Numerical investigation and multi-objective optimization of a bio-inspired reticular cell wall liquid cooling plate for lithium-ion battery thermal management systems

To enhance the heat dissipation performance and operational stability of lithium-ion Battery Thermal Management System (BTMS), a novel liquid cooling plate based on a Bio-Inspired Reticular Cell Wall (BRCW) structure derived from onion epidermal cells is proposed in this study. Five design variables, namely inlet velocity ( V ), channel height ( H ), channel width ( D ), plate wall thickness ( B ), and bifurcation channel radius ( R ), are selected. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) is employed to analyze the sensitivity and interaction effects of these parameters. The results indicate that the influence of the bifurcation channel radius ( R ) is relatively weak; therefore, it is fixed as a constant in the subsequent analysis. Optimal Latin Hypercube Sampling (OLHS) is adopted to generate sample points, and a refined response surface surrogate model is constructed with the maximum temperature of the two battery modules ( T max ), pressure drop across the liquid cooling plate (Δ P ), and overall temperature difference of the two battery modules (Δ T ) as objective functions. Multi-objective optimization is performed using the Non-Dominated Sorting Genetic Algorithm II (NSGA-II) to obtain the Pareto-optimal solution set, and the Entropy Weight Method combined with the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (EWM-TOPSIS) is applied to determine the optimal parameter combination. The results demonstrate that, compared with the initial liquid cooling plate model, the optimized model reduces T max , Δ P , and Δ T by 6.07%, 29.12%, and 24.54%, respectively. The optimized BRCW structure effectively improves temperature uniformity and reduces flow resistance, indicating significant potential for high-performance liquid cooling applications in lithium-ion BTMS.