PHASE CHANGE MATERIAL-BASED BATTERY THERMAL MANAGEMENT FOR ENHANCED ELECTRIC VEHICLE PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The rapid growth of electric mobility has increased the demand for high-performance, safe, durable, and energy-efficient battery systems capable of operating under highly dynamic charging, discharging, environmental, and driving conditions. Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in electric vehicles because of their high energy density, favorable power characteristics, long cycle life, and relatively high efficiency. However, battery performance and safety remain strongly influenced by temperature. Excessive heat accumulation, non-uniform cell temperatures, high charging rates, aggressive acceleration, repeated cycling, and extreme ambient conditions can accelerate degradation, reduce available power, decrease charging efficiency, and increase the risk of severe thermal events. Conventional air- and liquid-based cooling systems provide important thermal control but can introduce auxiliary energy consumption, pumping requirements, packaging complexity, and delayed response to localized heat generation. This paper proposes a Phase Change Material-Based Battery Thermal Management framework for Enhanced Electric Vehicle Performance. The proposed methodology integrates battery sensing, thermal state monitoring, phase change material selection, module-level PCM configuration, passive heat absorption, hybrid active-passive cooling, thermal anomaly detection, battery state estimation, predictive analytics, digital twinassisted monitoring, secure API communication, and continuous operational feedback. The framework exploits the latent heat storage capability of phase change materials to absorb transient battery heat during high-power driving and fast-charging conditions while reducing cellto-cell temperature variation. A hybrid control mechanism coordinates PCM thermal buffering with active cooling when passive capacity becomes insufficient. Multi-source information involving cell temperature, current, voltage, state of charge, state of health, ambient temperature, coolant condition, charging rate, and vehicle load is continuously analyzed to determine thermal risk and cooling requirements. The conceptual evaluation compares a conventional cooling configuration with the proposed PCM-based hybrid thermal management framework. Results indicate reductions in peak battery temperature, module temperature difference, active cooling demand, thermal stress, and high-temperature exposure while improving battery performance consistency and representative capacity retention. The study demonstrates that intelligently integrated PCM-based thermal management can enhance electric vehicle battery safety, efficiency, durability, and operational performance.