Thermal-Hydraulic Characteristics of the Liquid-Based Battery Thermal Management System with Intersected Serpentine Channels

Abstract

Liquid thermal management is the prevailing method to maintain the operating performance and safety of Li-ion batteries. However, a better heat transfer performance is often accompanied by a higher power cost for liquid-based cooling methods. In the present work, V-shaped intersecting bypasses are integrated into conventional serpentine channels to reduce the liquid pressure drop across the cold plate without loss of thermal performance. The thermal-hydraulic characteristics of the battery thermal management system are studied based on CFD simulations. The non-dimensional j/f factor is developed and adopted to evaluate the heat transfer ability and friction loss of different designs. The effects of intersecting channel addition, flow direction, channel inlet, and outlet distributions are explored with the simulation results and data analysis. The results show that all of these factors would impact the thermal–hydraulic characteristics of the liquid cold plate. The addition of intersecting channels remarkably reduces the power cost, thus increasing the j/f factor. The alteration of the flow direction from longitudinal to widthwise could further improve the thermal-hydraulic characteristics of the intersected channel design. For conventional serpentine channels, the inlet and outlet distributions show no evident impact on thermal performance. However, regarding the intersected cases, the thermal-hydraulic performance is enhanced when the inlet and outlet are placed on the opposite sides of the cold plate, especially when the inlet velocity is less than 0.3 m/s. The findings of this study could shed light on the liquid flow channel design for battery thermal management.