Design and optimization of liquid cooled parallel serpentine flow channel structure for lithium battery modules

Lithium ion batteries are widely used in chemical energy storage systems. However, due to their inherent heat generation characteristics, thermal runaway has become a major safety hazard for chemical energy storage power plants. Therefore, optimizing the design of a battery thermal management system to effectively avoid thermal runaway is crucial for the safe operation of chemical energy storage systems. A new type of parallel serpentine flow channel liquid cooling plate with both series turn back and parallel branch structures is designed. Through simulation experiments, the effects of the flow channel structure of the liquid cooling plate, the layout of the liquid cooling system, and the inlet flow velocity of the coolant on the maximum temperature, temperature uniformity, and inlet and outlet pressure drop are studied to optimize the liquid cooling system. The results show that, under the same coolant inlet flow rate, the maximum temperature of the new channel is reduced by 0.284 9 K, and the temperature difference within the module is reduced by 0.466 3 K compared with the traditional parallel flow channel. The inlet and outlet pressure drop is reduced by 40.18% compared with the traditional serpentine flow channel. Based on the parallel serpentine flow channel liquid cooling plate, the optimal layout scheme for the liquid cooling system is the injection of coolant at the two split ports and the staggered arrangement of the liquid cooling plate. Different liquid cooling plates have different flow velocity settings. The inlet flow velocity of the two liquid cooling plates is set to 0.1 m/s, and the inlet flow velocity of the central liquid cooling plate is set to 0.2 m/s. Compared with the same flow velocity of 0.2 m/s for the four plates, the temperature difference within the battery module group is reduced by 13.62%, the inter column temperature difference is reduced by 82.59%, and the energy consumption is reduced by 44.87%, achieving an optimization effect of 'cost reduction and efficiency enhancement'. A reasonable flow channel structure, staggered cold plate layout, and differentiated inlet flow rate design can optimize the liquid cooling system of battery modules and increase the safety of battery module operation.