SEOUL—Hyundai Mobis has developed a new battery cell cooling material to prevent overheating during ultra-fast charging of electric vehicles. A comparison test of the heat dissipation performance between Hyundai Mobis' Pulsating Heat Pipe (PHP) for battery cell cooling and a standard aluminum cooling plate showed a temperature difference of nearly 20 F.
The PHP material is composed of aluminum alloy and refrigerant that is placed between cells to lower internal battery temperature that spikes during rapid charging. Even when battery heat generation increases during ultra-fast charging, it is expected to significantly reduce electric vehicle charging time by implementing a stable thermal management system capable of withstanding the increased temperature.
Heat pipes are metal-tube-shaped thermal conductors that enhance heat transfer efficiency between two objects and are typically used to cool electronic devices such as computer CPUs and smart phones. Pulsating heat pipes diffuse heat through the vibration and circulation of refrigerant internally, resulting in minimal performance degradation due to gravity, even when applied to high-speed vehicles.
Hyundai Mobis engineers used an assembly press that enables large-scale continuous production, simplifying the PHP manufacturing process and reducing production costs. To facilitate mounting on vehicle batteries, the engineers created PHPs with a thickness of only 0.8 millimeter, which is significantly thinner and has a larger area than standard heat pipes.
