ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT AND ENTROPY GENERATION MINIMIZATION THROUGH STRUCTURAL OPTIMIZATION OF A DOUBLE-LAYER LIQUID-COOLED PLATE WITH CIRCULAR ARC-SHAPED FLOW CHANNELS

Abstract

Power batteries for new energy vehicles and other high-power electrical devices benefit greatly from liquid-cooled plates for thermal control. In the present work, a liquid-cooled plate with a double-layer arc-channel structure is developed to achieve a uniform temperature distribution on the surface of lithium-ion powered batteries and to reduce operating temperatures. Numerical simulations are employed to examine the flow properties and heat transfer capabilities of the plate. Subsequently, the model is validated experimentally. The structure of the liquid-cooled plate is optimized using a genetic algorithm. In the research, two methods for optimizing the structure of liquid-cooled plates have been proposed based on defining the fitness function of genetic algorithms. The first method uses a dimensionless number to represent the amount of pump power needed to allow the working fluid to absorb one joule of heat energy. The other method uses the entropy generation of the liquid-cooled plate as the fitness function of genetic algorithms. Genetic algorithms may be used to find the minimum dimensionless number and the minimal amount of entropy. The structural characteristics of the liquid-cooled plate may be obtained with the best energy efficiency and the least amount of entropy production using the dimensionless number minimization (DNM) and entropy generation (EGM) optimization techniques, respectively. The performance of the two optimization techniques is contrasted. The maximum temperature of the plate is reduced by 2.58 K and 0.14 K, and the standard deviation of the temperature is reduced by 0.685 K and 0.408 K after the optimization using the creatively established dimensionless number and the entropy generation minimization methods, respectively. The pump work required by the working fluid to absorb one joule of heat energy from the plate is reduced by 70.5% and 12.1%. At two distinct boundary conditions, the proposed liquid-cooled plate outperforms the plates with serpentine and parallel channels in terms of cooling performance or energy efficiency.