The Lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries that power today’s electric vehicles require sophisticated electronics and a high degree of control. “In a very broad sense, the function of a Battery Management System is to constantly monitor and protect every single cell in the battery pack,” says AVL Technical Specialist Kim Yeow. “It also constantly communicates with engine and other vehicle control systems to ensure the safe and efficient operation of the battery pack. The battery system has to endure and work well in extreme environments and respond rapidly to changes in vehicle driving conditions, all in real time. It’s quite complex.”

Kim Yeow is part of the advanced simulation technology team that has been researching and evaluating Li-ion battery systems for various customers at AVL’s technical center in Plymouth, Michigan for several years now. Working on an internal R&D project to adapt a gasoline powered car to an Electric Vehicle and Range Extender (EVARE) demonstration platform, the team at Plymouth was challenged to come up with an efficient cooling system for the battery pack. This pack was assembled with 14 battery modules that were bought off the shelf and packaged within a constrained space for optimum thermal and electrical performance. “That’s when it became clear we needed to apply realistic simulation with finite element analysis (FEA) to predict battery working temperatures,” says Yeow.

Li-ion batteries have been around for decades. What secrets could FEA uncover now? “There’s still a lot to learn,” says Yeow. “Due to a large market shift, there’s been heavy research on vehicle electrification for the past few years within AVL.” Much of the research that Yeow was involved in centers on the thermal management of the battery pack.

Read the Complete article on Product Design and Development: http://www.pddnet.com/articles/2014/02/keeping-it-cool-realistic-simulation

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