Design method of multiple inlet/outlet air cooling frame of pouch lithium-ion battery based on thermal-fluid coupling topology optimization

• Published in: International journal of heat and mass transfer 2023-11, Vol.215, p.124496, Article 124496
• Main Authors: Duan, Libin, Zhou, Huajin, Xu, Wei, Li, Lingling, Liu, Xing, Du, Zhanpeng, Jiang, Haobin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Air cooling; Cooling frame; Multiple inlet/outlet; Pouch lithium-ion battery; Thermal-fluid coupling
• ISSN: 0017-9310; 1879-2189
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2023.124496

•Design criteria of multiple inlet/outlet air cooling frame is proposed in this paper.•Frame with alternative layout of 3 inlet/outlets has best cooling performance.•Max temperature difference of only 0.59 ℃ through out battery module.•Best flow uniformity is obtained by rounded corner between outer channel and inlet. The reasonable working temperature and maximum temperature difference are of critical importance for the electric vehicles. A design method of multiple inlet/outlet air cooling frame based on the thermal-fluid coupling topology optimization (TO) is developed to design novel air cooling frames of pouch lithium-ion battery (LiB) to improve the deficiency of low cooling efficiency and poor temperature uniformity found in the traditional air cooling structure. A 2D optimized flow channel of cooling frame is obtained based on TO, which is stretched to model the 3D optimized cooling frame for its cooling performance analysis. Then the influence of inlet/outlet location, width and number and multiple inlet/outlet layout on the heat exchanging performance is investigated to proposed the design criteria of multiple inlet/outlet air cooling frame. The design criteria is employed to obtain several new air cooling frames, in which the 3 inlet/outlet cooling frame with the alternative layout of inlet/outlet has the beat heat exchanging performance. This scheme improves the cooling performance of pouch LiB module by reducing the module maximum temperature Tmax and temperature difference ΔTmax, which will be promoted in the economical vehicles or small logistics vehicles.