Radiator

Example

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Connected concepts

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Chiller

A heat exchanger in which evaporating refrigerant from the air-conditioning circuit cools the battery coolant below ambient temperature. A radiator can only bring coolant close to outside air temperature; the chiller is what lets a pack fast-charge on a 35 °C day. Stationary storage containers use packaged chiller units for the same job.

Coolant

The liquid pumped through cooling plates and heat exchangers, usually a roughly 50:50 mix of water and ethylene glycol that stays liquid to about −35 °C. It carries heat better than air or dielectric oils, but it conducts electricity, so a leak inside a pack threatens insulation resistance and can short live parts.

Heat exchanger

A device that moves heat between two fluids without mixing them, through thin metal walls with as much area as possible. In battery systems the main examples are the chiller, between refrigerant and coolant, and the radiator, between coolant and air; a cooling plate does the same job between cells and coolant.

Heat sink

A metal body, often extruded aluminium with fins, that draws heat from a component and enlarges the surface it can lose that heat from. Fins multiply the area for convection to air; in batteries heat sinks serve air-cooled cell blocks and, above all, the balancing resistors and power switches of the BMS and DC/DC converter.

Thermal management

Keeping cells in their comfortable range, roughly 15–35 °C, and within a few degrees of each other: liquid cooling plates, refrigerant plates or immersion for heat removal, and heaters or waste heat for warming before fast charging in the cold.

References & further reading

Technical references

1. University Physics Volume 2, §1.6: Mechanisms of Heat Transfer

   OpenStax, Rice University

   Technical reference · Conduction, convection, radiation and thermal resistance.

Further reading on this topic

These sources provide broader context; they are not presented as citations for every statement in this entry.

2. A General Energy Balance for Battery Systems

   Dawn Bernardi, Ellen Pawlikowski, John Newman · Journal of The Electrochemical Society · 1985

   Topic background · Battery energy balance and irreversible and reversible heat contributions. Reduced thermal models require explicit assumptions and current-sign conventions.