Numerical analysis of topology-optimized cold plates for thermal management of battery packs

Thermal management is important for battery packs and liquid cooling is one method which gains more attentions. However, for the battery cold plate, ensuring the uniformity of the battery temperature and reducing the pressure drop is the issue that needs to be addressed. In order to solve this problem, this paper uses the method of topology optimization to design two novel cold plates (TOPA and TOPB)with different functional focuses. An experimentally derived dynamic simulated heat source is used to model the performance of a cold plate in combination with a high-capacity battery. Then their performance are compared with that of conventional cold plates(RP and SP) by numerical simulation. The results indicate that these new cold plates are able to guarantee the dual requirements of temperature uniformity and low flow resistance. Under the condition of 0.1 m/s inlet velocity, TOPA and TOPB have 1.6 % and 1.7 % lower maximum battery temperatures compared to RP, TOPA and TOPB have 46.7 % and 42.3 % better battery temperature uniformity compared to SP cold plate, and both have about 70 % lower pressure drop than SP. Appropriately increasing the inlet velocity of the cold plate also reduces the maximum battery temperature and temperature difference. Moreover, the values of pressure drops for TOPA and TOPB are very close to RP under all inlet velocity conditions. At the same input power, the heat transfer coefficient of the TOPA cold plate is 69 % and 33 % higher than that of RP and SP cold plates, respectively. As a result, this new cold plate is more suitable for use in BTMS than conventional cold plates.