Performance investigation of battery thermal management system based on L-shaped heat pipe coupled cold plate and optimization of controllable liquid cooling

Abstract

This study proposes a battery thermal management system based on L-shaped heat pipes coupled with liquid cooling. Experimental and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation studies have been conducted on the performance of the thermal management system. The thermal performance of three heat dissipation methods including forced air cooling, bottom liquid cooling and heat pipe coupled liquid cooling were compared. The results demonstrate that the coupling system can control the maximum temperature and temperature difference of the module at 30.12°C and 2.02°C at a 3C discharge rate. Compared with forced air cooling and bottom liquid cooling, the maximum temperature was decreased by 30.16% and 17.01% and the temperature difference was decreased by 72.14% and 77.20%, respectively. Studied the impact of factors such as coolant flow rate, the number of liquid-cooled plate channels, and the coolant inlet temperature under different ambient temperatures on the thermal management performance of the coupled system. By monitoring the maximum temperature of the module and the ambient temperature, a method for controlling the flow rate and the inlet temperature of the cooling water has been developed to implement an intermittent liquid cooling strategy for the battery module. Intermittent liquid cooling at various ambient temperatures can obtain similar thermal management performance to continuous liquid cooling, while significantly reducing liquid cooling energy consumption. Compared to continuous liquid cooling, intermittent liquid cooling can reduce energy consumption by a maximum of 97.05% and a minimum of 30.00%.

Keywords

• Lithium-ion battery
• thermal management system
• heat pipe
• liquid cooling optimization