Numerical Study on Cross-Linked Cold Plate Design for Thermal Management of High-Power Lithium-Ion Battery

Liquid cooling strategies such as cold plates have been widely employed as an effective approach for battery thermal management systems (BTMS) due to their high cooling capacity and low power consumption. The structural design of the cold plates is the key factor that directly determines the thermal performance of the liquid cooling system. In this study, seven Z-type parallel channel cold plate and two novel cross-linked channel cold plate designs are proposed for the cooling of high-power lithium-ion batteries using two different cooling strategies. The average battery temperature, battery temperature uniformity and energy consumption of all designs are firstly analyzed holistically by three-dimensional conjugated simulation under the scheme of continuous cooling. Two selected designs that demonstrated superior performance (i.e., a Z-type parallel channel cold plate with 8-branches and an improved cross-linked channel design) are further analyzed to explore their integrative performance under different cooling schemes. The results show that within a battery temperature limit of 40 °C, employing the delayed cooling strategy can save 23% energy consumption compared to the continuous cooling strategy. Besides, the cold plate with an improved cross-linked channel configuration requires 13% less pumping power and provides a better temperature uniformity than the Z-type parallel channel cold plate with 8-branches. These results are of great significance to advance the cooling design of BTMS.