Evaporative Cooling of Lithium-Ion Batteries Using Low-Boiling Dielectric Fluids (LANDINIS2_U26EMP)

Thermal management has emerged as one of the most critical challenges in the advancement of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), particularly in high-demand applications such as electric vehicles (EVs), aerospace, and grid-scale storage. Elevated cell temperatures and temperature non-uniformity within battery packs can significantly reduce lifespan, degrade electrochemical performance, and in extreme cases, trigger thermal runaway. With the push toward faster charging and higher energy densities, passive and active cooling systems face increasing pressure to perform reliably and safely under dynamic thermal loads.

Conventional air and liquid cooling systems suffer from relatively low heat transfer coefficients and often require complex hardware or substantial parasitic energy consumption. Recently, immersion cooling with dielectric fluids has gained attention due to its ability to remove heat directly from cell surfaces without electrical risk. However, most existing studies focus on boiling-based or single-phase immersion regimes.

This project proposes an innovative non-boiling evaporative cooling method, where the dielectric fluid changes phase via surface evaporation at moderate temperatures, offering a potentially safer, more controllable, and energy-efficient alternative. This research will pioneer a novel, passive-to-semi-active thermal management method that takes advantage of surface evaporation without boiling—thus avoiding issues like vapor bubble instability, pressure flu