P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) polymer based electrocaloric device design for battery cooling

Abstract

Electrocaloric (EC) cooling has the potential to be an alternative to traditional cooling methods. The polyvinylidene fluoride-trifluoro ethylene-chlorofluoroethylene terpolymer (P(VDF-TrFE-CFE) is used as electrocaloric material. A 3D equation-based modeling and finite element simulations are performed for EC cooling, where the battery's heat generation is considered a heat source for analysis. The electric field waveform has been varied to obtain the maximum possible ECE. Electric field cycles with 0.3 sec holding provide the maximum EC temperature change. The magnitude of the electric field is also varied and a maximum adiabatic temperature change of 5.41 K is achieved under 100 MV/m. The EC effect shows that the heat transfer from the source (battery surface) to the sink (environment) is faster than without EC. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.