A scalable electro-thermal modeling framework for improving battery management systems in hybrid electric aviation applications

The aviation sector is a major contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions, with lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells playing a central role in emerging clean energy technologies. This study introduces a multi-physics electro-thermal battery model specifically tailored for hydrogen-based aviation. The simulation framework is suitable for system-level analyses, explicitly targeting versatility, real-time modeling capability, and reduced computational cost, achieving a running time of 5.7 s. The key contribution is a reduced-order, scalable procedure for estimating the battery thermal management system electric cooling demand, utilizing a normalization rule and a temperature-dependent corrective factor. The approach, validated using a representative flight mission, demonstrates high fidelity with an average voltage deviation of only 0.15%. The multi-physics coupling enables comprehensive real-time tracking of power fluxes, capturing the impact of operating conditions on electro-thermal variables and energy consumption. The case study analyzed reveals that increasing the battery operating temperature from 20 °C to 30 °C reduces the additional hydrogen consumption strictly required to satisfy the battery electric cooling load by 21.8% (up to 57.5% maximum savings). The work lays the foundation for advanced energy management in hybrid electric powertrains to support the shift toward a more sustainable aviation.