Performance analysis and improvement of lithium-ion battery thermal management system using mini-channel cold plate under vibration environment

Abstract

The battery pack is often subjected to various vibrations and shocks from the road during operation of the vehicle. As one of the core components in the power battery, battery thermal management system (BTMS) also works in a vibration environment. Considering that the vibration may have an impact on heat transfer, the performance of mini-channel cold plate in the liquid cooling system under vibration condition was investigated in this paper. Numerical simulations were performed on the influence of vibration frequency, amplitude and inlet mass flow rate. A method to further improve the heat transfer enhancement effect of vibration was proposed by adding fillets to the square cross-section of the channel. The results indicated that vibration had the effect of enhancing the heat transfer capacity of the cold plate, which was related to the frequency, amplitude and mass flow rate. Under the vibration of 10 Hz and 0.8 mm, when mass flow rate was set to 5 g/s, the maximum temperature of the cold plate was reduced by 4.35 K while the temperature difference was reduced by 3.03 K simultaneously, compared to the static condition. The heat transfer enhancement effect of vibration can be amplified by adding fillets to cross-section of the channel. The overall performance of the cold plate was improved by 33.7% with a fillet of R1.0 mm compared to the original square cross-section.