Lightweight hybrid lithium-ion battery thermal management system based on 3D-printed scaffold

Abstract

Electric vehicles have been developed rapidly to alleviate energy shortages and environmental pollution. However, battery thermal management is still challenge to the complex structure, heavy weight, and limited heat dissipation under harsh conditions. To address these issues, a honeycomb hybrid thermal management system, which integrates the multi-layered liquid-cooled channels into a 3D-printed metal scaffold to enhance the thermal exchange effect. The impacts of the coolant inlet and outlet arrangement, channel layer number, porosity, coolant flow rate, and continuous charge-discharge cycle on heat dissipation were numerically analyzed at 35 °C and discharge rate of 3C to evaluate the system cooling performance. The results show that the heat dissipation efficiency of the proposed system is greatly improved compared with that of the system with pure phase change materials. An 85 % porosity of 3D-printed metal scaffold performs excellent heat dissipation and low system weight, the system weight can be reduced by 60 % compared to a conventional system with aluminum solid cold plate with a same volume. The system's maximum temperature and temperature difference are kept at 48.1 °C and 2.6 °C, respectively. Additionally, the system performance was validated in the continuous charge-discharge cycle test. This work will help develop the lightweight BTMS with excellent thermal performance for electric vehicles.