Design of modular battery system for low voltage battery electric vehicle

The importance of environmental concerns has become one of the most relevant and discussed subject in recent years. New targets for vehicle emissions are getting so stringent, that electrification of the powertrain represents the only realistic and feasibile solution for the near future. Despite the maturity of conventional internal combustion engines technology, and the existing distributed refueling infrastructures, ICE are obviously incapable of meeting the zero-emission limitations established by the European community for 2035 (engine ban). However, eliminating liquid fossil fuels is not an easy goal to be reached, and several challenges must be addressed to meet and fulfill customer needs, which can’t be ignored in this electrification process. One of the first aspects to consider is ensuring a sufficient, suitable, and available distribution of charging infrastructure. Additionally other main drawbacks of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) include the limited vehicle range and charging times. Particularly due to the latter reason, combined with a generally high purchasing price, many customers nowadays refrain from switching to electric cars. A promising alternative to conventional charging that can be exploited to address this problem is Battery Swap. The objective of this thesis is to design a low-voltage modular battery system suitable for integration into the FIAT 500e, ensuring flexibility of the battery pack for both urban (frugal configuration) and extra-urban (dual configuration) missions. An initial battery sizing analysis has been performed to fulfill the requirements concerning vehicle range and battery capacity. Subsequently, a thermal model of the battery cell available is formulated, and validated through experimental measurements to ascertain whether air cooling is adequate or if integration of a liquid cooling system with a cold plate is necessary.