Improved Thermal Management of Lithium‐Ion Battery Module through Microtexturing of Serpentine Cooling Channels

Abstract

Elevated battery temperature and its heterogeneity are responsible for many battery‐related problems such as short lifespan and thermal runaway. For longer life and safe functionality of lithium‐ion battery (LIB), both the average battery temperature and temperature heterogeneity must be controlled. The present work analyzes a modified cooling channel design that can control both the average battery temperature and its heterogeneity. The design adopts microtexturing approach for the heat transfer augmentation of the serpentine cooling channels. First, the transient thermal analysis of different geometry of microtextures, viz., microchannels (MCs) and microdimples (MDs), is carried out on an aluminum slab. The rectangular MCs and square MDs are found to be the most efficient among the other considered microtexture geometries. Further, the modified design is employed for a 19‐cell battery pack to analyze the thermal performance, pressure drop, and coolant pump power requirements. A decrease in maximum temperature difference (MTD) by 6.03 % and 3.72% is observed for 380 MCs (rectangular) and 960 MDs (squared), respectively. While MDs improve the temperature homogeneity within the LIBs, the coolant pump power requirement and pressure drop (by ≈15.42%) are higher for it compared to the MC‐based design for a given MTD.