A Dynamic Co-Simulation Framework for the Analysis of Battery Electric Vehicle Thermal Management Systems

At high charging and discharging rates, batteries are typically dominated by high rates of ohmic heating which poses a problem for decreasing charge times of consumer battery electric vehicles (BEVs). This problem inherently deals with multi-physics phenomenon at varying scales from vehicle-level thermal management systems down to cell construction and Li-ion transport. This study develops a co-simulation framework for the analysis of a battery electric vehicle thermal management system (TMS) that couples a dynamic system-level model (Modelica) with a high-fidelity finite volume battery module thermal model (COMSOL). The thermal management system investigated is one incorporating waste heat recovery (WHR) suited for high capacity BEVs operating over long range cycles, which harvests waste heat from power electronics for use in cabin or battery heating. A novel co-simulation control scheme is developed, characterized, and shown to provide improvements to instantaneous and cumulative error across the simulated cycle. As a result of the present study, a holistic co-simulation framework is developed, tested, and various case studies of a parameterized battery pack are shown. Future work will extend this to battery aging characterization and lifetime technoeconomic study considering BEV thermal management system components.