Design improvement of thermal management for Li-ion battery energy storage systems

Thermal management of lithium-ion battery cells provides several advantages to reach high performance electric-vehicles and hybrid-electric-gadgets. Geometrical features and patterns of internal channels of liquid cooling plate (LCP) are key factors for the battery cell cooling efficiency. This paper concerns a new design of battery thermal management and the effect of ribbed channels with double inlets and outlets on the reduction of mass flowrate in the coolant channels of LCP, the hydrothermal performance factor of the battery, the friction coefficient, and the reduction of pumping power by utilizing comprehensive 3D simulations. The Conjugate Heat Transfer approach is employed for the fluid flow and the heat transfer calculations. To enhance the heat transfer surface and cooling efficiency, longitudinal ribs are considered in four different configurations inside the cooling channels. Furthermore, the effects of ribs on the aforementioned parameters in comparison with the non-rib channels are investigated. The results demonstrated that the optimized ribbed configuration increases the total amount of heat transfer by up to 68%, reduces the mass flowrate to 16%, and lowers the pumping power by 20% in comparison with rib-less channels. Meanwhile, the hydrothermal cooling performance factor of enhanced up to 58% and the maximum temperature approximately remains constant.

Automated summary

This paper investigates a new battery thermal management design, reducing flowrate in the LCP by utilizing ribbed channels with double inlets and outlets, enhancing the hydrothermal performance factor while decreasing friction coefficient and pumping power. The optimized ribbed configuration increases total heat transfer by up to 68%, reduces mass flowrate by 16%, and lowers pumping power by 20% compared to rib-less channels. Meanwhile, the hydrothermal cooling performance factor is enhanced by 58% with the maximum temperature remaining constant.