Thermal behavior of supercapacitors

Temperature causes the aging, deterioration and destruction of most electronic and electrotechnical devices. Indeed, the operation of high-power eomponents or electronic systems causes the heat production that is often linked to the Joule effeet. The lower the possibility of evacuating this heat from the site where it is produeed to the external environment, the higher the temperatures will be. This leads to the device s premature aging or the decrease in its performances. Therefore, it is important to know the way in which heat exehanges take place across interfaces which are more or less conductive of heat The objeetive is to be better able to dissipate this unwanted heat. 

In the case of supercapacitors, heat production is linked mainly to the Joule losses relating to the equivalent series resistance. Indeed, supercapacitor currents may be of the order of 400 A or more depending on the type and technology used, even if the series resistance is very low (less than 1 mfJ). This leads to a drastic increase in the temperature of the supercapacitor with repeated charge/discharge cycles. This heating may lead to the following consequences  

It is therefore necessary to study and model the thermal behavior of supercapacitors. The aims are  

It is therefore important to be familiar with and to understand the thermal behavior of supercapacitors, for a cell and for a module. This involves estimating the maximum temperature rise in time and space. 

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