Hybrid channeling of Cu-Al cold plates for thermal management devices

Cu-Al cold plates,as a novel type of cold plate that combines the high thermal conductivity of copper with the low production cost of aluminum,are among the best options for enhancing the heat dissipation capacity of battery thermal management systems.Hybrid channeling of Cu-Al cold plates was proposed for thermal management devices with the combination of friction stir welding+channeling.The highest flexural strength of the Cu-Al interfaces reached 127.5 MPa with the optimized parameters.Due to the close-row welds adjacent to the channels,high-efficiency heat dissipation was realized with the fully bonded interfaces.No leakage of coolants occurred under the pressure of 0.85 MPa during the hydrostatic tests,indicating a sound sealing performance of the channels.Compared to the conventional Al cold plates,the heat sink capacity of the Cu-Al cold plates was enhanced by 16.3%.The results indicated that hybrid channeling not only en-hanced the interfacial strength of Cu-Al cold plates but also significantly improved the heat dissipation capacity,offering a new technical pathway for optimizing battery thermal management systems.

Design and analysis of a high loss density motor cooling system with water cold plates

Aiming at reducing the difficulty of cooling the interior of high-density motors,this study proposed the placement of a water cold plate cooling structure between the axial laminations of the motor stator.The effect of the cooling water flow,thickness of the plate,and motor loss density on the cooling effect of the water cold plate were studied.To compare the cooling performance of water cold plate and outer spiral water jacket cooling structures,a high-speed permanent magnet motor with a high loss density was used to establish two motor models with the two cooling structures.Consequently,the cooling effects of the two models were analyzed using the finite element method under the same loss density,coolant flow,and main dimensions.The results were as follows.(1)The maximum and average temperatures of the water cold plate structure were reduced by 25.5%and 30.5%,respectively,compared to that of the outer spiral water jacket motor;(2)Compared with the outer spiral water jacket structure,the water cold plate structure can reduce the overall mass and volume of the motor.Considering a 100 kW high-speed permanent magnet motor as an example,a water cold plate cooling system was designed,and the temperature distribution is analyzed,with the result indicating that the cooling structure satisfied the cooling requirements of the high loss density motor.

Thermal Management Optimization of a Lithium-Ion Battery Module with Graphite Sheet Fins and Liquid Cold Plates

Temperature uniformity of lithium-ion batteries and maintaining the temperature within the range for efficient operation are addressed.First,Liquid cold plates are placed on the sides of a prismatic battery,and fins made of aluminum alloy or graphite sheets are applied between battery cells to improve the heat transfer performance.Then a simulation model is built with 70 battery cells and 6 liquid cold plates,and the performance is analyzed according to the flow rate,liquid temperature,and discharge rate.Finally,the results show that temperature differences are mainly caused by the liquid cold plates.The fin surface determines the equivalent thermal conductivity of the battery.The graphite sheets have heterogeneous thermal conductivity,which help improve temperature uniformity and reduce the temperature gradient.With lower density than the aluminum alloy,they offer a lower gravimetric power density for the same heat transfer capacity.In addition to the equivalent thermal conductivity,the temperature difference between the cooling liquid and battery surface is an important parameter for temperature uniformity.Optimizing the fin thickness is found to be an effective way to reduce the temperature difference between the liquid and battery during cooling and improve the temperature uniformity.

Drive Train Cooling Options for Electric Vehicles

Electrification of vehicles intensifies their cooling demands due to the requirements of maintaining electronics/electrical systems below their maximum temperature threshold.In this paper,passive cooling approaches based on heat pipes have been considered for the thermal management of electric vehicle(EV)traction systems including battery,inverter,and motor.For the battery,a heat pipe base plate is used to provide high heat removal(180 W per module)and better thermal uniformity(<5°C)for the battery modules in a pack while downsizing the liquid cold plate system.In the case of Inverter,two phase cooling system based on heat pipes was designed to handle hot spots arising from high heat flux(∼100 W/cm2)–for liquid cooling and provide location independence and a dedicated cooling approach-for air cooling.For EV motors,heat pipebased systems are explored for stator and rotor cooling.The paper also provides a glimpse of development on high-performance microchannel-based cold plate technologies based on parallel fins and multi-layer 3D stacked structures.Specifically,this work extends the concept of hybridization of two-phase technology based on heat pipes with single-phase technology,predominately based on liquid cooling,to extend performance,functionalities,and operational regime of cooling solutions for components of EV drive trains.In summary,heat pipes will help to improve and extend the overall reliability,performance,and safety of air and liquid cooling systems in electric vehicles.

Investigation on the Transient Thermal Performance of a Mini-Channel Cold Plate for Battery Thermal Management

Cold plate is an important component for a liquid battery thermal management system.In order to study the transient thermal performance of the cold plate under conditions with sharply increasing heat loads,the numerical model of a battery cold plate is established.The validation experiment shows that the error between the simulation and experiment is around 2.5%to 5%.Effects of the coolant flow rate,the increase in heat flux,and the channel number are analyzed to study the transient thermal performance of the cold plate.Results show that the average temperature of the cold plate at 540 s is lowered from 28.3℃ to 26.9℃ when the coolant flow rate is raised from 0.065 kg/s to 0.165 kg/s.The temperature deviation is decreased when the coolant flow rate is increased from 0.065 kg/s to 0.115 kg/s;however,it is slightly increased if the coolant flow rate is further increased.Both average temperature and temperature deviation are raised if the final heat flux is increased from11000 W/m^(2) to 16500 W/m^(2),which are 2 and 3 times of the initial,respectively.In addition,increasing the channel number has slightly positive effect on the average temperature of the cold plate,while the temperature deviation is increased when the channel number is increased from 3 to 11 due to the non-uniform velocity distribution between each channel.The results of this study will be helpful during the design of cold plate for battery thermal management,especially for transient conditions with sudden rising heat loads like thermal runaway.

Research on pumped two-phase single-sided cold plate of IGBT for rail transit applications

The use of pumped two-phase cooling to improve the thermal management of insulated gate bipolar transistor(IGBT)in rail transportation is a novel cooling technology.An experimental investigation on pumped two-phase cold plate of IGBT used in HXD1C locomotives was conducted at a mass flow rate of 0.1 kg/s–0.29 kg/s and a heat flux of 6.2 W/cm^(2),with R245fa as the working fluid.The experimental results showed that the base temperature nonuniformity can be controlled within 2.2℃ at flow rates of 0.14 kg/s and 0.19 kg/s,which is of great benefit to the reliability of IGBT.Based on well known correlations for saturated flow boiling in tubes,an analytical model was developed and compared with the experimental data.The model could predict the base temperature data within an error band of±3℃,as well as capture the trend of base temperature as a function of vapour quality and mass flow rate.The performance of the pumped two-phase cold plate of IGBT could be further improved with the aid of the developed model.

Analysis of Heat Transfer Behaviour of the Conduction Cold Plate System

The heat-transfer behaviour of the conduction cold plate system used for avionics is investigated in this paper. The steady-state temperature profile for the cold plate is derived and the relationship between the coolant mass flowrate, the heat load and the hashest cold plate temperature is established.A model is proposed to describe the transient thermal rosponse of the cold plate under thermal shock condition. The analytic solution of the transient heat transfer within the cold plate is provided. The results of this paper agree with those of the finite element method and can be used for the structural design and performance evaluation of cold plate system.

Experimental investigation on a novel liquid cooling device for a prismatic Li-ion battery module operating at high ambient temperature

A novel liquid cooling device for a prismatic LiFePO4 battery module was proposed and manufactured in this study in order to improve the thermal management performance of the battery module operating at high ambient temperature.A testing system was set up to experimentally measure temperatures in different locations of the battery module consisting of seven 60 Ah cells.Tests were conducted to investigate both the passive and active cooling performances of the proposed system at different ambient temperatures and discharging rates in regarding with the maximum temperature and difference between the maximum and minimum temperatures.The results clearly show that both the ambient temperature and discharging rate play important role on the maximum temperature of the battery module.Passive cooling cannot meet the cooling requirement of the battery module particularly at high ambient temperature of 40℃.In contrary,liquid cooling can successfully reduce the maximum temperature to the required temperature range of the battery module even in high temperature environment and relatively high discharging rate.The effect of water inlet temperature on the cooling performance was also experimentally studied.With the inlet temperature of 28℃,the active cooling device can reduce the maximum temperature of the battery module to about 34.8℃after discharging at 0.6℃for 1000 s.The temperature difference of only 3.8℃was also achieved which suggests a great uniform distribution of temperature in the battery module.