Periodic Reporting for period 2 - i-HeCoBatt (Intelligent Heating and Cooling solution for enhanced range EV Battery packs) Reporting period: 2020-07-01 to 2022-06-30 Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project Decarbonisation and emission reduction from road transport are the main drivers for the electrification of vehicles, (xEV). The envisaged European CO2 fleet emission limits for 2020 and 2030 already require a massive market introduction of partially electrified vehicles (REX, PHEV) or full EV’s (BEV, FCEV). Furthermore, local or regional air quality regulations such as potential zero emission zones will drive demand for these vehicles. However, there are still some obstacles for user acceptance of those electric vehicles2: high cost, inconvenient and slow charging, limited range, perceived lack of added value and concerns of limited mobility. In order to remove these obstacles it is necessary to increase the efficiency of the components of the battery pack system. The present project was focused on the improvement of the heating and cooling system of the battery pack as key enabler, in order to reach the expectative of the EV users. In this sense, one of the components of the heating and cooling system that still offers much room for improvement is the heat exchanger. Thanks to the developed prototype on this project, a more affordable (62% cheaper) and lighter (17.5Kg) smart heat exchanger that significantly increase the overall performance and efficiency of the whole heating and cooling system has been integrated in a commercially available electric vehicle battery pack, also introducing advanced added functionalities such as printed sensors and heating actuators. Additionally, suboptimal thermal management is one of the main drivers for an early degradation of a battery, causing customer dissatisfaction, underperformance and decreasing range. Under this perspective the design of an advance and smart battery thermal control system that efficiently keeps the battery pack in its optimal temperature operation window under all circumstances –including adverse weather conditions or fast charge situations- has been developed and tested on a real electric vehicle battery pack at lab level. Vehicle manufacturing is one of the most important businesses worldwide and specifically for Europe is one of the pillars of our economy, both for all the direct and indirect labour generated around automotive industry. Partners behind the intelligent heat exchanger concept are European TIERs that intend to position with an unbeatable environmental compliant product that could be introduced in OEMs value chain in a short term of maximum 2 years after the closure of the project. The heat exchanger concept is ground-breaking and has been already patented. Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far During this project, in the context of WP2 the objective was to analyse, understand and check the thermal behaviour of the current standard and future disruptive (the one developed in i-HeCoBatt project) BP in extreme conditions. The results show the current status of the thermal system and the performance improvement of the novel system respect to the current one. To do so, relevant experimental data set has been generated for either setting a reference for the evaluation of the improvement given by the new heat exchanger and the new thermal controlsystem, the evaluation of the interest of additional sensors / heating systems, and calibrating the necessary models. These experimental data, with CFD simulation realized in WP5, enabled to define both mesh sizing and empirical parameter fitting, on a two-scale approach: fine scale (CFD scale) and coarse scale (1D). The objective has been to evaluate by simulation the standard battery pack thermal architecture and control strategies, simulating the performances of the SoA standard solution vs the novel one. Thanks to these models, the development of an advanced and smart thermal control strategy was done. Additionally, the methodology to design a thermal controller based on machine learning algorithms was validated.In WP3 the first version of the main component of the cooling system has been done, based on the CAD data and packaging information of the current standard device. In parallel a model of the heat exchanger and battery were built and simulations carried out in order to decide between various variants of the heat exchanger and evaluate the performance. The full sensorized heat exchanger has been developed in close collaboration between WP3 and WP4.The principles and concepts of the sensors and heaters have been developed and integrated on the heat exchanger. Besides, electronic integrated circuits have been developed for the control, readout and data transmission.The work done in WP6 has focused on enhancing the access and availability of the sensors data by developing a specific SW and cloud based platform to monitor and share the data. The overall architecture and low and high level requirements were defined, communication protocols agreed and the SW as well as the communication between the sensors and the control box developed. Partners also developed the data transfer method between this device and the external device, which included a graphical user interface. Finally, the design and development of the cloud system was done.Regarding WP7, the development of the industrial version of the heat exchanger was prepared and based on the results obtained for the A-Sample, a virtual industrialized sample (B-sample) was designed and validated through simulations. LCA and LCC studies were carried out and applied to identify some initial impacts, looking into the materials used and the heat exchanger production. These data has been used to support the design of this device with a view on the B-Sample prototype. The initial layout of the pilot line was installed to manufacture the A-Sample prototype. The industrialization of all the manufacturing processes have been planned.Finally, in WP8 the A-Sample prototype was assembled, and all the communication and monitoring SW were integrated on the sample so as to conduct the tests at lab level. Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far) Specifically, several advances can be identified due to i-HeCoBatt, namely related to: development of a novel flexible heat exchanger, embedded printed sensors and local heating function in the heat exchanger, adaptive TMS for the BP thermal system, heat exchanger’s cloud based early diagnostic or the industrialization of smart heat exchanger. Most of these innovation fields were oriented to the development of products exploited by the industrial partners, so that the value of European industry is enhanced.Regarding the development of the novel heat exchanger, a first prototype has been designed and manufactured. Different concepts of the heat exchanger were considered, according to various design limitations. The best alternative was selected in order to freeze the design and to manufacture the first prototypes. Finally, mechanical tests were performed to improve the behaviour and the performance. The knowledge obtained in the modelling, simulation, design and manufacturing will be used to develop the industrialisation concept.Thanks to the developed precise model, there was no need of finetunning of the controller.A smarter control than the SoA was provided, minimizing the aging while maximizing the use range.Regarding cloud based early diagnostic tool, the developed SW and platform was put into practice and user-friendly interface between user and data was provided. Related documents SW_DTK1.jpg SW_DTK2.jpg
