Comparative assessment among several channel designs with constant volume for cooling of pouch-type battery module

Abstract

Liquid cooling is an effective thermal management technique in reducing the peak temperature of lithium-ion batteries. To meet the development of the battery thermal management system's compact design, a liquid-based mini channel cold plate is utilised. Although several researchers proposed numerous designs of mini channels across the cold plate, a comparative assessment among these designs is limited. Therefore, a three-dimensional numerical method is introduced to explore the laminar flow of liquid coolant in six distinct mini channel designs. This includes serpentine, U-bend, straight, pumpkin, spiral, and hexagonal designs under a constant channel volume. Their cooling ability is evaluated in terms of pressure drop, temperature variation, a non-dimensional j/f factor, average temperature, uniformity factor, and cooling performance factor for varying mass flow rate and a fixed discharge rate of 3C. Results signify that the serpentine and hexagonal geometries could significantly improve temperature homogeneity, whereas the pumpkin model maintains a lower pressure drop and pumping power. Furthermore, a detailed analysis is conducted with all the channel designs for an ambient temperature and discharge rate varying from 25 °C to 45 °C and 1C to 5C, respectively. Also, a realistic drive cycle data US06 is utilised to assess the performance of optimal design serpentine channel-based battery module for on-road driving conditions.