Study of Thermal Management System for Battery Box for Formula Student Electric Racing Car

Yawen Han ¹ Yuxing Bai ¹ Weixin Zhang ¹ Song Cui ¹ Liguo Zang ^1,2* Hongshan Ding ^1,3

• ¹ Nanjing Institute of Technology (NJIT), Nanjing, Jiangsu, China
• ² National Key Laboratory of Automotive Chassis Integration and Bionics, Changchun, China
• ³ Jiangsu Haopeng Machinery Co., Ltd, Taizhou, China

In Formula Student Electric (FSE) racing competitions, battery overheating is a common issue that arises due to insufficient thermal dissipation at high discharge rates, which significantly impairs the overall performance of the racing vehicle. This study presents a novel and optimized design for the battery box cooling system, aimed at mitigating this problem by minimizing both the maximum battery temperature and the temperature gradient. A combined approach of simulation analysis and orthogonal experiments is employed to develop the cooling system. The airflow distribution is optimized by increasing the number of inlet and outlet vents and adjusting the airflow velocity, thereby enhancing the heat dissipation capacity. Experimental results demonstrate that, under a 5C discharge rate for 60 seconds, the maximum temperature within the optimized cooling system is reduced to 27.4°C, with the maximum temperature difference decreasing from 3.5°C to 2.4°C. This results in an overall optimization efficiency of 31.4%. Furthermore, the optimized system achieves a more uniform temperature distribution across the battery pack, surpassing the performance of the pre-optimization design in all evaluated metrics. The findings indicate that the proposed optimization not only improves the thermal performance of the battery box but also provides a practical and highly applicable strategy for thermal management in electric car applications.