Analysis of temperature uniformity of electric vehicle battery system with swirling flow strengthened heat transfer

In this paper, a novel battery thermal management (BTM) model based on swirling flow was established to ensure the safety of new energy vehicle. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method were utilized to investigate the effects of the number of branch channel (n) and diameter ratio (C) of cold plate. The maximum surface temperature would be reduced by increasing the number of channel, and at the same time, the pressure drop also was increased. The results showed that the maximum surface temperatures of the battery pack were decreased by 5.7%, 1.3%, 1.4%, 3.8%, and 6.5% with Reynolds numbers of 126, 252, 378, 504 and 630, respectively, by applying the branch channel with C = 0.25. The temperature standard deviations of the cold plate was declined by 20.7%, 13.7%, 11.1%, 11.7%, and 13.5% as well. Furthermore, the performance evaluation criterion (PEC) with different number of branch pipes was analyzed. When the Reynolds numbers were 126, 252, 378, 504 and 630 with n = 2, PECs were 4.66, 5.08, 5.14, 5.18, and 5.20, respectively. Based on the analysis of Nusselt number and flow resistance coefficient of channel, the BTM could achieve the most efficiency when n was 2.

Automated summary

This paper established a novel battery thermal management model based on swirling flow to ensure the safety of new energy vehicles. By studying the impact of the number of branch channels and diameter ratio of the cold plate, it was found that increasing the number of channels could reduce the maximum surface temperature and improve system performance. Overall, the study aimed to optimize efficiency and safety in battery thermal management for electric vehicles.