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Several methods for cooling the pack have been discussed and some were tested.
| Method | Choice order (by performance) | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liquid Cooling | 1 or 2 | Would be great | Too complicated, too much risk, would take too much time. If done properly, it could work very well. |
| Phase Change Interstitial Material | 1 or 2 | Would work amazing | Unable to acquire / make, would also absorb thermal runaway heat and prevent propagation. Would also mean that we have a fixed amount of thermal mass to heat up, as the pack airflow would be terrible. We can seal the pack completrly with this option though. |
| Forced air cooling | 3 | Works well, must have approriately specced fan | If we get enough air through the modules, it can cool it properly. The fans will require some power when cooling, probably around 20-30W or a little more. We tested the prototype module with a standard 120mm case fan and a Noctua IPPC 3000 fan. |
| Conductive cooling to catamaran | 4 | Ineffective | The catamaran of the car is carbon fiber, and graphite has amazing planar thermal conductivity, but when you will it with epoxy it is terrible. From our testing, it is more conductive through the Z-axis then across the plane |
We selected Forced Air Cooling for our pack.
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Google spreadsheet comparing P-Q curves of various computer fans (made by the guy in the following youtube video):
| Google drive sheets | ||
|---|---|---|
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