Active thermography characterization of aerogel materials for vehicle electrification

Abstract

Aerogel materials are very important in the actual scenario of both vehicle electrification and green mobility. Temperature control and cell physical state of battery packs are relevant for the correct operating conditions of electric systems. As a matter of fact, the achieved temperature inside the battery is a critical parameter to increase the battery performance. Thanks to its physical properties, due to the low thermal conductivity, aerogel materials can store a portion of the thermal energy released during discharging operation and then use it during the runaway one. This way, a passive thermal control increases the whole system performance without any further device. The evaluation of both thermal diffusivity and conductivity of aerogel materials becomes significant from an industrial point of view in order to test different aerogel typologies. Aim of this work was to develop an Active Thermography approach for aerogel testing to determine thermal parameters as diffusivity and conductivity. Experimental data were processed basing on dedicated ISO Standards. These results were also compared to those available in literature.