Thermal fluidic characteristics of microencapsulated PCM slurry (MPCS) in battery immersion cooling

Abstract

With the growth of the electric vehicle industry, various battery thermal management systems have been developed to effectively manage the heat generated by installed high-capacity battery packs. This study focuses on the immersion cooling technique in which the cooling fluid is in direct contact with the battery. For immersion cooling, a microencapsulated phase-change slurry (MPCS) is selected as the cooling fluid and is created by dispersing microphase-change material capsules (MPCM) in the cooling fluid. Subsequently, discharge experiments are conducted using the MPCS to evaluate its thermal management performance. Consequently, the maximum temperature of the utilized MPCS remains below 50 degrees C at all discharge current rates, exhibiting a maximum reduction of up to 35 % compared to no PCM case (air cooling). The MPCMs dispersed in the MPCS remain isothermal within the latent heat range, which proves that the internal circulation immersion cooling with MPCS is effective for thermal management.