Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Applied Thermal Engineering journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng Investigation on the thermal behavior of Ni-rich NMC lithium ion battery for energy storage Peizhao Lyu a,b , Yutao Huo a,b , Zhiguo Qu c, ⁎ , Zhonghao Rao a,b, ⁎ a Jiangsu Province Engineering Laboratory of High Efficient Energy Storage Technology and Equipments, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China b Laboratory of Energy Storage and Heat Transfer, School of Electrical and Power Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China c MOE Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, Shaanxi 710049, China HIGHLIGHTS • Cell can only work well at low C-rate at low temperature with high heat generation. • Heat generation and temperature increases with rising temperature. • Ohmic heat mainly contributes to total generated heat at low temperature. • Polarized heat mainly contributes to total generated heat at normal temperature. ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Battery thermal management Thermal behavior Electrochemical-thermal model Low temperature Lithium-ion battery ABSTRACT Heat generation is the primary factor for the safety and performance of lithium-ion battery. While the Ni-rich NMC lithium-ion battery has a much worse safety performance compared to other batteries. Hence, it is im- portant to investigate the thermal behavior of the battery. In this paper, a pseudo two dimension (P2D) elec- trochemical model coupled with 3D lumped thermal model (ECT) was developed to investigate the thermal behavior of large format Ni-rich nickel-cobalt-manganese oxide (NCM) pouch type lithium-ion battery. The charge/discharge performance, heat generation (including total heat generation and polarized/ohmic/reversible heat generation) and temperature rise at different temperatures and different C-rates were numerically in- vestigated to analyze the overall battery performance at the adiabatic condition. The results show that battery can only normally charge/discharge at quite low C-rate at extremely low temperature (-20 °C) with a much high total heat generation (40.02 kJ/36.12 kJ). The total heat generation and temperature rise increase with the decreasing temperature. The highest heat generation and temperature rise occur at the ambient temperature of -5 °C (at the charge rate of 3C) and 0 °C (at the discharge rate of 3C). At low temperatures (< 0 °C), the ohmic heat generation mainly contributes to total heat generation, and as the ambient temperature is higher than 5 °C, the polarized heat generation becomes the main heat generation aspect. While the reversible heat generation is relatively small and almost no change at different C-rates. 1. Introduction Lithium-ion battery is a promising candidate for efficient energy storage and electric vehicle [1,2]. The Ni-rich NCM lithium-ion battery is a more promising alternative for next generation power battery due to the advantages, such as high specific capacity, reasonable price and so on [3]. Therefore, the researches for Ni-rich NCM battery have been further concerned [4]. However, there are still a lot of challenges needed to be overcome, which severely impede the application of Ni- rich NCM battery in electric vehicles. Thermal behaviors of NCM lithium-ion battery have a great influ- ence on battery performance [5]. The battery performance apparently decreases at low temperatures, because of the degradation of Li+ dif- fusion rate. The capacity is much lower than the normal capacity, and the appearance of side reactions (such as lithium plating) becomes much easier at low temperatures [6]. The heat generation of NCM li- thium-ion battery is an important phenomenon, which has an obverious impact on cell performance. In general, heat generation of NCM https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2019.114749 Received 29 May 2019; Received in revised form 19 November 2019; Accepted 29 November 2019 ⁎ Corresponding authors at: Jiangsu Province Engineering Laboratory of High Efficient Energy Storage Technology and Equipments, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou 221116, China (Z. Rao). E-mail addresses: zgqu@mail.xjtu.edu.cn (Z. Qu), raozhonghao@cumt.edu.cn (Z. Rao). Applied Thermal Engineering 166 (2020) 114749 Available online 02 December 2019 1359-4311/ © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T