Performance study of battery thermal management system with a bionic cooling plate based on leaf vein channels of plantain

Abstract

The microchannel cooling plate is a vital component in an efficient battery thermal management system (BTMS) that has been widely used to design battery modules for electric vehicles. In this study, regarding the leaf vein structure of plantain, a novel bionic cooling plate similar to the plantain leaf vein channels was proposed. A three-dimensional mathematical model of BTMS including the bionic cooling plate was established. The effects of the structure type, reducing angle of main inlet channel, the number, angle, and width of branch channels, and inlet mass flow rate of the coolant on the thermal performance of the BTMS were investigated. The results indicated that the cooling plate of single inlet and double outlet channel with leaf veins exhibited excellent comprehensive performance. The increase of the reducing angle of the main inlet channel decreased the pressure drop by up to 43.55% but could not improve the temperature uniformity of batteries, the maximum temperature difference of batteries increased by 0.11 °C. A larger number of branch channels and a smaller angle of branch channels can improve the cooling performance of BTMS, while the increase in the width of branch channels significantly decreased the pressure drop. At a coolant inlet mass flow rate of 1 g/s, the BTMS can control the maximum temperature and maximum temperature difference of the batteries at a 3C discharge rate to 31.75 °C and 4.95 °C, respectively, and exhibited excellent temperature uniformity at low pressure drop (669 Pa).