Multi-Objective Topology Optimization of the Cooling Plate for Battery Thermal Management

The lifespan and performance of power batteries used in electric vehicles and ships are highly sensitive to the operating temperatures, demonstrating the indispensable role of an effective thermal management system. Topology optimization is a method that can achieve comprehensive optimization of thermal and flow performance. The inlet/outlet layout is an important parameter affecting the thermal management performance of topology-optimized channels. To optimize the inlet/outlet positions, this study establishes the relationship between inlet/outlet positions and evaluation indicators using the response surface method, and further obtains the optimal solution based on the NSGA II and TOPSIS algorithms. The results show that the topology-optimized liquid cooling plate with optimal inlet/outlet position (TOPO) presents a lower maximum temperature under different inlet velocities than the counterparts with the conventional inlet/outlet layout (0.13–0.22 K), straight channel with the optimal inlet/outlet position (0.89–1.03 K), and single inlet/outlet straight channel (1.8–2.6 K). Moreover, the comprehensive performance of the proposed TOPO is more pronounced at high inlet velocity conditions. When the inlet velocity is 0.13 m/s, compared with the other counterparts, the performance evaluation criterion of TOPO increases by 16.6%, 28.7%, and 79.4%, respectively.