Analytical modeling and simulation of liquid cooling thermal management of a lithium-ion battery module

Abstract

ABSTRACT An effective battery thermal management system (BTMS) of power battery module for electric vehicles (EVs) plays a decisive role in battery life, cost, and safety in use. A BTMS method for a lithium-ion battery module, which is consisting of 12 prismatic cells, is proposed based on liquid cooling in the present work. Three circuitous channels embedded with a cooling plate are studied. In addition, the reliability and scientificity of the numerical model are verified by cooling performance tests. The simulation and test for this BTMS under a 3C discharging and charging rate were performed. Meanwhile, the performance evaluations of the battery module by considering different cooling conditions and battery arrangement are investigated numerically. With the help of the numerical model and test, the effects of flow area, mass flow rate, and cell gap on the battery temperature are examined and discussed. Simulation results illustrate that the larger flow area is experienced with a lower maximum temperature. BTMS with five channels design exhibits better heat dissipation behavior, and the maximum temperature and temperature difference under 80 g/s mass flow rate is about 45°C. Then, increases of maximum temperature and temperature difference are shown under lower mass flow rate, and the peak temperature at the lowest flow rate of 2 g/s is equal to 79.89°C, while it increases to 80 g/s, the peak temperature drops down to 47.43°C. Moreover, the lower the cell gap is, the worse the cooling performance is. Consequently, this study of this paper will provide a theoretical and an experimental basis for improving the battery module thermal behavior and BTMS strategy.