Development of a mini-channel and metal foam-assisted static immersion cooling and preheating system for electric vehicle battery thermal management

This study developed an innovative immersion battery thermal management system (BTMS) that incorporates mini-channels and metal foam to address the limitations of conventional indirect liquid-cooled BTMSs under extreme conditions. The proposed system leveraged the superior thermal conductivity of the metal foam and the structural advantages of mini-channels to enhance battery cooling and preheating performance. The results showed that under fast-charging conditions, the maximum battery temperature under the proposed system was reduced from 50.9 °C to 39.8 °C, compared with the traditional system. The temperature difference also decreased to 6.4 K with MCMF system, while forced immersion system showed 9.6 K. In preheating scenarios, the MCMF system increased the minimum battery temperature from 0.6 °C to 11.5 °C within 10 min. The initial MCMF system was developed with optimal metal foam properties and coolant operating strategies, which resulted in enhanced battery cooling, preheating, and hydraulic performances. Furthermore, the system demonstrated effective thermal management at extremely high and extremely low temperatures. Hence, the proposed BTMS resulted in significant improvements in terms of thermal performance and energy efficiency, thereby highlighting its potential to enhance the thermal management of batteries in electric vehicles under various temperature conditions.