A novel battery thermal management model in hybrid vehicles using Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube.

The thermal management of the batteries in electrical and hybrid vehicles is a major concern for operation safety, battery life, and performance. In the current research, the temperature of the battery is tracked for 10,000 s of operation while using a Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube (RHVT) for the thermal management of the battery. An analytical model is developed and validated to study the impact of the heat generated per unit volume from the battery, the mass ratio for the cold air at the outlet to the total air at the inlet (x), entered air pressure, temperature, and mass flow rate. The peak temperature of the battery can be reduced by increasing the pressure and mass flow rate of the air at the inlet, decreasing the temperature of the air at the inlet, and using four RHVTs instead of a single RHVT. The proposed system significantly decreased the maximum temperature of the battery to 48.12 °C, compared to the battery thermal management method of using direct air, which resulted in a temperature of 75.73 °C. Furthermore, employing four RHVTs to cool the battery further reduced the maximum temperature from 48.12 to 11.23 °C, demonstrating a substantial improvement compared to utilizing a single RHVT. Utilizing the RHVT provides a good solution for the battery thermal management problem because it is cheap, small, and reduces the temperature of the air rapidly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]