Experimental Investigation of Water-cooling Based Thermal Management for Cylindrical Li-ion Batteries

With the increasing popularity of EVs and HEVs, the problem of battery thermal safety becomes more obvious. In this paper, a novel battery thermal management system (BTMS) for Li-ion batteries based on water cooling combined with spiral fins is designed. The performance of this system is verified by carrying out an experiment in a thermostat chamber, where flow rate and fin height are the primary factors to be considered. The velocity improves the heat dissipation efficiency by changing the heat transfer rate, while the fin height increases the heat transfer area, thus improving the heat dissipation effect. The results show that the optimized BTMS can effectively ensure the temperature field of the pack maintained in a proper range. Therefore, water-cooling system is an excellent method for the pack to prevent heat accumulation from leading to the sharp increase of temperature.