Effect of Glycol Aqueous Solution Properties on Battery Cooling Performance Based on Cold Plate

Abstract A three-dimensional analysis of an 8s1p (8 series and 1 parallexl batteries in a stage) lithium-ion battery module consisting of 8 prismatic batteries is performed using a multi-domain modeling framework. The well-known Newman, Tiedemann, Gu, and Kim (NTGK) model is used for modelling. A thermal management system based on liquid cooling via cold plates utilizing glycol aqueous solution (GAS) is proposed. Cooling simulations of the battery module are carried out at different GAS volume concentrations and flow velocities. The temperature evolutions at different volume concentrations and inlet flow velocities are determined, and the results are found to be in good agreement with the experiments. Strategies for modifying the properties of GAS to release the heat generated by the battery module are proposed. It is found that, the cell temperature and temperature gradients were maintained at a tolerable level at a suitable inlet flow velocity and volume concentration of GAS, even at a 5C discharge rate. The simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the temperature difference between the 8 battery cells reaches the minimum when the volume concentration of GAS is 70%, which means that the optimum cooling uniformity of the battery module can be reached at this volume concentration.