Design and manufacturing of battery cooling system in electric motorcycles from an advanced algorithm-based generative design to support practical use of the fast-charging station

Thailand is the world’s top 5 in motorcycle production with more than a 2-million-unit annual sale domestically. However, less than 1 % of those units were electric motorcycles. One of the reasons is that the electric motorcycles in Thailand cannot be used with the fast-charging station due to excessive temperature during the charge. Therefore, it would approximately take a few hours to fully charge the electric motorcycle with the household charging. Nonetheless, the battery thermal management unit, which is commercially available, is designed specifically for four-wheel vehicles. Therefore, there exists no battery cooling unit, which is optimized for the use of electric motorcycles. For this reason, the research team from Mechanical Engineering, KMUTT and the QRES Group Company Limited aims to develop a battery cooling system in electric motorcycles to support practical use of the fast-charging station. Leveraging the patented initial design from the QRES Group, we will utilize an advanced algorithm-based generative design to ensure that the unit would maximize the heat transfer capacity while minimizing the energy consumption. Over 24 months, the cooling unit would be tested in both laboratory and actual operating conditions. Upon the completion of the project, we expect to establish an advanced computational design tool, design know-how for a battery cooling unit, and working prototype which can be extended for the next industrial stage such as mass production.