  Lithium-ion batteries are widely used in electric vehicles and grid energy
storage systems. Compared to cylindrical batteries, prismatic cells are the
primary choice because of their advantage for dense packing. However, thermal
runaway and temperature inhomogeneities are the main thermal regulation
problems that affect their reliability, safety, and useful life. Here, we
propose and assess a multifaceted cooling system composed of water channels
(active cooling) and metallic foam embedded with two types of phase-change
materials or PCMs (passive cooling) with different melting points. We show that
a multifaceted thermal regulation strategy can improve both cooling
effectiveness and temperature homogeneity through a representative prismatic
battery module. Our numerical results indicate that for a battery pack cooled
with a water channel (3C discharge rate), a dual-PCM arrangement can reduce the
maximum temperature by 1.3 $^\circ$C and 2.7 $^\circ$C compared to a mono-PCM
arrangement and a battery pack without PCM. The maximum temperature difference
within the cell is also 1.2 $^\circ$C. Therefore, multi-PCM thermal management
systems show better performance than their mono-PCM predecessors in terms of
lowering the maximum battery temperature and improving thermal homogeneity.
This work motivates the development of multifaceted thermal management systems
with active and passive cooling to improve the long-term performance of
electrochemical battery cells.
