Comparative Evaluation of Liquid Cooling-Based Battery Thermal Management Systems: Fin Cooling, PCM Cooling, and Intercell Cooling

Abstract

The escalating demand for electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries underscores the critical need for diverse battery thermal management systems (BTMSs) to ensure optimal battery performance. Despite this, a comprehensive comparative analysis remains absent. This study seeks to assess and compare the thermal and hydraulic performances of three prominent BTMSs: fin cooling, intercell cooling, and PCM cooling. Simulation models were meticulously developed and experimentally validated, with each system’s design parameters optimized under identical volumes to ensure equitable comparisons. In the context of fast-charging conditions, intercell cooling consistently met and even surpassed the desired target temperature, reducing the maximum temperature to 30.6°C with an increasing flow rate, while fin cooling faced challenges. Effective control of coolant temperature emerged as a critical factor for achieving optimal PCM cooling, with a potential reduction in temperature difference by 4.3 K. Despite exhibiting higher power consumption, intercell cooling demonstrated the most efficient cooling effect during fast charging. Considering the BTMS weight, fin cooling exhibited the lowest energy density, approximately half that of other methods. Addressing precooling and preheating conditions for high and low temperatures, the intercell method proved adept at meeting temperature requirements with minimal power consumption in significantly shorter durations. Conversely, the practicality of using PCM at high temperatures was deemed challenging.