Numerical and experimental studies on novel minichannel cold plates for lithium-ion battery thermal management

Abstract

This paper reports the numerical and experimental studies on two novel minichannel cold plate (MCP) designs viz. D1 (channels with circular slot profile) and D2 (channels with zigzag profile) employed for cooling high-power lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Detailed 3D CFD simulations are carried out to understand the effect of the parameters viz. coolant inlet velocity (Vin), coolant inlet temperature (Tin) and the number of channels (n), on the cooling performances of the MCPs. Experiments are performed with D2 using a proxy high power battery module for validation and analysis. Detailed flow visualization, and thermo-hydraulic studies are reported. Both simulations and experiments, reveal a strong influence of the parameters on the cooling performance. An increase in the coolant inlet velocity from 0.05 to 0.3 m/s reduces the battery temperature rise by about 5 °C in both the designs whereas increases the pressure drop and pumping power by a factor of 7.5 and 28 with D1 and D2 respectively. It is shown that the number of channels can be limited to five (n = 5) for a better cooling performance. It is recommended to limit Tin to <30 °C for maintaining the LIB module at 40 °C or below. It is evident from the studies that the two MCPs are best suited for the thermal management of high-power lithium-ion battery modules discharging at high C-rates.