Accelerate your time to market. Problems surrounding thermal management are amongst one of the largest challenge areas facing electric vehicles (EVs). EV manufacturers don’t have a lot of time to address the challenge. Poor thermal management can result in weaker product performance, reduced lifecycle and, in a worst-case, thermal runaway events in which serious damage to the product and/or user can occur. To avoid such issues, it is crucial to have a proper understanding of the thermal conductivity of the materials used in the construction, particularly those of the battery. It is important to do this fast as the industry is undergoing significant disruption with engineering teams feeling significant pressure to shorten the time-to-market while hitting the quality performance needed to remain competitive. Accurate data is crucial for material selection and computational thermal modelling (FEA / CFD) purposes. Some examples of where thermal conductivity is considered a critical performance attribute in the overall thermal management of electric vehicles include: Battery pack and enclosure, EV coolants, Phase change materials (PCM) for battery cooling, Electric motor potting compound and other thermal interface materials (TIMs), Axial cooling channel within a motor stator, 3D printed parts (metal and plastic), Thermoelectric generators for energy harvesting, Honeycomb ceramics, Impregnated resin for electric motors, Thermally conductive adhesives. It is important to understand that many traditional methods for thermal conductivity are inadequate for a number of the above materials. The composites materials developed for such applications are often anisotropic and have a heat dissipation that is an order of magnitude different in the axial and radial orientation. The composites are often filled materials with additives such as boron nitride and other conductive fillers added to the polymer matrix. Understanding the distribution of such fillers is important in understanding overall performance. These materials are not typically homogeneous and methods that assume homogeneity significantly distort the true thermal conductivity performance. Contact C-Therm to learn more how the organization is helping EV engineers and researchers accelerate their time to market.
