Electrochemical-thermal modeling of phase change material battery thermal management systems: Investigating mesh types for accurate simulations

Computational techniques have been extensively used in the analysis of heat transfer within battery thermal management systems (BTMS). A fundamental and critical initial step in any numerical analysis is the meshing process, which involves subdividing the geometry into numerous small control volumes...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Yousefi, Elnaz, Ramasamy, Devarajan, Kadirgama, Kumaran, Talele, Virendra, Najafi, Hiwa, Olyaei, Mostafa, Miljkovic, Nenad, Panchal, Satyam
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/45307/
_version_ 1848827380263550976
author Yousefi, Elnaz
Ramasamy, Devarajan
Kadirgama, Kumaran
Talele, Virendra
Najafi, Hiwa
Olyaei, Mostafa
Miljkovic, Nenad
Panchal, Satyam
author_facet Yousefi, Elnaz
Ramasamy, Devarajan
Kadirgama, Kumaran
Talele, Virendra
Najafi, Hiwa
Olyaei, Mostafa
Miljkovic, Nenad
Panchal, Satyam
author_sort Yousefi, Elnaz
building UMP Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Computational techniques have been extensively used in the analysis of heat transfer within battery thermal management systems (BTMS). A fundamental and critical initial step in any numerical analysis is the meshing process, which involves subdividing the geometry into numerous small control volumes, or elements. Here, we investigated the accuracy of the simulated thermal performance of a BTMS using phase change material (PCM) with three different mesh types having: hexahedral, tetrahedral, and polyhedral elements. A detailed electrochemical-thermal model is used for modeling heat generation within a lithium-ion battery. In this model, a pseudo two-dimensional model captures the internal dynamics of the battery and then is integrated with a three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer model. Furthermore, the enthalpy-porosity method is employed for PCM simulation using computational fluid dynamics. Among the three mesh types, the hexahedral mesh demonstrated the closest agreement with experimental data, yielding smooth temperature gradients and PCM liquid fraction contours in post-processing. The polyhedral mesh, while slightly less accurate than the hexahedral mesh, provided a computational advantage, requiring only about a fifth of the elements compared to the hexahedral mesh and a quarter compared to the tetrahedral mesh. This computational efficiency makes the polyhedral mesh the most economical in terms of computational resources. However, tetrahedral mesh, though better suited for complex geometries, exhibited the highest computational cost and produced the least accurate results, making it less favorable for PCM-based BTMS simulations. To further improve the trade-off between computational cost and accuracy, a hybrid mesh configuration is introduced, combining polyhedral and hexahedral elements to enhance simulation efficiency while preserving accuracy.
first_indexed 2025-11-15T03:59:47Z
format Article
id ump-45307
institution Universiti Malaysia Pahang
institution_category Local University
language English
last_indexed 2025-11-15T03:59:47Z
publishDate 2025
publisher Elsevier
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling ump-453072025-08-18T00:34:14Z https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/45307/ Electrochemical-thermal modeling of phase change material battery thermal management systems: Investigating mesh types for accurate simulations Yousefi, Elnaz Ramasamy, Devarajan Kadirgama, Kumaran Talele, Virendra Najafi, Hiwa Olyaei, Mostafa Miljkovic, Nenad Panchal, Satyam TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General) TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering TP Chemical technology Computational techniques have been extensively used in the analysis of heat transfer within battery thermal management systems (BTMS). A fundamental and critical initial step in any numerical analysis is the meshing process, which involves subdividing the geometry into numerous small control volumes, or elements. Here, we investigated the accuracy of the simulated thermal performance of a BTMS using phase change material (PCM) with three different mesh types having: hexahedral, tetrahedral, and polyhedral elements. A detailed electrochemical-thermal model is used for modeling heat generation within a lithium-ion battery. In this model, a pseudo two-dimensional model captures the internal dynamics of the battery and then is integrated with a three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer model. Furthermore, the enthalpy-porosity method is employed for PCM simulation using computational fluid dynamics. Among the three mesh types, the hexahedral mesh demonstrated the closest agreement with experimental data, yielding smooth temperature gradients and PCM liquid fraction contours in post-processing. The polyhedral mesh, while slightly less accurate than the hexahedral mesh, provided a computational advantage, requiring only about a fifth of the elements compared to the hexahedral mesh and a quarter compared to the tetrahedral mesh. This computational efficiency makes the polyhedral mesh the most economical in terms of computational resources. However, tetrahedral mesh, though better suited for complex geometries, exhibited the highest computational cost and produced the least accurate results, making it less favorable for PCM-based BTMS simulations. To further improve the trade-off between computational cost and accuracy, a hybrid mesh configuration is introduced, combining polyhedral and hexahedral elements to enhance simulation efficiency while preserving accuracy. Elsevier 2025 Article PeerReviewed pdf en https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/45307/1/A%20Study%20on%20Mathematical%20Model%20of%20n-th%20Order%20Limit%20Language.pdf Yousefi, Elnaz and Ramasamy, Devarajan and Kadirgama, Kumaran and Talele, Virendra and Najafi, Hiwa and Olyaei, Mostafa and Miljkovic, Nenad and Panchal, Satyam (2025) Electrochemical-thermal modeling of phase change material battery thermal management systems: Investigating mesh types for accurate simulations. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 247 (127107). pp. 1-16. ISSN 0017-9310. (Published) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2025.127107 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2025.127107 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2025.127107
spellingShingle TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
TP Chemical technology
Yousefi, Elnaz
Ramasamy, Devarajan
Kadirgama, Kumaran
Talele, Virendra
Najafi, Hiwa
Olyaei, Mostafa
Miljkovic, Nenad
Panchal, Satyam
Electrochemical-thermal modeling of phase change material battery thermal management systems: Investigating mesh types for accurate simulations
title Electrochemical-thermal modeling of phase change material battery thermal management systems: Investigating mesh types for accurate simulations
title_full Electrochemical-thermal modeling of phase change material battery thermal management systems: Investigating mesh types for accurate simulations
title_fullStr Electrochemical-thermal modeling of phase change material battery thermal management systems: Investigating mesh types for accurate simulations
title_full_unstemmed Electrochemical-thermal modeling of phase change material battery thermal management systems: Investigating mesh types for accurate simulations
title_short Electrochemical-thermal modeling of phase change material battery thermal management systems: Investigating mesh types for accurate simulations
title_sort electrochemical-thermal modeling of phase change material battery thermal management systems: investigating mesh types for accurate simulations
topic TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
TP Chemical technology
url https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/45307/
https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/45307/
https://umpir.ump.edu.my/id/eprint/45307/