3D numerical analysis of a Li-ion battery cooling system with honeycomb configuration in electrical vehicles

Abstract

This study focuses on the thermal challenges faced by lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles and the importance of effective thermal management systems. It has been conducted a 3D numerical analysis to investigate the impact of different distances between batteries on heat transfer and flow characteristics in an air-cooled cooling module with an innovative honeycomb configuration. Boundary conditions and the study results were given with dimensionless parameters with longitudinal ratio (x/lambda), distance ratio (lambda), and height ratio (y/H). It was found that smaller distances between batteries let to higher temperatures at the beginning of the cooling channel due to the shorter channel width. However, as the distance between batteries increases, convective heat transfer performance improves, resulting in better temperature distributions and higher Nusselt numbers. The results shed light on the importance of optimizing the spatial arrangement of batteries in a cooling module to achieve efficient thermal management. This research contributes to bridging existing gaps in knowledge regarding battery thermal management in electric vehicles and provides insights for the design and development of more effective cooling strategies for lithium-ion batteries. In conclusion, according to the distance between batteries (S=1-3-5 mm) under a laminar flow regime, the best average Nussell numbers obtained for S=5 mm %17 and %7 heat enchantments compared to other S=1 mm and S=3mm cases, respectively. It can be observed that the convective heat transfer performance is optimal when all cases are located on the 9th battery. After the 9th battery column, the optimal heat transfer performance was observed for a thickness of 5 mm. The S=3 mm case exhibited a 7 % reduction in convective heat transfer performance compared to the S=5 mm case.