Experimental investigation on performance of lithium-ion battery thermal management system using flat plate loop heat pipe for electric vehicle application

• Flat plate loop heat pipe (FPLHP) is studied in the thermal management system for electric vehicle.
• Distilled water, alcohol, and acetone on thermal performances of FPLHP were tested.
• The FPLHP can start up at fairly low heat load.
• Temperature overshoot phenomena were observed during the start-up period.

The development of electric vehicle batteries has resulted in very high energy density lithium-ion batteries. However, this growth is accompanied by the risk of thermal runaway, which can cause serious accidents. Heat pipes are heat exchangers that are suitable to be applied in electric vehicle battery thermal management for their lightweight and compact size, and they do not require external power supply. This study examined experimentally a flat plate loop heat pipe (FPLHP) performance as a heat exchanger in the thermal management system of the lithium-ion battery for electric vehicle application. The heat generation of the battery was simulated using a cartridge heater. Stainless steel screen mesh was used as the capillary wick. Distilled water, alcohol, and acetone were used as working fluids with a filling ratio of 60%. It was found that acetone gave the best performance that produces a thermal resistance of 0.22 W/°C with 50 °C evaporator temperature at heat flux load of 1.61 W/cm2.