Research Projects

The widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) over internal combustion engines (ICEs) has the great potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) to the atmosphere. The Indian government has adopted tax incentives to promote their adoption and take advantage of the environmentally friendly benefits of electric vehicles. One of the biggest problems with getting people to use electric vehicles is that they often catch fire. The first and foremost reason for the fire accident is the overheating of the battery during charging and when it was being discharged. Moreover, the climate in India is predominantly hot, so it is not uncommon for the combined effect to be the reason for bursts of flame. It would be helpful to find an effective solution to this issue if one could prevent the battery in an electric vehicle from overheating. Additionally, overheating has detrimental impacts on the performance and operational life of batteries. Researchers are working around the clock to enhance the existing battery cooling technology, thereby improving the performance, operating life, and fire-accident-free battery. Of the many cooling technologies available in practice, this heat pipe grabs attention as it has a very low thermal resistance, is compact in size, and is passive in nature. In addition to this, the heat pipe does not need any external power to operate. The heat pipe works even during the charging of the battery, as well as during the switching of conditions. It works continuously as long as there is a temperature difference between the surface of the battery pack and ambient. Though it has more benefits, it hasn't yet been used in the battery thermal management system (BTMs) of commercially marketed electric vehicles (EVs). In this proposed work, oscillating heat pipes and loop heat pipes will be designed, fabricated, and tested using the lithium-ion battery pack available in the Battery Innovation Laboratory of IIITDM, Kancheepuram to explore the area still required improvement. As the outcome of this work the developed cooling module of the battery can incorporate in the battery thermal management system for EVs to ease their market introduction.