The Fiat Research Center Improves Cooling in Their Designs with Simulation
Michele Gosso & Antonio Fiumara
Fiat Research Center, Orbassano, Italy
At the Fiat Research Center in Italy, Michele Gosso and Antonio Fiumara are working on the development of providing power for electric and hybrid vehicles. The team must combine individual lithium-ion battery pouch cells into battery packs to generate the 350V needed, while providing the packs with sufficient cooling. At the same time, they want to keep the packs as small and light as possible.
The team uses COMSOL Multiphysics to study surface distribution of the convection air cooling used in the design. This allows them to discover hot spots in the cell and investigate internal temperature distribution that cannot be achieved in other ways, due to the difficulty of embedding thermocouples in battery pouches and attaining reliable results. The model created using COMSOL Multiphysics allowed the team to cut design time by 70%. The team hopes to utilize this smaller, lighter battery pack in a larger variety of vehicles in the future.
Suggested Stories
Optimizing Wireless Test Systems and Antennas for High-Speed Communication
To design reverberation systems for measuring the performance of wireless devices and wideband antennas, engineers at ...
Heating Buildings with Solar Energy Stored in Sand
Polar Night Energy used thermal modeling to optimize the design of a heat storage and distribution system powered by ...
Behind the Rumble and Roar of Mahindra Motorcycles
Optimization is a subtle and delicate art, especially when it comes to motorcycles. Regulatory requirements on pass-by ...
Multiphysics Analysis Advances Water Main Leak Detection
As infrastructure ages and becomes obsolete, municipalities must deal with the constant updating and renovating ...
