Performance comparison of battery cold plates designed using topology optimization across laminar and turbulent flow regime

Abstract

Liquid cooling with cold plates offers an efficient solution for battery thermal management. However, conventional cold plates in turbulent regime often result in inadequate temperature uniformity within battery modules and generate significant pressure drops. In this study, we employ the turbulent conjugate heat transfer topology optimization method based on the k-ε turbulent model for cold plate design. Then we derive two novel cold plate designs based on the laminar and turbulent topology optimization method, respectively, and the effectiveness of the two design methods are compared. A multi-objective function which minimizes pressure drop and average temperature is established to balance the thermal and hydraulic performance of the cold plates. The electrochemical-thermal coupled model is utilized to simulate heat production of the battery pack. The fluid flow and heat transfer performance of turbulent topology-optimized cold plate (TTCP) during constant rate discharging is analyzed and compared with that of laminar topology-optimized cold plate (LTCP), serpentine cold plate (SCP), and rectangular cold plate (RCP). Numerical simulation results show that TTCP gives the best overall cooling results among all the designs despite a slight disadvantage against LTCP at very low flow rates. At high-speed turbulent flow (8.488 × 10−2 kg/s), the performance evaluation criterion (PEC) number improvements for TTCP, LTCP, and SCP compared with RCP are 86.7 %, 78.5 %, and 85.4 %, respectively. Hence, cold plate topology optimization using turbulent conditions and methods is recommended for power battery systems, especially those with fast charging/discharging requirements.