{"id":31506,"date":"2021-10-14T05:50:42","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T09:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/?p=31506"},"modified":"2026-03-26T06:22:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:22:53","slug":"battery-pack-thermal-simulation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sw.siemens.com\/simcenter\/battery-pack-thermal-simulation\/","title":{"rendered":"The fast and the obvious – battery pack thermal simulation"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Will \u201cFast & Furious 15\u201d have the same appeal if the roar of the movie series muscle cars is replaced with a silent \u201cwhizz\u201d? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps not for the purists, but as the electrification of transport becomes ever more ubiquitous, so who knows? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, vehicle electrification represents one of the major pillars to help reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions from human activity. From the early days, there\u2019s been a lot of effort to reduce the overall cost of the battery pack and increase its energy density. Above all, this was essential to offer commercially competitive electric vehicles (xEVs), compared to conventional internal combustion engine (ICE)-based vehicles. It was critical to reduce the consumer\u2019s range anxiety, or in simple terms, remove the fear of being flat in the middle of the Mojave Desert. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, while these initial challenges are on the verge of being solved, engineers now focus on the ability of a battery pack to charge as quickly as possible, also known as fast-charging. In addition, new international regulations are being introduced to standardize the batteries safety rules. The aim is to avoid the catastrophic failure known as thermal runaway, whereby the failure of a single battery cell may lead to the entire vehicle catching on fire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

This leads the vehicles makers to focus even more their effort on the battery pack thermal management system. In particular, engineers need to decide how it should be sized and designed to withstand the challenging conditions of fast-charge and how it could mitigate a thermal runaway event to allow sufficient time for passengers to exit the vehicle safely (in case of an accident). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The value of battery pack thermal simulation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Thermal management of the battery pack is not a new thing. Since the beginning it has been critical to ensuring the battery operates in safe temperature ranges, maximizing its performance, minimizing its degradation, and avoiding any hazardous conditions. Simulation is playing a critical role in this process. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the simulation to be valuable, the key is in the ability of the models to predict the cell\u2019s heat generation rate with reasonable accuracy. Thanks to this, engineers can identify temperature gradients and hot spots during the battery\u2019s duty cycle. This allows engineers to select the most appropriate cooling strategy, such as air cooling, liquid cooling, or phase-change material cooling. But it also helps to size the thermal management system and refine its design. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simcenter STAR-CCM+ has been a pioneer since the early 2010s with the release of its capability to perform battery pack cooling coupled electro-thermal simulation with an accurate 3D equivalent circuit model. It computes a 3D distribution of the heat generation enabling the identification of cell temperature gradients and hot spots with great accuracy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Battery Thermal Management – a bunch of new challenges<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward to 2021, the race for vehicle electrification is real, and many OEMs are developing more and more new electrified vehicle models. They must go fast, adapt their design to the many varying models, and leverage design exploration to optimize each cooling system. They need to evaluate the battery pack thermal and electrical responses over many duty cycles. And finally, validate its integration in the entire powertrain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But too often, OEMs are only relying on a simple source term for the battery pack temperature prediction, due to an overly complex workflow to achieve a coupled electro-thermal simulation. This may lead to substantial mispredictions in the temperature gradients and limits the ability to assess the battery performance in transient duty cycles. This implies the battery pack will be inefficient, supply less useful energy and degrade faster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To help address the above challenges, Simcenter STAR-CCM+ 2021.3 is releasing a new batteries workflow that is up to 10 times faster than the original one released in the early 2010s. Its setup is also much simpler and leverages the latest Simcenter STAR-CCM+ technologies in terms of HPC and design exploration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It offers: <\/p>\n\n\n\n