Multi-parameter optimization of battery thermal management using copper foam, ferrofluid coolant, and advanced flow configurations

Efficient thermal management of lithium-ion battery packs is essential to ensure safety, performance, and lifespan, particularly at high charge–discharge rates, where excessive heat can lead to thermal degradation or failure. This study investigates a hybrid cooling strategy combining copper foam porous media, mini-channel heat sinks, and ferrofluid coolant to enhance thermal performance. A coupled experimental and three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach was employed, with strong agreement between simulations and experiments (average error < 6%), confirming model reliability. Results show that integrating copper foam significantly enhances heat transfer, reducing the maximum temperature from 40.24 °C to 35.00 °C (≈13% reduction) due to increased surface area and improved fluid mixing. Further improvements were achieved through fin optimization, with a sharp-fin configuration yielding the lowest average temperature of 29.9 °C, compared to 31.5 °C for the baseline design. Increasing coolant velocity from 0.2 to 0.6 m/s reduced the peak temperature from 40.42 °C to 31.54 °C (≈22% reduction), demonstrating the strong influence of flow rate on cooling efficiency. Additionally, dual-stream flow configurations improved temperature uniformity and reduced the maximum temperature to 31.50 °C compared to conventional single-stream designs. Under high discharge conditions, the maximum temperature increased from 30.09 °C at 0.5 C to 45.68 °C at 4 C, highlighting the need for advanced cooling solutions. The novelty of this work lies in the integrated optimization of porous media, fin geometry, and coolant flow using ferrofluids, providing a systematic and quantitative demonstration of multi-parameter enhancement that achieves over 10 °C temperature reduction and improved thermal uniformity for advanced battery thermal management systems.