Performance of serpentine channel based Li‐ion battery thermal management system: An experimental investigation

Thermal management of large-scale Li-ion battery packs is of great significance to their safety and life cycle, which would impact their applicability in electric vehicles. Of the many strategies developed for this purpose, indirect liquid cooling has already demonstrated quite high potentials in thermal regulation of such battery systems. In this study, a compact lightweight serpentine wavy channel configuration was chosen to construct an indirect liquid cooling system for a battery module of cylindrical Li-ion cells. The serpentine channel has a number of six internal minichannels. Experimental test data were used to conduct a comprehensive thermal analysis to examine the highest temperature, the maximum temperature difference, and the heat accumulation percentages, and so forth within the battery pack. Results have revealed the ability of the cooling system to maintain the module temperature within appropriate working conditions for electric vehicle applications for most cycling tests including two driving cycles. Furthermore, the analysis insights raised by this study could be useful in understanding the cooling performance of the liquid-based thermal management systems for electric vehicles.