Phase-change materials (PCM) for automotive applications

Abstract

In this paper, an extensive review of battery thermal management systems (BTMSs) such as phase-change materials (PCMs) in the state of art is proposed.  Nowadays, PCMs are particularly attractive and chosen as one of the most interesting cooling system in terms of high-energy storage density. In addition, they are less bulky, complex and expensive than traditional cooling methods such as forced-air cooling or liquid cooling. Nonetheless, the integration of PCMs in a battery application calls for an analysis that will enable the researcher to proposed optimized BTMSs. Indeed, due to the lack of literature in this domain, the paper proposed to review all the existing studies on battery applications involving PCMs. Numerical analysis description, heat transfer theory along with the classification of the existing components for PCMs are also presented. This paper is based on previous reviews to help to update the thin number of references, which is considered by the authors as the major contribution.