High Reynold’s Number Turbulent Model for Micro-Channel Cold Plate Using Reverse Engineering Approach for Water-Cooled Battery in Electric Vehicles

Satyam Panchal, Krishna Gudlanarva, Manh-Kien Tran, Roydon Fraser and Michael Fowler
Additional contact information
Satyam Panchal: Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering Department, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Krishna Gudlanarva: Detroit Engineering Products, 850 East Long Lake Road, Troy, MI 48085, USA
Manh-Kien Tran: Chemical Engineering Department, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Roydon Fraser: Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering Department, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada
Michael Fowler: Chemical Engineering Department, University of Waterloo, 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 7, 1-25

Abstract: The investigation and improvement of the cooling process of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) used in battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) are required in order to achieve better performance and longer lifespan. In this manuscript, the temperature and velocity profiles of cooling plates used to cool down the large prismatic Graphite/LiFePO 4 battery are presented using both laboratory testing and modeling techniques. Computed tomography (CT) scanning was utilized for the cooling plate, Detroit Engineering Products (DEP) MeshWorks 8.0 was used for meshing of the cooling plate, and STAR CCM+ was used for simulation. The numerical investigation was conducted for higher C-rates of 3C and 4C with different ambient temperatures. For the experimental work, three heat flux sensors were attached to the battery surface. Water was used as a coolant inside the cooling plate to cool down the battery. The mass flow rate at each channel was 0.000277677 kg/s. The k-ε model was then utilized to simulate the turbulent behaviour of the fluid in the cooling plate, and the thermal behaviour under constant current (CC) discharge was studied and validated with the experimental data. This study provides insight into thermal and flow characteristics of the coolant inside a cooing plate, which can be used for designing more efficient cooling plates.

Keywords: heat and mass transfer; thermal analysis; Lithium-ion battery; micro-channel cooling plate; battery thermal management; MeshWorks; CFD (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/7/1638/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/7/1638/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:7:p:1638-:d:340311

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().