Thermal control of electric vehicle batteries

摘要

The need to operate electric vehicles in warm, summer conditions and also provide for long periods of standby in cold climates is a challenging problem for any battery system. All advanced batteries of high specific energy require active cooling systems because adiabatic heating will raise the temperature to a level that is deleterious to cycle life. This cooling requires efficient paths for escape of heat to cooled surfaces; cooling the exterior of modules is insufficient. If a battery is heated by its own energy, and insulated to withstand exposure to a cold climate, only vacuum insulation will afford an appreciable reduction (>10(degrees)C) in the ambient temperature that can be tolerated. Standard insulations are of little use for this purpose because the heat loss rate causes too high a drain on the battery energy even for near-ambient temperature batteries.