Topological optimization and thermal performance of cold plates for lithium-ion battery with non-uniform heat sources

The objective of this study is to enhance the flow and thermal performances of cold plates used for battery heat dissipation. Therefore, novel topology-optimized cold plates are obtained by topology optimization methods with non-uniform heat as the heat generated by batteries since the temperature of the surface of the cell after discharge is non-uniform, which is different from the conventional topology-optimized cold plates. This non-uniform heat is calculated by Newman, Tiedemann, Gu, and Kim model. Then, the flow and thermal performances of various topological cold plates are numerically investigated. The results show that new topology optimized cold plates are superior to the conventional cold plate in temperature uniformity. At the same flow rate, the maximum heat transfer coefficient of the optimized plate is improved by 26%, and the maximum temperature deviation is reduced by 20% compared to the conventional one. Additionally, the influences of channel depths and flow rates on the cooling performance of optimized plates are numerically studied. Finally, experimental tests are conducted to affirm the reliability of the numerical results.