Investigation on thermal performance of water-cooled Li-ion cell and module with tree-shaped channel cold plate

• A novel tree-shaped channel is designed for the cooling of battery module. • The novel cooling plate offers good cooling efficiency. • Kriging models of the cooling plate exhibit good prediction abilities. • Lowering the cooling water temperature increases the temperature difference between the cells. The performance of lithium-ion batteries shows high susceptibility to temperature. A well-designed thermal management system can improve the service life and safety of the battery pack. In this study, we developed a novel cooling plate with the inherent advantages of low flow resistance. To highlight the performance advantages of the cooling plate, it was compared with a previous tree-shaped cooling plate as well as the U-turn cooling plate used by Chevrolet. Furthermore, combining Kriging interpolation with Latin hypercube sampling test, three prediction models of pressure drop, maximum temperature, and standard deviation of the surface temperature of the novel cooling plate were established to investigate the influence of structural parameters and boundary conditions on the performance of the novel cooling plate. To verify the accuracy of the prediction models, 10 sets of test combinations were constructed through the uniform test design. Finally, a prismatic battery module was created using the battery design studio (BDS) and STAR-CCM+. The effect of cooling water temperature and battery discharge rate on the thermal performance of the battery module was investigated. The results indicated that the novel cooling plate exhibited slightly better heat dissipation with only a 1/3 pressure drop than the other two cooling plates. The Kriging models were in good agreement with the simulation results, which demonstrated the excellent prediction abilities of the Kriging models. The lower temperature but larger temperature difference was achieved in the battery module by reducing the cooling water temperature. The novel cooling plate could maintain the maximum temperature of the battery module, maximum cell-to-cell temperature difference, and maximum temperature gradient within the cell below 40 °C, 1 °C, and 5 °C, respectively.