Investigation on Flow Pattern Architecture Design on Thermal Plate for Battery Electric Vehicles

Liquid cooling systems are a widely used method for cooling lithium-ion batteries in modern electric vehicles. Battery thermal plate (BTP) is a key component of the liquid-cooled thermal management system, which regulates battery temperature to prevent thermal runaway and fire accidents. Designing an energy efficient flow pattern with uniform velocity and temperature distribution is a major challenge for the BTP. In this paper, the effect of flow patterns in cooling performance of the BTP is examined. Battery temperature can be efficiently controlled by varying direction, number of flow channels and structure of the BTP. Complex flow pattern networks are modeled and compared based on the computational fluid dynamics results. The channel flow resistance, pressure drop, and temperature distribution are key parameters which are evaluated for varying mass flow rate conditions. From this study, the flow pattern which satisfies the temperature requirement and has 10% less pumping power consumption is identified. Thus, the suitable flow pattern which is determined for vehicle application not only ensures safety of battery but also increases the vehicle range by being energy efficient.