybrid and electric vehicles. In this paper, an air cooled battery thermal management system design has been proposed and analyzed for mild hybrid vehicle application. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed using CD-adapco's STAR-CCM+ solver and Battery Simulation Module (BMS) application to predict the temperature distribution within a module comprised of twelve 40Ah Superior Lithium Polymer Battery (SLPB) cells connected in series. The cells are cooled by air through aluminum cooling plate sandwiched in-between every pair of cells. The cooling plate has extended the cooling surface area exposed to cooling air flow. Cell level electrical and thermal simulation results were validated against experimental measurements.

In this paper, thermal models are developed based on experimental test data, and the physics of thermal systems. If experimental data is available, the data can be fitted to mathematical models that represent the system response to changes in its input parameters. Therefore, empirical models which are based on test data are developed. The concept of time constant is presented and applied to development of transient models. Mathematical models for component temperature changes during transient vehicle driving conditions are also presented. Mathematical models for climate control system warm up and cool-down are also discussed. The results show the significance of adopting this concept in analysis of vehicle test data, and in development of analytical models. The developed models can be applied to simulate the system or component response to variety of changes in input parameters. As a result, significant testing and simulation time can be saved during the vehicle development process.