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

这项工程研究启动（ERI）拨款将资助研究，通过利用环境振动冷却车载电子元件，减少能量掠夺，延长电池寿命，从而促进科学进步，促进国家繁荣，从而提高电动汽车电池热管理系统的效率和安全性。电动汽车越来越受欢迎，但它们依赖于基于液体的电池热管理系统来散热电子元件产生的热量，这需要额外的功耗，并缩短电池寿命。为了使电动汽车更实用、更经济、更环保、更耐用，该项目研究了一种新颖的、具有潜在变革意义的冷却策略，该策略利用车辆周围的振动产生弯曲波，从而在流体介质中产生推进力场，并循环传热流体，从而更有效地冷却电池。除了知识的进步，该项目还将通过开发教育模块和课程项目，为本科生提供研究机会，以及通过密歇根理工大学6-11年级学生的暑期青年项目开展外展活动，为更广泛的社会效益做出贡献。这项研究旨在为一种新的能量传递机制奠定基础，该机制利用环境振动在结构波导中产生无回声的定向行波，并在波导中推动流体。为此，该项目试图确定是否可以从移动车辆的随机振动剖面中产生消声结构波，以及哪些关键参数会影响诱导流体流动。将进行实验和理论研究，以确定需要添加到弯曲梁上的最佳非经典阻尼剖面，以将环境振动转换为宽带稳态传播波和诱导流体运动。将开发基于物理的模型来数值研究具有多个局部Kelvin-Voigt阻尼元件的梁在空气中和浸入水中时的动力学。实验将用于验证理论发现，并探索理论建模无法提供的特征，包括边界效应和其他阻尼源。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.