Thermal performance of a hybrid thermal management system based on the half helical coil coupled with air jet cooling for cylindrical Lithium-ion battery

Abstract

The Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS) is crucial for the efficient and safe operation of Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). It is challenging for liquid cooling to apply to areas of battery modules with complex surface forms, such as the positive and negative cell terminals, cell holders, etc. Herein, the thermal management scheme integrated with the half helical coil and air jet impingement is proposed for cylindrical LIBs. Heat is transferred from the LIBs' sides by helical flow and dissipated from the LIBs' ends by air jet impingement. The three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics model of battery modules with cell holders is developed. The thermal performance of the LIBs at various BTMS strategies, the number of turns of the helical coil, airflow inlet velocity, inlet temperature, and contact resistance are investigated. When the impinging air jets are arranged on both ends of the cylindrical form, the maximum values of temperature difference (ΔT) of the LIBs fall from 5.7°C to 4.0°C compared with that of liquid-based BTMS. The arrangement of the half helical duct divided into two separate sections reduces the coolant flow path length, which decreases the maximum temperature (Tmax) and ΔT to 28.9°C and 3.6°C. The proposed BTMS exhibits an enhanced heat dissipation performance and provides a design guideline for developing the hybrid BTMS.