ERI: Using Ambient Vibrations to Circulate Liquid Coolant in Electric Vehicles

This Engineering Research Initiation (ERI) grant will fund research that enables improvements in the efficiency and safety of battery thermal management systems for electric vehicles by leveraging ambient vibrations for cooling onboard electronic components, reducing energy predators, and extending the life of batteries, thereby promoting the progress of science, and advancing the national prosperity. Electric vehicles have become increasingly popular, but their reliance on liquid-based battery thermal management systems to dissipate heat generated by electronic components requires additional power consumption and reduces battery life. To make electric vehicles more practical, cost-effective, environmentally friendly, and longer lasting for consumers, this project investigates a novel and potentially transformative cooling strategy that harnesses ambient vehicular vibrations to produce flexural waves that generate a propulsive force field in a fluid medium and circulate heat transfer fluid for more efficient battery cooling. Alongside the advancement of knowledge, the project will contribute to broader societal benefits through the development of educational modules and course projects, research opportunities for undergraduate students, and outreach activities through the Michigan Tech Summer Youth Programs for students in grades 6-11. This research aims to develop the foundations for a new energy transfer mechanism that leverages ambient vibrations to produce anechoic, directional traveling waves in a structural wave guide and propel fluid within the wave guide. To this end, the project seeks to determine whether anechoic structural waves can be generated from the stochastic vibration profile typical of a moving vehicle, as well as which critical parameters affect the induced fluid flow. Experimental and theoretical investigations will be carried out to identify the optimal nonclassical damping profile that needs to be added to a flexural beam to transform ambient vibrations into broadband steady-state propagating waves and induced fluid motion. Physics-based models will be developed to numerically study the dynamics of beams with multiple localized Kelvin-Voigt damping elements in air and when immersed in water. Experiments will be used to validate theoretical findings and explore features not available through the theoretical modeling, including boundary effects and other sources of damping. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.