Orthogonal Test–Based Design and Optimization of a Li‐Ion Battery Thermal Management System With a Liquid‐Cooled Reverse Parallel Structure and Inlaid Fins
Long Zhou, Lin Xie, Jun Dai, Ankur Jain, Guoqiang Chen, Yong Zhao
Abstract
ABSTRACT This work develops a novel thermal management structure with reversed parallel channels and inserts camber fins to keep the lithium‐ion battery operating temperature within the acceptable range. Compared to related past literature, a new type of Π‐shaped flow channel structure is proposed. An orthogonal analysis is used to improve the temperature uniformity of the battery cooling structure by studying the structure height ( H ), channel diameter ( D ), and number of fins ( F ), using the maximum temperature ( T max ), temperature variation (Δ T ), and pressure drop (Δ P ) as indicators. Through the polar deviation technique, it is found that the distribution number of fins has the greatest influence on the thermal management performance, followed by the channel diameter, and, lastly, the structure height. Results demonstrate that the lowest T max is 28.81°C, along with Δ T of 1.06°C and Δ P of 66.75 Pa when the structure height is 50 mm, channel diameter is 5 mm, and number of fins is 56, respectively. This represents a reduction in T max and Δ P by 30.00% and 88.85%, respectively, compared to the baseline model. The maximum error between the experiment and simulation is 0.47 °C. In addition to these specific results, the design optimization technique based on the orthogonal experimental method used here may find applications in enhancing the property of other battery cooling techniques as well.