Thermal management and propagation suppression in liquid-cooled battery modules with composite sandwich panels vs single-layer insulation

In this paper, the thermal performance of a three-sided liquid cooling design combined with different insulation materials is investigated numerically for the thermal management and thermal runaway propagation (TRP) suppression of battery modules. One liquid cooling plate is installed at the bottom and another two liquid cooling plates are positioned at the two lateral sides of the prismatic battery module to maximize heat dissipation, with either single-layer mica sheets or composite sandwich panels (SP) being used as thermal insulations between batteries. The numerical simulation models were developed based on the present configuration for both thermal management and thermal suppression upon thermal runaway. In the meantime, an experimental setup was developed to validate the numerical model. By incorporating the interfacial resistances between the battery and the insulation, as well as between the battery and the liquid cooling plate, the deviations of the numerical model from the experimental data were within 2.99%. Based on the numerical model, the effects of different cooling configurations, insulation thicknesses and flow velocities are examined. Under normal operating conditions, the three-sided liquid cooling configuration with SPs exhibits improved heat dissipation, with a 51.6% decrease in temperature rise and 56.7% drop in the temperature difference in comparison with the mica sheets of same thickness under 1C discharge. Even at the increased discharge rate of 1.8 C, the maximum temperature and temperature difference were only 36.2 °C and 2.8 °C, respectively. Under triggered TR conditions, the three-sided liquid cooling effectively suppresses TRP under the conditions of mica sheets of 3 mm at a flow velocity of 0.5 m s −1 or higher, and the insulation thickness can be reduced with the increase in flow velocity. In comparison, the three-sided cooling battery module with either 3 mm SPs at 0.06 m s −1 or 2 mm SPs at 0.08 m s −1 can meet the thermal suppression performance requirements, significantly reducing the flow velocity or thickness demand. The detailed heat flow paths are analyzed and a TRP suppression map is also derived for the present three-sided liquid cooling in support for the safety-critical applications.