Design and fabrication of evaporators for thermo-adsorptive batteries

Abstract

Current heating and cooling within electric vehicles places a significant demand on the battery, greatly reducing their potential driving range. An Advanced Thermo- Adsorptive Battery (ATB) reduces this load by storing thermal energy within a bed of adsorptive sheets. A phase change heat exchanger capable of delivering the required cooling via liquid-vapor phase change was designed and prototyped for ATB. The thermal performance and fluid flow within the phase change heat exchanger were characterized for both coolant and refrigerant. A full-scale and quarter-length prototype was designed within the desired geometric and operating condition constraints. In order to build the phase change heat exchanger, fabrication techniques, including brazing, copper sintering, and bonding porous media were explored and characterized. In addition, the quarter-length design was fabricated and insights from its construction are proposed as recommendations for future work.