Thermal performance of thermal management system combining bionic fern-vein liquid channel with phase change materials for prismatic Lithium-ion battery

Thermal management is crucial for prolonging the life and ensuring the safety of Lithium-ion battery. Two hybrid battery thermal management system (BTMS) are proposed, that paraffin-based phase change materials containing alkanes (PCM) are wrapped around bionic fern leaf vein channels or bionic fern leaf vein fins in cold plate. Then the thermal characteristic of cold plate, like non-bionic (NON-B), bionic fern-vein channel (BFC), and bionic fern-vein fin (BFF) were numerically investigated to evaluate the thermal performance of three distinct cold plates at different mass flow rates, fluid inlet temperatures, and ambient temperatures. The results indicated that the BFC (40.71 °C) cold plate reduced the maximum temperature more effectively than the BFF (41.26 °C) and NON-B (44.12 °C) plates, with maximum reductions of 7.7 % and 21.3 %, respectively. Additionally, compared to the BFF (21.6 Pa) and NON-B (33.1 Pa) plates, the BFC (14.2 Pa) cold plate achieved maximum reductions in pressure drop and pumping power by 57.1 % and 20.8 %, respectively. The heat transfer and flow resistance performance of the cold plates were evaluated using a dimensionless comprehensive thermal performance evaluation factor j/f. The j/f of BFC (5.82) increased by 390 % and 396 % compared to BFF (1.19) and NON-B (1.17), indicating that the BFC cold plate has the best comprehensive performance. The proposed BTMS can increase the contact area between PCM and cold plate through the integration of bionic fins, which improves the thermal performance.