Vortex generators for active thermal management in lithium-ion battery systems

The aim of the present study is to determine efficacy of using vortex generators in the cooling channels of a lithium-ion battery thermal management system (BTMS). Numerical simulations of a Li-ion battery module containing 20 prismatic lithium ion cells and associated cooling channels with four different winglet configurations were developed. This study examines the effects of vortex generators on the heat transfer performance of typical battery thermal management solutions. The performance of the BTMS is assessed over a Reynolds number range (65⩽Re⩽1650) based on the hydraulic diameter of a rectangular channel. Specialized software designed for studying heat transfer problems in lithium-ion batteries coupled with computational fluid dynamics was used to determine such effects. The performance of the different vortex generator configurations was compared in terms of the Nusselt number, maximum module temperature, and cell-to-cell temperature variation. The addition of vortex generators to the modeled BTMS has shown a significant increase in overall heat transfer of cooling channel, a decrease in the maximum cell temperature, and a lower temperature difference within the cells.