Experimental and numerical investigation of single and double serpentine channel cold plates on the thermal performance of lithium ion pouch battery

The cold plate design is an important factor for battery thermal management systems. An efficient cold plate design should have the ability to lower the battery temperature with minimum pressure drop. In this work, a double serpentine channel (DSC) cold plate is designed to improve the thermal performance of a single serpentine channel (SSC) cold plate under various operating conditions. Experimental and numerical investigations are done to compare the performance of both cooling plates. Results showed that the maximum temperature and temperature difference of a battery with a DSC cold plate is lower than the SSC cold plate. Additionally, the heat transfer rate was also improved under the same flow rate. Moreover, the performance of the DSC cold plate design is compared with the SSC cold plate under different flow rates, ambient temperature, coolant inlet temperature, and discharge rates. Results indicate that the DSC cold plate can reduce the maximum temperature, and temperature difference of a battery by 6.4 % and 41 % respectively. Besides, the power consumption with the DSC cold plate is reduced by 86.7 % when compared with the SSC cold plate under the flow rate of 120 mL/min.