Multi-physical contact simulation in Vehicle applications

Multi-physical contact behaviour is important in multiple disciplines related to the automotive industry. Nowadays battery-electric vehicles' (BEV) thermal management systems deal with contact between bodies where mechanical, electric, and thermal interaction occurs. The battery thermal management itself is crucial for cell life, safety, and everyday vehicle performance. Thus, comprehensive and accurate simulation of the multi-physical contact is a vital part of vehicle development. The multi-physical contact is represented by two or more bodies under applied mechanical load and a current or heat conducted throughout the realized contact area. The amount of conducted current/heat or generated Joule heat is the function of the contact area as well as contact pressure, thus the structural simulation should be essential for such thermal management system simulations Most of the current full vehicle battery pack CFD cooling simulations simplified the multi-physical contact as ideal. Detailed contact modelling is time-consuming, hence not applicable for the full vehicle modelling. In this work, a feasible approach based on contact resistance curves was implemented. Furthermore, the work demonstrates the necessity of correct structural contact prediction for a joule heating and thermal solution.