In the race to field EV batteries that promise the longest driving distances and the fastest recharge capabilities, one particular quality often gets overlooked in the marketing frenzy, and that’s the ability of the current crop of lithium-ion batteries to cool themselves.
In fact, it seems the only time we hear about the thermal safety of EV batteries is when there isn’t enough of it and an EV catches fire, leading to recommendations that involve leaving the car outside at night.
But until solid-state designs begin arriving in production cars—an EV industry wish list item perpetually a couple of years away—the thermal safety of lithium-ion compositions will continue to be an engineering issue to be addressed with extra care.
Hyundai Mobis, the automaker’s parts division, now reveals that it has developed a new battery-cell cooling device dubbed Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP).
Composed of aluminum alloy and refrigerant, this device is designed to be integrated between the battery cells themselves, with the aim of lowering the internal battery temperature during fast-charging cycles.
The pipes themselves are essentially metal-tube-shaped thermal conductors, and they operate by diffusing the heat through vibration while circulating the refrigerant internally, thereby moving the heat from the battery cells to the exterior.
Hyundai Mobis adds that the technology offers 10 times the heat transfer performance of common aluminum.
Of course, as with other new battery technologies, the leap from the lab to the assembly line can be a long and expensive one, as we’ve seen by now. But the company is optimistic about putting PHPs into production with minimal effort at the manufacturing level.
“Hyundai Mobis applied a press process enabling large-scale continuous production in the manufacturing stage, simplifying the PHP manufacturing process and reducing production costs,” Hyundai Mobis says.
