Thermal Management

Simulate battery cooling systems for modules or packs

Simscape™ Battery™ includes blocks and models of battery cooling systems for simulations of battery thermal management. You can use these blocks to add detailed thermal boundary conditions and thermal interfaces to the battery Module or ParallelAssembly blocks. These cooling system blocks contain both thermal and thermal-liquid domain connections. Use the thermal domain nodes to interface to or from battery blocks that include a thermal model. Use the thermal-liquid domain nodes to specify coolant inlet and outlet properties and operating conditions.

The cooling system blocks in this library are flat cooling plates. These blocks support three main flow configurations: parallel channels, U-shaped rectangular channels, and edge cooling. In the edge cooling configuration, the coolant flows at one end of the flat plate and all the heat from the battery cells is transferred via conduction within the cooling plate material. You can discretize these cooling plates into elements to closely capture temperature spreads resulting from the dynamic interaction with the battery and the coolant flow.

Simscape Blocks

Edge Cooling	Cooling plate with edge cooling (Since R2022b)
Parallel Channels	Cooling plate with multiple parallel channels (Since R2022b)
U-shaped Channels	Cooling plate with flat channels (Since R2022b)
Array of Thermal Nodes Connector	Concatenate arrays of thermal nodes into single array of thermal nodes port (Since R2023a)

Topics

Connect Cooling Plate to Battery Blocks
Learn how to link cooling plate blocks to battery modules and parallel assemblies.

Featured Examples

Characterize Cell Thermal Runaway with Accelerating Rate Calorimetry (ARC) Test

Characterize the thermal runaway behavior of a battery cell by simulating an accelerating rate calorimetry (ARC) test.

Since R2023b
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Build Model of Battery Module with Thermal Effects

Create and build a Simscape system model of a battery module with thermal effects.

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Thermal Analysis for New and Aged Battery Packs

Evaluate a new and end-of-life (EOL) lithium-ion battery pack. With cell usage and time, the capacity of the cell degrades and the resistance increases due to the formation of a solid-electrolyte-interface (SEI), a passivation layer over the anode surface. You must design battery pack components to meet warranty criteria at EOL time from power, performance, and packaging perspectives. This example analyzes a 400V battery pack for EOL thermal performance based on its packaging.

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Build Model of Battery Module with Inter-Cell Heat Exchange

Create and build a Simscape™ system model of a battery module with inter-cell heat exchange in Simscape™ Battery™. Inter-cell heat transfer mechanisms are relevant in the design of battery systems, including analyzing battery thermal propagation and evaluating electro-thermal load cycles in virtual verification. The heat transfer mechanisms supported in Simscape™ Battery™ are conduction, convection, and radiation. To create the system model of a battery module, you must first create the Cell and ParallelAssembly objects that comprise the battery module, and then use the buildBattery function. The buildBattery function generates Simscape models for these Simscape Battery objects:

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Build Model of Battery Module Assembly with Multi-Module Cooling Plate

Create and build a Simscape™ system model of a module assembly with a multi-module cooling plate by using Simscape™ Battery™. Large cooling plates that span across several battery modules are quite common in the design of battery systems, including in the automotive and consumer electronics sector. The workflow in this example automates the process of thermally coupling several modules together to a single battery cooling plate. To create the system model of a battery ModuleAssembly, you must first create the Cell, ParallelAssembly, and Module objects that comprise the battery module assembly, and then use the buildBattery function. The buildBattery function generates Simscape models for these Simscape Battery objects:

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Build Model of Battery Pack with Multi-Module Cooling Plate

Create and build a Simscape™ system model of a pack with a multi-module cooling plate by using Simscape™ Battery™ software. Large cooling plates that span across several battery modules are common in the design of battery systems in the automotive and consumer electronics sector. In this example, you thermally couple several modules to a single battery cooling plate. To create the system model of a battery Pack, you must first create the Cell, ParallelAssembly, Module, and ModuleAssembly objects that comprise the battery pack, and then use the buildBattery function. This function creates a library in your working folder that contains a system model block of a battery pack. Use this model as reference in your simulations. You can modify the run-time parameters for this model block, such as the battery cell resistance or the battery open-circuit voltage, after you create the model. To define the run-time parameters, specify them in the block mask of the generated Simscape models or use the MaskParameters argument of the buildBattery function.

Since R2023b
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Add Vectorized and Scalar Thermal Boundary Conditions to Battery Models

Add vectorized and scalar thermal boundary conditions to battery models by using Simscape™ Battery™. These thermal boundary conditions affect the battery cells at the edges or boundaries of a battery system, which experience different thermal dynamics compared to the battery cells in the battery assembly. The Battery Pack Builder workflow in Simscape™ Battery™ supports module-level and parallel assembly-level thermal boundary conditions to capture dynamics such as inter-cell temperature spreads and more complex thermal interactions to the environment and neighboring battery pack components. You can expose vectorized or scalar thermal nodes for the battery cells located at the Xmin, Xmax, Ymin, and Ymax boundaries.

Since R2024a
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