Enhancement of lithium-ion battery thermal management with the divergent-shaped channel cold plate

Effective thermal management is critical to the performance and durability of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles. As an alternative to conventional cold plates with straight channels, a new cold plate with divergent-shaped channels has been proposed to minimize the maximum temperature and pressure drop. Compared with conventional straight-shaped channels, the divergent-shaped channels exhibit enhanced performance with a higher heat dissipation capacity and lower frictional resistance. To further reduce the local flow resistance, divergent-shaped channels with two inlets and one outlet have been evaluated. This new design can successfully decrease the pressure drop by 7.2% and decrease the maximum temperature difference from 3.99 to 3.19 K. Finally, battery cooling modules with a counter-flow configuration have been constructed, which achieve a smaller maximum temperature difference. This work contributes to the development of effective and efficient battery cooling systems for electric vehicles.