Tuning the pin configuration on cold plate for better thermal management of lithium-ion battery

Abstract

Enhancing cooling performance with the lowest pressure drop characteristics is a persistent problem in battery thermal management systems. The present investigation discusses the design of cooling plate pin configuration, especially for the fast charging–discharging operation of lithium-ion batteries. At first, the effect of pin geometrical configurations, viz. triangular, square, circular and elliptical, are studied for thermohydraulic characteristics. Further, orientation of the pin is investigated for normal and thermal runaway conditions. Furthermore, the effect of discharge rate and flow direction on thermal runaway behavior is also analyzed. Our results reveal that introducing pin on the cooling plate is desirable for better battery thermal management and keeping the battery surface temperature within safety guidelines. Further, the elliptical pin on the cooling plate is found to result in the least pressure drop (+80.46%) among pin configurations considered. The temperature of battery surface is found to be minimum when the pins are oriented at an angle of 90° to a flow direction of 180°, which is recommended particularly for the operation of the battery under thermal runaway. Furthermore, the pin configuration maintained cell surface temperature below 22°C and 75°C during normal and thermal runaway conditions, respectively. Moreover, the maximum pressure drop is found to be 225 and 136 kPa during normal and thermal runaway conditions, respectively.