Conceptual Feasibility of a Heat Pipe as a Structural and Thermal Member in an Automotive Battery Pack Design

"This project titled: ""Conceptual Feasibility of a Heat Pipe as a Structural and Thermal Member in an Automotive Battery Pack Design"" will answer questions about the suitability of using a sealed heat pipe as a structural member in an automotive lithium-ion battery pack.

Partners Vantage Power, Flint Engineering and Brunel will combine to bring the best research and innovation in two-phase passive heat transfer to the application of automotive lithium-ion battery packs.

By improving heat transfer from the cells within a battery, packs with higher overall specific energy and power densities can be built whilst opening up applications in hot ambient environments where active cooling is a necessity.

Thermal management in large battery packs currently requires either heavy, solid conductive paths or large amounts of coolant which both contribute adversely to the overall mass and complexity. Heat pipes have the potential to reduce this significantly making the integration of cells into large battery packs more affordable while guaranteeing through life performance and improving safety."