Heat Generation and Thermal Response of Enclosed Batteries/Electronics in Autonomous Street Lighting Applications

太阳能和风能等可再生能源现在正被用于离网路灯应用，比如PoleCo Limited制造和销售的路灯。这样的系统安装在没有电网的地区，那里有足够的太阳能(或风能)资源为铅酸电池充电，并为日常使用的灯供电。专注于太阳能资源丰富的地区，白天通过太阳能光伏电池板为一组电池充电，晚上为路灯供电；该系统面临着太阳辐照度高和环境温度高的不幸后果。这导致电池和控制电子设备的工作温度升高，导致它们的寿命急剧缩短，并可能因热失控而发生灾难性故障。这项研究项目将对PoleCo使用的铅酸电池的热行为进行实验研究，以开发用于路灯应用的电池/控制电子设备/外壳的有效数值模型。利用这种模型，将通过数值变化的环境条件(太阳辐射、外界温度、风系数)来研究各种情景，以确定系统的热瞬变行为。最终，将对导致更好的热管理的可能设计进行数值研究，最有希望的设计将导致PoleCo实施。从热学的角度对电池和电子设备进行更好的管理将延长设备的使用寿命，降低系统的运营成本，并为PoleCo提供更多的市场份额、收入和公司的增长，从而有利于加拿大经济。

Renewable energy, solar and wind, are now being used in off-grid street lighting applications, like to ones manufactured and sold by PoleCo limited. Such systems are installed in regions where the electrical grid is absent and where there is enough solar (or wind) resources to charge lead-acid batteries, and power the lamp for daily usage. Focusing on areas of high solar resources, where a set of batteries is charged during the day from a solar photovoltaic panel, and discharged at night while providing power to the street lamp; the system is faced with the unfortunate consequence of high solar irradiance and high surrounding temperatures. This leads to an increase operating temperature of the batteries and control electronics which results in a drastic decrease in their lifetime as well as possible catastrophic failures by thermal runaway. This research project will experimentally study the thermal behaviour of the lead-acid batteries used by PoleCo in order to develop a validated numerical model of the batteries/control electronics/enclosure used in their streetlight applications. With such model, various scenarios will be studied by numerically varying environmental conditions (solar irradiation, outside temperature, wind factor) in order to determine the thermal transient behaviour of the system. Ultimately, possible designs leading to better thermal management will be numerically studied, with the most promising ones leading to implementation by PoleCo. The better management of the batteries and electronics from a thermal point of view will result in the prolonged life of the equipment, reducing the operating cost of the systems and providing PoleCo with an increase market share, revenue and growth of the company, benefiting the Canadian economy.