Advanced Thermal Modelling of a Lithium Battery Cell for Automotive Applications

In recent years, significant improvements have been made in awareness of public opinion and institutions on problems relating to environmental pollution. Year after year, the legislation is imposing more stringent limits on vehicle emissions (95 g/km of CO2 emissions from 2020) and fuel economy, affecting the constant change in the automotive industry scenario. As consequence the electrified powertrain and full electric vehicles are currently the trend solution considered by the OEMs. In a contest where the electrification is playing an important role in the vehicle development, batteries are key components to be developed, in particular lithium batteries due to their superior performances. In this perspective 1D simulation is extensively used both in the preliminary and advanced development phases. Most of the studies are carried out on the battery thermal management to guarantee that battery cells work in the optimal range ensuring the target vehicle performance. The purpose of this thesis is to develop a methodology for building thermal models able to predict the temperature distribution inside a battery cell considering both adiabatic conditions and different cooling strategies.