Thermal, Exergy, and Economic Evaluation of a Passive PCM–Pulsating Heat Pipe System for Fast‑Charging Lithium‑Ion Batteries

Thermal, Exergy, and Economic Evaluation of a Passive PCM–Pulsating Heat Pipe System for Fast‑Charging Lithium‑Ion Batteries | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Thermal, Exergy, and Economic Evaluation of a Passive PCM–Pulsating Heat Pipe System for Fast‑Charging Lithium‑Ion Batteries Mahyar Kargaran, Seyed Borhan Mousavi, Hamid Reza Goshayeshi, and 1 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-9560463/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Fast-charging lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) generate intense Joule heating and electrochemical polarization that drive rapid temperature rise, accelerate degradation, and raise thermal-runaway risk. Maintaining cell temperatures within 20–40°C and cell-to-cell differences below 5°C is therefore essential for safety, longevity, and performance. Conventional active cooling systems consume parasitic power, while standalone phase-change materials (PCMs) suffer from low thermal conductivity (0.2–0.4 W/m.K) and standalone oscillating heat pipes (OHPs) lack sufficient latent-heat buffering during high-rate transients. This study develops a fully passive hybrid battery thermal management system (BTMS) that integrates calcium nitrate tetrahydrate phase-change material (CNT-PCM) directly as both a latent-heat storage medium and working fluid inside a multi-turn closed-loop OHP. The synergistic design combines the PCM’s high latent heat of fusion (~ 171–179 kJ/kg) and moderate thermal conductivity with the OHP’s self-sustained two-phase oscillatory flow, enabling simultaneous heat absorption and rapid redistribution without external power. The system was experimentally evaluated on four 26980 cylindrical LIB cells at 0.5C, 1C, and 1.5C discharge rates, supported by detailed thermal mapping, energy–exergy analysis, and techno-economic assessment. Results show the CNT-PCM-charged OHP reduces thermal resistance from 0.95 K/W at 32 W to 0.25 K/W at 64 W (versus 0.99–0.35 K/W for DI-water baseline). It achieves temperature-drop efficiencies of 12–16% (0.5C), 13–17% (1C), and the highest suppression at 1.5C while maintaining ΔT max < 5°C. Energy and exergy analyses confirm lower irreversibility and superior second-law efficiency across all C-rates. Techno-economic evaluation reveals return on investment increasing from 38% (0.5C) to 49.6% (1.5C). The CNT-PCM–OHP hybrid, therefore, offers a robust, power-free, and economically attractive solution for fast-charging LIB thermal management. Chemical Engineering Mechanical Engineering Passive thermal management Energy and exergy analysis PCM Techno-economic assessment Full Text Additional Declarations The authors declare no competing interests. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-9560463","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":631469409,"identity":"44bbadba-0460-4fc6-ab2e-997972add2ac","order_by":0,"name":"Mahyar 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Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Passive thermal management, Energy and exergy analysis, PCM, Techno-economic assessment","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9560463/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-9560463/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eFast-charging lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) generate intense Joule heating and electrochemical polarization that drive rapid temperature rise, accelerate degradation, and raise thermal-runaway risk. Maintaining cell temperatures within 20\u0026ndash;40\u0026deg;C and cell-to-cell differences below 5\u0026deg;C is therefore essential for safety, longevity, and performance. Conventional active cooling systems consume parasitic power, while standalone phase-change materials (PCMs) suffer from low thermal conductivity (0.2\u0026ndash;0.4 W/m.K) and standalone oscillating heat pipes (OHPs) lack sufficient latent-heat buffering during high-rate transients. This study develops a fully passive hybrid battery thermal management system (BTMS) that integrates calcium nitrate tetrahydrate phase-change material (CNT-PCM) directly as both a latent-heat storage medium and working fluid inside a multi-turn closed-loop OHP. The synergistic design combines the PCM\u0026rsquo;s high latent heat of fusion (~\u0026thinsp;171\u0026ndash;179 kJ/kg) and moderate thermal conductivity with the OHP\u0026rsquo;s self-sustained two-phase oscillatory flow, enabling simultaneous heat absorption and rapid redistribution without external power. The system was experimentally evaluated on four 26980 cylindrical LIB cells at 0.5C, 1C, and 1.5C discharge rates, supported by detailed thermal mapping, energy\u0026ndash;exergy analysis, and techno-economic assessment. Results show the CNT-PCM-charged OHP reduces thermal resistance from 0.95 K/W at 32 W to 0.25 K/W at 64 W (versus 0.99\u0026ndash;0.35 K/W for DI-water baseline). It achieves temperature-drop efficiencies of 12\u0026ndash;16% (0.5C), 13\u0026ndash;17% (1C), and the highest suppression at 1.5C while maintaining ΔT\u003csub\u003emax\u003c/sub\u003e \u0026lt; 5\u0026deg;C. Energy and exergy analyses confirm lower irreversibility and superior second-law efficiency across all C-rates. Techno-economic evaluation reveals return on investment increasing from 38% (0.5C) to 49.6% (1.5C). The CNT-PCM\u0026ndash;OHP hybrid, therefore, offers a robust, power-free, and economically attractive solution for fast-charging LIB thermal management.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Thermal, Exergy, and Economic Evaluation of a Passive PCM–Pulsating Heat Pipe System for Fast‑Charging Lithium‑Ion Batteries","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-04-30 04:44:19","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-9560463/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"5863a67d-6975-4490-b11c-db7b84b3817d","owner":[],"postedDate":"April 30th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[{"id":67209973,"name":"Chemical Engineering"},{"id":67209974,"name":"Mechanical Engineering"}],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-04-30T04:44:19+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-04-30 04:44:19","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-9560463","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-9560463","identity":"rs-9560463","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}