Optimization of an air-cooled battery module with novel cooling channels based on silica cooling plates

Introduction of additional media for battery thermal management system can improve the thermal management performance. In particular, silica cooling plate is the flexible media which could avoid unwanted collisions applied into battery module. In this paper, a novel U-type parallel air-cooled battery module is proposed by constructing cooling channels with silica cooling plates. Firstly, a three-dimensional coupled model with validated battery heat generation term is established to calculate the distribution of flow and temperature fields of battery module. During the operating process, silica cooling plates could not only act as the heat sink/conductor to improve the cooling performance, but also form the channels to change the airflow paths for uniformity problem of flow distribution. Compared with the traditional U-type parallel air-cooled module, the largest average temperature of the battery cell is reduced by 10.00 K, and the temperature difference of the battery module is reduced from 4.29 K to 1.84 K, with a decreasing rate of 57%. To further improve the module temperature uniformity, a tapered inlet manifold contracted from the center to both sides is designed. Moreover, a flow baffle structure is performed by extending downward the silica cooling plates in cooling channels. The flow distribution in the latter part of the channels is improved remarkably by using the developed structure design after the module optimization. The results show that for the module with the tapered inlet manifold and flow baffles, the module with 3 flow baffles and 6 mm in extension length achieves the best module temperature uniformity. The temperature difference of the battery module decreases to 0.61 K, which is further reduced by 67% compared with the original module combined with silica cooling plates. The proposed air-based method with novel cooling channels would provide a new insight for the design of battery thermal management in the future.

Automated summary

This study proposes a novel U-type parallel air-cooled battery module using silica cooling plates to construct cooling channels. The results show that the module with a tapered inlet manifold and flow baffles achieves the best temperature uniformity.