Effect of the porous metal foam structure on thermal management efficiency enhancement of the power battery cooling system

Uneven cell temperatures demand efficient thermal management. This work quantifies how ordered porous metal-foam structures affect forced-air cooling at the module level and clarifies the trade-off between cooling benefit and hydraulic penalty. A three-dimensional porous-media thermal–fluid model with local thermal equilibrium is parameterized by measured and simulated effective conductivity and pressure-drop-based resistance, and applied to four topologies (Auxetic, Lattice, Kelvin, ISO-truss) under constant-current discharge represented by a uniform 30-watt heat source per cell. Metrics include maximum cell temperature, temperature spread, pressure drop, and pumping power; mesh independence and experimental uncertainty are documented. The Auxetic foam performs best: effective conductivity 5.10 W· m −1 ·K −1 ; at 30 g·s −1 airflow it reduces the peak temperature from 54.48 °C without foam to 39.58 °C. Achieving a temperature spread below 5 °C requires at least 80 g·s −1 . The cooling gain comes with higher flow resistance and pumping power.