Numerical Investigation on the Thermal Performance of a Battery Pack by Adding Ribs in Cooling Channels

Abstract

The thermal performance of a lithium-ion battery pack for an electric vehicle by adding straight rib turbulators in battery cooling plate channels has been numerically investigated in this paper and the numerical model of the battery pack has been validated by experimental data, which exhibits a satisfactory prediction accuracy. The effects of rib shapes, rib angles, rib spacings, and irregular gradient rib arrangement configurations on the flow and heat transfer behaviors of battery pack cooling plates have been thoroughly explored and analyzed in this paper. In addition, the thermal performance of the ribbed battery cooling plates was examined at actual high-speed climbing and low-temperature heating operating conditions. The results indicate that compared to the original smooth cooling plate, the square-ribbed battery cooling plate with a 60° angle and 5 mm spacing reduced the maximum battery temperature by 0.3 °C, but increased the cross-sectional temperature difference by 0.357 °C. To address this issue, a gradient rib arrangement was proposed, which slightly reduced the maximum battery temperature and lowered the cross-sectional temperature difference by 0.445 °C, significantly improving temperature uniformity. The thermal performance of the battery thermal management system with this gradient rib configuration meets the requirements for typical electric vehicle operating conditions, such as high-speed climbing and low-temperature heating conditions.