A Numerical Study on Nanofluid-Based Liquid Cooling Systems for Battery Thermal Management

Abstract

The present study proposes a novel nanofluid-based liquid-cooling system using a serpentine channel for the thermal management of the prismatic (rectangular parallelepiped) battery packs (of electric vehicle and energy storage system) and presents a numerical analysis under laminar flow conditions (Reynolds number (Re) = 250-550) to assess its thermal performance. A finite volume-based Eulerian-Eulerian two-phase approach is employed to analyze the problem. Water-based Al₂O₃ and Cu nanofluids (with 1 %, 2 %, and 3% nanoparticle volume fractions) are used as the cooling media in the present studies. Before generating any results to assess its thermal performance, the currently adopted numerical methodology has been validated against the results available in Wiriyasart et al. [8]. Results show that the area-weighted average Nusselt number (AWA Nu) increases with Re and nanoparticle concentration. Correspondingly, the maximum and average temperatures in the battery domain decrease significantly with increasing flow rate. Higher flow rates (higher Re) not only cool the battery more effectively but also maintain a more uniform temperature distribution around it. At very low concentration, Cu-water nanofluid performs better; however, the performance of Al₂O₃-water nanofluid starts to outperform that of Cu-water nanofluid as the concentration increases. As expected, the pumping power increases with the inlet velocity and nanoparticle concentration.