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Currently, the conventional heat pipe form and working fluid are not well suited for power batteries. Existing simulation studies on battery thermal management with coupled heat pipes often overlook the two-phase flow and heat transfer of working fluid within the heat pipe. Additionally, the temperature difference between electrode region and cell is neglected in thermal behaviour simulation of the battery. Aiming at these problems, this paper proposes the design of an L-shaped heat pipe, which aims to efficiently adapt to heat dissipation of square batteries and the spatial arrangement within the battery module. And the phase change, flow and heat transfer processes of working fluid inside heat pipe are simulated and reproduced using the VOF (volume of fluid) method. Additionally, a CFD (computational fluid dynamics) model of an 8S1P ternary lithium-ion battery module is established based on the NTGK (Newman, Tiedemann, Gu, and Kim) method. Focusing upon thermal behaviour properties of the 8S1P battery module at different discharge rates, we investigate and optimize the thermal management efficiency of L-shaped heat pipes coupled with air cooling. The analysis reveals that the battery module model provides a more accurate representation of the temperature field on the body of batteries and the temperature variation among them. The evaporation-condensation process of the working fluid inside the heat pipe can continue in dynamic equilibrium, and the heat transfer effect through phase transition is well. With battery discharge rates varying from 1C to 3.5C, the addition of forced air cooling and introduction of cold air from air conditioning allows efficient control of temperature and temperature difference of the module, resulting in an ideal cooling effect. This study further improves the accuracy of the design and simulation of BTM (battery thermal management) that coupled with heat pipes, which can provide certain reference for related research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AbstractThis study aims to enhance the performance of the air-cooled hybrid battery thermal management system (BTMS) by using fins under extreme discharge conditions such as 7C, 9C, and 11C. In this context, five different fin structures, Type-I (no fin), Type-II (rectangular), Type-III (extended), Type-IV (blade), and Type-V (triangular), were modeled, and numerical analyses of the developed BTMSs were performed using COMSOL Multiphysics software. In the numerical analysis, three different phase change materials (PCM-1, PCM-2, and PCM-3) with three different thicknesses (tPCM) of 4, 6, and 8 mm were considered, and the airflow was supplied to the system at three different Reynolds (Re) numbers of 100, 200, and 400. In this way, the effects of the BTMS types, tPCM, PCM types, and air velocity on the battery pack temperature distribution (ΔT), PCM melting uniformity (ΔF), and maximum battery cell temperature (Tmax) in the hybrid BTMS were investigated. As a result of the analyses, the maximum ΔT was found to be 5.58 °C for the case involving Type-II and PCM-1 with tPCM of 4 mm at 11C. PCM-2 exhibited the best performance for all BTMS types with a tPCM of 4 mm at 9C. However, at 11C, only the case involving PCM-3 with a tPCM of 6 mm and Type-V could maintain the Tmax under 60 °C. Moreover, the results obtained from the numerical analysis revealed that the use of fins significantly increased the PCM melting uniformity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Various coolants exert different effects on the cooling performance of liquid cold plates employed for EV battery cells. This research investigates the influence of utilizing CuO/water nanofluid on the liquid cold plate’s thermal and hydraulic performance. The present study uses 40 nm CuO nanoparticles with a 1% volume fraction, and the CuO/water nanofluid is prepared using a two-step method. Using CuO/water nanofluid achieves a lower surface temperature than water at different Reynolds numbers, with a maximum difference of 4.2% at Reynolds number 382. At Reynolds number 1530, the nanofluid achieved a surface temperature of approximately 35°C, well within the recommended operational range for Li-ion batteries. The heat absorption capacity of the nanofluid was enhanced by 3.21 J/s between Reynolds numbers 574 and 765, attributed to its higher thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity. The Nusselt number for the nanofluid surpassed that of water beyond Reynolds number 1147, indicating superior performance facilitated by improved fluid mixing. The maximum increase in pumping power consumption was 25.2% at a Reynolds number of 956. However, this penalty is small compared to the energy saved due to the better cooling performance of CuO/water nanofluid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Refrigerant indirect contact phase-change cooling system flows refrigerant into a cold plate and utilizes the phase-change to exchange heat with the battery. However, R134a, commonly used, is being gradually restricted due to its environmental impact. A new kind of near azeotrope mixed refrigerant R1234yf/R152a (mass ratio 60.5:39.5) is proposed under environmental protection and safety. Based on the fluid-structure interaction model, the evaluation of different indirect contact phase-change cooling systems for battery thermal management (BTM) using R1234yf/R152a is investigated. After obtaining battery (150 Ah, 3.2 V LiFePO4) parameters, heat generation power, and main test conditions through experiments, the thermal properties are numerically studied by computational fluid dynamics (CFD). At 1 C discharge rate, the temperature gradient (TG) of single battery and the maximum temperature difference (TD) among batteries are analyzed for two cases: The maximum TD among batteries of Case_b is 6.5°C lower than that of Case_a. In addition, the effect of the mixed refrigerant and traditional liquid cooling on the battery temperature is studied at different evaporation temperatures (ETs) (20°C, 25°C) and different mass flow rates (MFRs) (0.02, 0.10, and 0.18 kg/s). The results show that both the increase of inlet MFR and the reduction of inlet ET may significantly improve the battery module cooling rate. Compared with 0.02 kg/s, as the MFR increases, the temperature drop slopes to 9.56 and 11.2 at 20°C. The battery module temperature uniformity is improved with the increase of ET. Overall, the mixed refrigerant has advantages in temperature uniformity and consistency. The new mixed refrigerant plays a positive role in controlling battery temperature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]