Performance comparison between straight channel cold plate and inclined channel cold plate for thermal management of a prismatic LiFePO4 battery

An efficient battery thermal management system is indispensable for ensuring the safety and stability of Li-ion batteries. In this work, for applications of a prismatic LiFePO4 battery in electric vehicle, an inclined channel cold plate is designed based on the straight channel cold plate. The performance of the straight channel cold plate and the inclined channel cold plate are numerically investigated and compared under different coolants, channel numbers and mass flow rates. The j/f factor considering the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics is employed to judge the comprehensive performances of cold plates. Results show that the performance of inclined channel cold plate is much better than that of straight channel cold plate. The j/f factor of the straight channel cold plate is improved by 79.64% when the coolant is water, the mass flow rate is 0.6 g s−1, the channel number is 5 and the inclined angle is 15°. Furthermore, effects of inclined angle are investigated. It is found that the larger the inclined angle the better the performance of the inclined channel cold plate. This work suggests that the inclined channel cold plate is more suitable for applying in the battery thermal management system.