In the case of a car battery pack, it is preferred to cool it by naturally drawing outside air rather than installing and managing a separate water cooling tube. The direction of the air flow is determined by the inertial force according to the shape of the duct, and a problem in which the cooling effect is biased in one direction can easily occur, so a detailed flow analysis review is required.
Recently, since automotive battery packs are directly related to the performance of electric vehicles, efficiency and miniaturization technologies are recognized as very important. Contrary to technological improvement, safety issues such as performance deterioration due to high temperatures and reduced battery life always give designers trouble.
In the case of automobiles, forced air cooling through air is preferred because intake and exhaust can be performed naturally while driving. It is necessary to understand and design the internal airflow flow and cooling effect of the designed product through flow analysis visualized under internal forced air cooling conditions.
The biggest reason for conducting flow analysis inside a structure is that you can intuitively check the internal air flow and temperature distribution in a visualized form . In general, a number of verifications are carried out through experiments at the design stage, but the internal airflow itself or the temperature of internal parts cannot be visually confirmed, and it relies on some sensors or flowmeters to check.
In particular, internal air flow visualization is effective in verifying the distribution flow rate and cooling effect according to the duct shape. In forced air cooling, the flow rate distributed plays an important role as heat is taken away from the surface by a fast-moving fluid. This is because, when there are heating elements such as multiple cells, the unbalanced flow rate can cause the temperature to be biased, which can result in performance degradation or reduced lifespan and safety issues such as fire in some parts.
As mentioned above, the forced air cooling method is the most important for the speed of the fluid and the surface in contact with the structure. The faster the speed and the wider the contact surface, the more heat can be taken away and moved. From the analysis point of view, the shape of the flow path, the material properties of the fluid, and the conditions for flow are very important. Through analysis, it is possible to check in detail the temperature distribution of the structure as well as the speed distribution by location in the flow path, and the influence of speed and temperature can be easily confirmed according to the shape design change.