Mastering the Interface: Measuring, Improving, and Predicting Heat Transfer Performance in Battery Cells and Packs
Prof. Dr. Ankur Jain, University of Texas at Arlington
Maintaining proper operating temperatures within Li-ion cells, or packs of cells, is fundamental for both safety and peak performance. The thermal interfaces between different materials is often a choke point in heat flow and a barrier for effective thermal management. A combination of laboratory testing coupled with thermal modeling helps to bridge this gap and allows the development of effective battery materials and, eventually better batteries.
Dr. Ankur Jain is an Associate Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department at the University of Texas, Arlington. He has published 118 journal papers, and given over 60 invited talks, seminars and tutorials. His research has helped better understand key thermal transport processes in battery materials and during polymer additive manufacturing. He has also helped develop new analytical techniques for heat/mass diffusion and convection problems, including the concept of imaginary eigenvalues in certain multilayer problems. He received the UT Arlington President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2022), UT Arlington College of Engineering Lockheed Martin Excellence in Teaching Award (2018), UT Arlington College of Engineering Outstanding Early Career Award (2017), NSF CAREER Award (2016) and the ASME EPP Division Young Engineer of the Year Award (2013). He received his Ph.D. (2007) and M.S. (2003) in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University, where he received the Stanford Graduate Fellowship, and B. Tech. (2001) in Mechanical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi with top honors.