Enhancing thermal management in battery electric vehicles using phase change materials

Sammanfattning

With the development of the e-mobility industry, the thermal management of powerelectronic devices such as inverters in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) has becomeincreasingly prominent, especially with today’s trend of high power density and systemintegration, where traditional cooling methods face many challenges. This thesisfocuses on the application of phase change materials (PCMs) in the thermal managementof inverters, aiming to improve the thermal management system temperaturecontrol capability. First, an inverter power loss model considering switching loss andconduction loss is constructed in matlab to simulate the inverter power loss underreal driving conditions. On this basis, a fluid-thermal coupling simulation modelwas constructed in COMSOL Multiphysics to analyze the thermal response of PCMmaterials under different layout configurations. This study systematically evaluatesthe effects of various PCM layouts on temperature rise control and optimizes theirthermal buffer performance while satisfying the volume constraints. The simulationresults show that a reasonably designed PCM thermal management scheme can significantlyreduce the peak temperature of key inverter components and lower therate of temperature change to reduce the thermal shock, thus improving the thermalstability and reliability of the system and extending the service life of the inverter.This study provides a theoretical basis and engineering reference for the design ofan efficient and compact thermal management system for electric vehicles.