Applied Thermal Engineering 211 (2022) 118417

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Research Paper

Method of liquid-cooled thermal control for a large-scale pouch

lithium-ion battery
Zhendong Zhang a, Linxiang Fu a, Lei Sheng a, *, Wen Ye b, Yuedong Sun a
a
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, PR China
b
Thermal Technology Research Institute, Corporate Research Center, Midea Group, Shanghai 200093, PR China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Excellent thermal management is very significant in preserving lithium-ion battery cell work-performance and
Large-scale pouch lithium-ion battery extending cell cycle-life. This work presents a method of thermal control for a large-scale pouch cell by using an
Liquid cooled thermal management existing liquid cooling plate with streamline channels. Numerically, influences of mass flow rates, cooling
Numerical analysis
trigger-time, and glycol solution concentration on the cell thermal distribution are analyzed in detail. Experi­
Simulating battery module
mentally, the simulation effectiveness is validated by a constructed thermal test system. It is shown that the
Experimental validation
increasing mass flow rate plays a positive role in crippling the cell temperature rise and difference. However,
there is a marginal effect in this condition. Effect of postponing cooling trigger-time on promoting the cell
thermal homogeneity is negative, when the cooling starts at 31 ◦ C, the final cell temperature and temperature
difference beyond 32 ◦ C and 5 ◦ C, respectively. The maximum cell temperature and channel pressure drop in­
crease with increasing glycol solution concentration from 0 to 80%. Experimental validation suggests that the
test and simulation results coincide with each other (within 2.5 ◦ C), indicating that a promising availability
dwells in present thermal management to manage the cell temperature field under a desirable range. This study
would be valuable for one to develop a reliable cooling solution for a battery pack stacked with large-scale pouch
cells.

Dattu et al. [7] presented a two-way coupled transient simulation for a

1. Introduction
More heat will be generated in the large-scale lithium-ion battery
(LIB) cells when they′ re operating at high current-rates (C-rate) [1].
Commonly, the cells are soaked in an enclosed circumstance of battery
pack, thus the generated heat will lead to a higher cell temperature rise
and weaken the work-performance of the battery if there is no excellent
thermal management deployed to the pack [2]. In severe cases, the
generating heat is out of control and an accident of thermal runaway
would be occurred [3]. Therefore, an efficient battery thermal man­
agement (BTM) system has become a key part of the power battery
system in electric vehicles [4]. Many researches on the BTM forms have
been done in recent years, mainly incorporating the liquid cooling, air
cooling, and phase change cooling, etc. [5].
The liquid-cooled BTM takes the liquid as cooling medium, has ad­
vantages of flexible pipeline arrangement and strong cooling perfor­
mance [6], and can meet the requirements of higher cell heat
dissipation. Mainstream studies about this BTM type including that,
20Ah LiFePO4 battery sandwiched between two mini-channel cold-
plates are performed using lumped and Li-ion (1D electrochemical)
battery models at all 1–4C-rates. Pointed out that the Lumped model can
be used instead of Li-ion model at low C-rates (less than 2C) for pre­
liminary investigation on designing the Battery Thermal Management
System (BTMS). Furtherly, Akkaldevi et al. [8] introduced a coupled
Electrochemical-thermal model to investigate the work-performance of
a mini-channel cold-plate water-cooled prismatic 20 Ah LiFePO4 bat­
tery, and a validation was conducted to the model effectiveness.
Numerically, Huang et al. [9] optimized the liquid-cooled plate (LCP)
with mini-channels designed by Rao et al. [10], pointing out that the
LCP with streamline channels can effectively weaken the flow resis­
tance. Liu et al. [11] developed a new treelike-channel LCP to cool a
prismatic cell at higher 4C-rate, which the optimum geometrical pa­
rameters were captured as per the single objective and multi-objective
genetic algorithm optimizations. Purohit et al. [12] applied two-layer
feed-forward artificial neural-network-based machine learning to design
soft sensors to estimate the state of charge, state of energy, and power

* Corresponding author at: School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, 516 Jungong Road, Yangpu District, Shanghai
200093, PR China.
E-mail address: 2201116736@qq.com (L. Sheng).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2022.118417
Received 8 October 2021; Received in revised form 14 February 2022; Accepted 24 March 2022
Available online 4 April 2022
1359-4311/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Zhang et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 211 (2022) 118417

Nomenclature t time (s)

u velocity (m⋅s− 1)
Abbreviations, description A battery superficial area
Al aluminum Gr Grashof number (-)
BMS battery management system Nu Nusselt number (-)
BTM battery thermal management Pr Prandtl number (-)
BTMS battery thermal management system Re Reynolds number (-)
C current rate T temperature (◦ C)
CAD computer aided design Tσ standard deviation of battery temperature distribution (◦ C)
ECM energy conversion management V volume (m3)
EV electric vehicle
GS glycol solution Greek letters
HEV Hybrid electric vehicle α heat transfer coefficient (W⋅m− 2 ◦ C -1)
HFM heat flux meter λ thermal conductivity (W⋅m− 1 ◦ C -1)
HP heating power μ viscosity coefficient (Pa⋅s)
LCP liquid cooling plate ρ battery density (kg⋅m− 3)
LFP lithium iron phosphate Δ difference (-)
LIB lithium ion battery Subscripts
NVH noise, vibration, and harshness a ambient
OCV open circuit voltage air ambient air
PCM phase change material avg average temperature
SOC state of charge b battery
TC thermocouple c convective heat transfer
Variable or parameter, description, unit drop temperature drop
c specific heat of battery (J⋅kg− 1 ◦ C− 1) l liquid
l characteristic length (m) lcp liquid cooling plate
m battery cell mass (kg) rise temperature rise
q heat generation rate (W) x, y, z coordinate direction
q̇ volumetric heat generation rate (W)

loss of a formula student electric vehicle battery-pack system. Pointed
out that the proposed soft sensors attained higher prediction accuracy
than that of the modelling structures. Panchal et al. [13] studied the high
Reynolds number turbulent model for micro-channel LCP via the reverse
engineering approach for battery water-cooling in electric vehicles, this
study provided insight into thermal and flow characteristics of the
coolant inside a LCP and that can serve for developing more efficient
cooling plates. Moreover, lightweight and intensive thermal manage­
ments to the small-scale prismatic and cylindrical cells were investigated
in our previous studies [14,15,16]. It is our first attempt to probe into
the liquid-cooled thermal management of a large-scale pouch cells. In
2001, 3 M Corporation developed a submerged BTM method by using an
insulating coolant fluorinated ketone [17]. However, there are few
research reports on this method, and it places a higher requirement on
battery pack tightness, and there exists a limitation in the BTM field. The
liquid-cooled BTM is an effective solution to address the thermal issues
of power battery pack, and presently it is also a popular form of thermal
management in electric vehicles.
The air-cooled BTM takes air as cooling medium, and has advantages
of simple structure, higher NVH (Noise, Vibration, and Harshness)
performance, and lower operating cost [18], etc. This thermal man­
agement mainly incorporates passive and active cooling solutions
depending on whether the electric vehicles need additional energy [19].
The active air cooling solution takes the flowing air provided by a
cooling fan to manage battery temperature field. In this case, the
arrangement of cells is sorted into serial and parallel ventilation modes.
The serial arrangement is suitable for cylindrical batteries, whereas the
parallel arrangement is suitable for prismatic batteries [20]. Now, the
air-cooled BTM is applied in the electric vehicles of Honda Insight [21]
and Toyota Prius [22], respectively. The phase change-cooled BTM
commonly takes phase change material (PCM) of paraffin as thermal
management medium, and has excellent cooling performance for cells
[23]. Comparing with liquid-cooled and air-cooled solutions, the phase
change-cooled solution has better thermal uniformity on managing
battery thermal field [24]. However, at present this cooling solution is
still in the stage of theoretical research and has not been widely accepted
in the market [25]. In addition, the phase change-cooled solution has
boundedness for heat dissipation rapidly in the battery packs because
the paraffin has lower thermal conductivity [26].
Most of up-mentioned BTM solutions have been widely used in
automobile industry [27]. The liquid-cooled solution shows an excellent
performance for battery thermal field managing [28]. The air-cooled
solution commonly focuses on arranging the battery cells and the
forms of air-duct in the BTM system [29]. In this manner, the battery
pack construct requires careful designing to further the heat dissipation
of battery pack. With the phase change-cooled solution using the
paraffin as cooling medium, the battery pack tightness requires careful
consideration because of the fluidity of the paraffin in melting state
[30]. Otherwise, the higher paraffin density makes the battery pack
somewhat cumbersome and rarely satisfy the requirements of light­
weight thermal design.
The operating performance and cost of battery pack deserve more
attention in engineering applications, thus the high efficiency and cost-
effective plays a pivotal part in the design of battery pack. Past studies in
the battery cooling often laid emphasis on the small-scale cells and were
negligent of the effects of cooling trigger-time and glycol solution (GS)
concentration on the battery thermal distribution. And most of simula­
tion results were rarely validated experimentally. The purpose of this
study is to contribute a new thermal control method for a large-scale
pouch cell, and, controlling its temperature rise and difference within
32 ◦ C and 5 ◦ C, respectively. Based on this, a new existing LCP with
streamline channels is introduced to cool a large-scale pouch cell. Based
on this, influences of mass flow ate, cooling trigger-time, and GS con­
centration on the cell thermal field were analyzed numerically. Then the

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Z. Zhang et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 211 (2022) 118417

simulation effectiveness was validated experimentally as per a con­
structed thermal test system of power battery. This investigation will be
of real significance in the thermal system design and simulation
authentication of the power battery pack stacked with pouch LIB cells.
2. Time-variable heat-producing rate
The object of a new large-scale pouch LIB cell with positive material
of Li(Ni0.5Co0.2Mn0.3)O2 was employed, which was produced by a local
power battery supplier. The cell specifications are listed in Table 1(a).
An undesirable temperature-rise will occur since the cell works at
higher discharge rates. In this work, the cell was soaked into an insu­
lation container (200 × 300 × 900 mm3) which was used to cripple the
cell heat dissipation convectively, and the cell temperature was allowed
to ascend freely. As shown in Table 1(b), the tested cell temperature
reaches 50.9 ◦ C, 48.5 ◦ C, and 41.6 ◦ C under the room temperature 25 ◦ C
when it discharges at 1.2C, 1.0C, and 0.7C, respectively (a data logger of
heat-flux LR8410connecting with twelve K-type thermocouples (accu­
racy is ± 0.4%) was used to record temperatures (TC1 and TC7 were
mounted to negative and positive tabs, respectively. TCs 2 ~ 6 were
evenly mounted to center line of upper cell surface, and TCs 8 ~ 12 were
evenly mounted to center line of lower cell surface, as shown in Table 1
(a). To determine the cell heat-producing rate, the outgoing heat-flux
(heat loss) from the cell surface was supervised via a data logger of
heat-flux LR8410connecting with four heat-flux sensors used to monitor
outgoing heat-fluxes during its operation, as shown in Table 1(b).
The total heat q(t) produced in the cell, one portion qb(t) of it is used
to increase the cell itself temperature, and the rest of heat qloss(t) in it is
dissipated into surrounding environment [1,31].
The heat produced qb(t) in the cell during its operation can be
calculated as per energy conservation law,
qb (t) = cmdTrise (t)/dt
where c and m are the cell′ s specific heat and mass, respectively; Trise
and t are the cell′ s increasing temperature and time during the opera­
tion; dTrise(t)/dt represents the cell temperature-rise rate.
Inevitably, a certain amount of outgoing heat-flux q̇(t) will be
occurred on the cell surface due to the heat loss (qloss). q̇(t) can be
determined via the HFM, and it equals to CSUS(t), where CS is the cali­
bration constant of heat-flux sensor, W⋅m− 2 V− 1; US(t) is the voltage
output of heat-flux sensor, varying with time, V. Therefore, the outgoing
heat qloss(t) can be expressed as,
qloss (t) = Ab q̇(t) (2)
where Ab is the cell superficial area.
As above, the heat-producing rate q(t) in the cell can be captured
when the temperature-rise rate dTrise(t)/dt and the outgoing heat-flux
q̇(t) are obtained,
q(t) = cmdTrise (t)/dt + Ab q̇(t) (3)
The cell specifications such as specific heat capacity c, mass m, and
surficial area Ab are the known quantities from the datasheets of rele­
vant battery suppliers.
In accordance with Table 1(b) and Eq. (3), three-power fitting
equations for the pouch cell′ s heat-producing rate and working time are
listed in Table 1(c), where k is the equation coefficient.
3. Numerical simulation
This section introduces a LCP carefully devised in order to satisfy the
cooling requirements for a battery module connected with large-scale
pouch cells in series. The channel pattern of the LCP mainly refer­
enced past two studies of Huang et al. [9] and Rao et al. [10], in which
the mass flow rates, cooling trigger-times, and GS concentrations as
main considerations were analyzed at length.
3.1. Modeling
The battery module presents a sandwiched structure, where the
(1) battery cells stacked in series and there exists a piece of LCP between
each two cells per adjacent. Fig. 1 exhibits the module pattern and the
simplified CAD model.
In Fig. 1, a CAD software of CATIA serves for modeling the simplified
model which stacked of two identical half-cells (300 × 100 × 5.6 mm3)
and a piece of LCP (300 × 100 × 6.0 mm3). For the LCP, the streamlined
channels (outside and inside radians are 1.0 rad and 0.5 rad,

Table 1
LIB cell′ s specifications and heat-producing rates.
(a) The actual cell specifications from the power battery supplier

Contents Size, mm3 Mass, g Rated voltage, V Rated capacity, Ah

Value 300 × 100 × 11.2 770 3.6 55

55Ah pouch cell

(b) The collected pouch cell′ s temperature-rise and outgoing heat-flux under discharge rates of 1.2C, 1.0C, and 0.7C, respectively, in room temperature 25 ◦ C

The collected mean cell temperature under various conditions The collected mean outgoing heat-flux from the cell surface

(c) Fitted equations of cell heat-producing rate (W) in basis of above data figures in Table 1(b)
Discharge rate q(t) = k0 + k1 t + k2 t2 + k3 t3
k0 k1 k2 k3 R2

1.2C 8.67 5.87×10-4 − 3.49×10-6 1.80×10-9 0.9999

1.0C 5.79 1.51×10-3 − 2.24×10-6 7.10×10-10 0.9993
0.7C 3.50 3.65×10-5 − 5.39×10-7 1.50×10-10 0.9997

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Z. Zhang et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 211 (2022) 118417

Fig. 1. Battery module pattern (Unit: mm).

respectively; the radian of middle channel is 0 rad) mainly reference the The battery dissipates the heat mainly in a form of convection, the
study [9], which the dimensions of their transverse sections are all 6.0 × convective heat transfer coefficient αc can be given by,
4.0 mm2, locating at the middle of LCP in thickness direction. These five ⎧ ⎫2
channels depicted in Fig. 1 are uniformly distributed in the LCP′ s in­ ⎪
λair ⎨ 0.387(Gr∙Pr)1/6
⎪
⎬
termediate section in width direction. αc = 0.6 + [ ] 8/27
(5)
lb ⎩⎪ ⎪
⎭
Table 2 lists the main specifications of the battery cell, LCP (Al-alloy 1 + (0.599/σ)9/16
3003), and liquid coolant. Moreover, some of which come from Refs.
[32–34]. It is noted that the anisotropic thermal conductivity and the where λair is the air thermal conductivity, lb is the cell characteristic
temperature-dependent (− 20 ~ 60 ◦ C) specific heat of the battery cell length, Gr and Pr are Grashof, and Prandtl numbers, respectively; σ is
were tested on the basis of the developed calibration calorimetry Stefan-Boltzmann constant.
method of study [32]. In this table, GS 20 ~ 80% is the abbreviation of Thus, the dissipated heat can be calculated with the Newton′ s cool­
GSs with a concentration 20 ~ 80%. ing − λ∇Tb = α(Tb − Ta ).
Energy governing equations for the LCP and the liquid coolant are
denoted as [14],
3.2. Governing equations
∂( ) ( )
ρ c T = − ∇ λlcp ∇Tlcp (6)
∂t lcp lcp lcp
The energy governing equation for the cell can be denoted as,
∂
ρc
∂Tb
= − λ∇2 Tb + q̇ (4) (ρ cl Tl ) + ∇(ρl cl ul Tl ) = − ∇(λl ∇Tl ) (7)
∂t ∂t l

where λ is thermal conductivity, q̇ is volumetric heat generation rate, Tb where T and u represent temperature and velocity, respectively; the
is battery temperature. subscripts of lcp and l represent the LCP and the liquid coolant,
respectively.
Governing equations of mass and momentum of liquid coolant in the
Table 2
Specifications of battery module and liquid coolant. LCP are as follows [16],

Part Density Thermal cond. λ, Specific heat c, Viscosity v, ∂ρl

+ ∇(ρl u) = 0 (8)
ρ, W⋅m− 1 ◦ C− 1 J⋅kg− 1 ◦ C− 1 kg⋅m− 1 s− 1 ∂t
kg⋅m− 3

Cell 2550 λz = 1.32, λx = λy = 2.86 T + N/A ∂

(ρ u) + ∇(ρl uu) = − ∇Pl (9)
25.4 1102.8 ∂t l
LCP 2700 156 954 N/A
Liquid 992.00 0.608 4179 0.0009027 where P is the liquid static pressure.
water Differential equations of incompressible viscous fluid motion in the Z
GS 20% 1027.93 0.498 3826 0.00146
coordinate direction,
GS 40% 1057.60 0.408 3485 0.00257
GS 50% 1071.11 0.370 3300 0.00339 1 ∂p ∂uz ∂ux ∂ux ∂ux
GS 60% 1083.87 0.336 3106 0.00452 Z− + ν∇2 uz = + ux + uy + uz (10)
ρ ∂z ∂t ∂x ∂y ∂z
GS 80% 1107.40 0.283 2690 0.00829

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Z. Zhang et al.
where ν is the fluid′ s dynamic viscosity.
For Eq. (10), the differential equations of viscous fluid motion can be
inferred in the Y and Z coordinate directions.
3.3. Solution
The simulation software of STAR-CCM + is used to mesh the
simplified CAD model, and to analyze the cell thermal distribution
numerically. For the simulation, the initial model temperature and
ambient temperature are set to 25 ◦ C, meanwhile the convective heat
transfer coefficient is set to 1.75 W⋅m− 2 ◦ C− 1 [1], and the radiation heat
transfer is overlooked. It is calculated that the maximum Reynolds
number is within 300 in the simulation, therefore the laminar belongs to
the fluid flowing, and an algorithm of SIMPLEC serves for the simula­
tion. The independences of grid and time-step for the simulation model
are verified to ensure the simulation effectiveness. In addition, in­
dependences of Grid number and Time-step were verified, which the
validation results of channel pressure drop and maximum cell temper­
ature at the end of discharge are demonstrated in Fig. 2 under the
conditions of room temperature 25 ◦ C, discharge rate 1C, and liquid
water flow rate of 1.0 × 10-3 kg⋅s− 1.
Fig. 2(a) signals that the change of channel pressure drop and
maximum cell temperature are minor when the grid number rise from
3.44 to 5.80 million around. From Fig. 2(b), the channel pressure drop
and the maximum cell temperature vary slightly since the time-step is 1
s. By above analysis, the grid number of 3.44 million around and the
Fig. 2. Independence analysis for the model′ s grid number and time-step
(under conditions of room temperature of 25 ◦ C, discharge rate of 1.0C, and
liquid water flow rate of 1.0 × 10-3 kg⋅s− 1) (a) Grid number independence with
the time-step of 1 s; (b) Time-step independence with the grid number of
3.44 million.
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Applied Thermal Engineering 211 (2022) 118417
time-step of 1 s for the model can meet the numerical simulation; thus,
these results can also satisfy the simulations of other cases.
3.4. Simulation results and discussion
Numerically, this section aims to study the thermal effects of mass
flow rate, cooling trigger-time, GS concentration, and discharge rate on
the thermal distribution of the battery module. The desirable goal of
thermal management is to control the module′ s maximum temperature
(Tmax) and temperature differences (ΔTmax) within 32 ◦ C and 5.0 ◦ C,
respectively.
3.4.1. Mass flow rate
The liquid water was employed as cooling medium, and different
mass flow rates of 0.2 × 10-3 kg⋅s− 1 to 1.2 × 10-3 kg⋅s− 1 were selected to
cool the battery module. Fig. 3 illustrates the maximum cell tempera­
ture, maximum temperature difference, and channel pressure drop of
the LCP since the cell discharges at 1.0C under room temperature of
25 ◦ C.
It is seen from Fig. 3(a) that the maximum cell temperature drops
with the rising mass flow rate by a magnitude of 0.2 × 10-3 kg⋅s− 1, and,
whereas, the reduction degree of cell temperature becomes weaker
gradually, and has a marginal effect, which the main reason can be
attributed to the decreasing increase range of mass flow rate. Besides,
the maximum cell temperature is lower than 32 ◦ C when the mass flow
rate is not lower than 0.4 × 10-3 kg⋅s− 1. Fig. 3(b) indicates that the
maximum cell temperature difference drops with the mass flow rate rise,
and it is lower than 5.0 ◦ C since the mass flow rate is not lower than 0.4
× 10-3 kg⋅s− 1. Fig. 3(c) shows that the channel pressure drop accelerates
in a relation of linear curve with the rising mass flow rate. As above, the
cooling performance in the LCP is furthered with the rising mass flow
rate. The higher the mass flow rate, the higher the energy input, or the
higher the pump cost and operating cost. On the premise of satisfying the
goal of thermal management, it is cost-effective to select a mass flow rate
of 0.4 × 10-3 kg⋅s− 1 for the selected large-scale battery cooling.
3.4.2. Analysis of liquid cooling trigger-time
The triggering time of liquid cooling plays a vital part in meeting the
requirement of battery module thermal management, therefore an
appropriate selection of cooling trigger-time deserves an attentive
consideration during cooling process. Accordingly, several cases of
cooling trigger-times were seriously investigated in this section by
cooling the cell at the beginning time (cell temperature of 25 ◦ C) and at
the cell temperatures of 28 ◦ C, 29 ◦ C, 30 ◦ C, 31 ◦ C, and 32 ◦ C (see Fig. 1
(a)), etc. As a result, Fig. 5 exhibits the simulation results under the
battery module operating at 1.0C with mass flow rate of 0.4 × 10-3
kg⋅s− 1.
Fig. 4(a) exhibits that the cell temperature exceeds 32 ◦ C when the
cooling trigger-time outnumbers the cooling starts at cell temperature
31 ◦ C. And, though the delayed cooling strategy shortens the cooling
time, it leads to a higher maximum cell temperature. When the cooling
trigger-time beyond the time point of cooling starts at cell temperature
29 ◦ C, the temperature amplification rises sharply. From trigger-time of
cooling starts at cell temperature 25 ◦ C to 29 ◦ C, the cell temperature
variation changes slightly at the end of discharge. Fig. 4(b) exhibits that
the maximum temperature difference rises with the delay of cooling
trigger-time, and the magnitude of temperature difference drops with
the earlier of cooling trigger-time; this indicates that the delayed cooling
trigger-time acts positively in deteriorating the cell′ s thermal distribu­
tion. Besides, the cell temperature difference exceeds 5.0 ◦ C when the
cooling trigger-time delays to the operating time of 2259 s (cell tem­
perature is 31 ◦ C at this time), implying that this trigger-time is of
weakness for the battery module cooling.
Fig. 5 demonstrates the obtained cell thermal distribution, maximum
temperature differences, and temperature standard deviation at the end
of discharge under various cooling trigger-times. Meanwhile, the
Z. Zhang et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 211 (2022) 118417

Fig. 4. Thermal effects on the battery module under different cooling trigger-
times (a) Maximum cell temperature; (b) Maximum cell temperature difference.

cost-advantage will be more obvious when the delay of cooling trigger-

time getting later under the requirement of battery module thermal
management. For the selected specimen in this work, the cases of
cooling trigger-time at the time-point 1446 s (cell temperature 29 ◦ C)
and the time-point 1859 s (cell temperature 30 ◦ C) maybe are better
selections in controlling the battery module thermal distribution.

3.4.3. Various concentration analyzing of glycol solution

Fig. 3. Thermal effects of different mass flow rates (a) Maximum cell tem­
perature; (b) Maximum temperature difference; (c) Channel pressure drop of
the designed LCP.
equation for the cell′ s temperature standard deviation Tσ is given by,
√̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
√∫ . ( )2
√ Tb − Tavg dVc
Tσ = √ Vc
∫ (11)
.
Vc
dVc
where Tb and Tavg are the cell′ s temperature and average mean tem­
perature; Vc is the cell volume.
Fig. 5(a ~ f) shows that the cell′ s temperature standard deviation
rises with the delay of cooling trigger-time, indicating that the LCP
cooling performance is weakened gradually when the trigger-time de­
lays by degrees. However, it can save more energy and reduce operating-
cost when the cooling trigger-time delays gradually. In summary, the
It is of significance to select an appropriate GS concentration to
control battery module thermal distribution. This section gives a
detailed analysis on the thermal effects of various GS concentrations of
0 ~ 80% on the cell temperature field. Furthermore, cases of mass flow
rate 0.4 × 10-3 kg⋅s-1and cooling trigger-time 1446 s (cell temp. 29 ◦ C)
were selected to cool the battery module in line with above studies. In
this case, the response variations of thermal and pressure are depicted in
Fig. 6.
Fig. 6(a) presents that the maximum cell temperature rises with the
increases of GS concentration of 0 ~ 80%. The major reasons can be
chalked up to the increasing solution concentration, which reduces the
specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity, meanwhile increases its
viscosity. Specifically, the decreasing specific heat capacity and thermal
conductivity play a positive role in weakening the heat transfer between
the fluid and the LCP; Meantime, the increasing viscosity will increase
the thickness of boundary layer of channel surface, and further to cripple
the heat transfer. Fig. 6(b) presents that the maximum cell temperature
differences are all within 5.0 ◦ C under all GS concentrations; However, it
drops with increasing GS concentration before 2300 s around, and
presents an opposite phenomenon after about 2300 s. The higher the
coolant concentration, the higher the viscosity, thus the thicker the
temperature boundary layer formed on the LCP wall, and it weakens the

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Z. Zhang et al.
Fig. 5. Thermal distribution of the battery cell under various cooling trigger-times at the cell temperatures of 25 ◦ C, 28 ◦ C, 29 ◦ C, 30 ◦ C, 31 ◦ C, and 32 ◦ C,
respectively.
heat transfer coefficient, this is the main reason why the battery tem­
perature difference decreases with increasing coolant concentration
before 2300 s. Furthermore, with the increase of coolant temperature,
the coolant viscosity gradually decreases, which makes the temperature
boundary layer gradually thinner on the LCP wall; thus, it can improve
the heat transfer coefficient, and quickly cool the battery wall; This is the
main reason why the battery temperature difference gradually increases
with increasing coolant concentration after 2300 s.
Meanwhile, the fluid flowing states in the LCP channels were
analyzed numerically, as shown in Fig. 6(c). It is presented that the
pressure difference ΔP rises with increasing GS concentration which
increases the fluid adhesion at the inner channel surface. Otherwise, the
obtained temperature standard deviation of the battery module also
rises with the increase of GS concentration, indicating that the higher
solution concentration plays a negative role in optimizing the module
thermal distribution. The higher the GS concentration, the higher the
operating cost. In actual application, the lower GS concentration can be
used in the hotter areas, thus it can meet the thermal management and
reduce the operating cost in the meantime.
4. Experimental validation
The designed LCP was customized and a simulating battery cell was
devised based on the actual cell specifications. Meanwhile, a thermal
test system of battery module was constructed, and the simulation
effectiveness was validated experimentally.
4.1. Thermal test system
Fig. 7 shows test system′ s schematic and physical maps. The system
consists of simplified simulating battery module, electronic control box,
plate heat exchanger, thermostat circulator, expansion tank, water
pump, flowmeter, and computer, etc., while the simulating battery
module consists of two half simulating cells, customized LCP (Al-alloy
3003), and flexible Kapton heaters, etc.
The quartz-glass was employed to simulate the battery module due to
its main thermal parameters similar in the actual cells. Simultaneously,
the Kapton heaters served for the cell heat generation simulating. As
shown in Fig. 7, the simplified simulating battery module consists of six
blocks of quartz-glass, two pieces of Kapton heaters, and a designed LCP.
To closely simulating the battery cell, four blocks of quartz-glasses with
same sizes of 100 × 300 × 1.5 mm3 and two blocks of quartz-glasses
with same sizes of 100 × 300 × 2.0 mm3 were customized. And, four
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Applied Thermal Engineering 211 (2022) 118417
pieces of Kapton heaters with same sizes of 100 × 300 × 0.2 mm3 were
selected. For weakening the convective heat transfer, the battery module
was soaked in a thermal container made of expanded polystyrene with
size of 550 × 300 × 300 mm3; Note, the outside surfaces of the thermal
container were completely coated by Al-foil tape to reduce the radiation.
Thus, three quartz-glass blocks were used to simulate the half-cell, and,
two heaters were located between them each other and meanwhile the
thicker glass was placed between them. Similarly, the other half-cell was
also simulated based on this. To prevent rigid contact, a thermal
conductive silicone pad with size of 100 × 300 × 0.2 mm3 was attached
between the quartz-glass block and the LCP. Pressure and temperature
transmitters (0 ~ 2.0 MPa, − 40 ~ 120 ◦ C) serve for the presses and
temperatures supervising of the fluid which flowing in and out the
battery module. The flowmeter (0.01 ~ 30 L⋅min -1) was used to monitor
the fluid′ s flow rate of the test system. The water pump (Water-lift of 15
m, 0 ~ 25 L⋅min -1; PWM control) was used to provide a proper mass
flow rate for the test system. The expansion tank with volume of 4.0 L
was mainly used to store the liquid and balance the flowing liquid. The
plate heat exchanger (Heat exchange capacity: 2 ~ 30 kW; Water
pressure: 5.0 MPa) mainly serves for the heat exchange between the low-
temperature (from the thermostat circulator) and high-temperature
(from the battery module) liquids. The thermostat circulator (SC1030,
− 10 ~ 100 ◦ C) was used to dissipate the liquid heat that comes from the
battery module. The electronic control box contains the NI data-logger
(Model: USB-6212 with specifications of 16AI, 2AO, and 32DIO), DC
power supply (0 ~ 30 V, ±0.01 V0.001A), and circuit boards (our
design), etc., which mainly serves for the water pump PMW controlling,
data logging from the pressure/temperature transmitters, flowmeter,
and battery module (temperatures recording). Ultimately, the data and
signals were collected by the computer with software of LabVIEW.
4.2. Validation results and discussion
The temperatures of room and liquid were regulated to 25 ◦ C (fluc­
tuation range ±0.1 ◦ C) and an initial temperature of 25 ◦ C for the bat­
tery module was set during the test. The simulating heat source was
provided by heaters linked with the DC power supply which can be self-
regulated in voltage in basis of the preset time-dependent voltage curve.
Moreover, it is worth noting that the simulating heat source was set as
56.4% of the actual heat production due to the density (2220 kg⋅m− 3)
and specific heat capacity (745 J⋅kg− 1 ◦ C− 1) in quartz-glass are lower
than that of the actual battery cell (2500 kg⋅m− 3, 1173 J⋅kg− 1 ◦ C− 1 on
average). In this work, conditions of mass flow rate, cooling trigger-
Z. Zhang et al. Applied Thermal Engineering 211 (2022) 118417

Fig. 6. Thermal effects on the battery module under various glycol solution concentrations of 0 ~ 80% (1.0C for discharging) (a) Maximum cell temperature; (b)
Maximum temperature difference; (c) Pressure distribution in the liquid cooling plate channels.

time, and GS concentration for other discharge rates of 0.7C and 1.2C
were studied in the light of Section 3. As a result, several specific cooling
conditions were determined; for instance, to cool the battery module by
mass flow rates of 0.3 × 10-3 kg⋅s− 1 and 0.6 × 10-3 kg⋅s− 1 for conditions
of 0.7C and 1.2C, respectively; and to cool the battery module by cooling
trigger-times of cell temperature 29 ◦ C for these two conditions,
respectively. As shown in Fig. 8, experimentally the GS concentration of
50% was selected to analyze the simulation effectiveness.
Fig. 8(a) presents that the measured cell temperature rise coincides
with the simulated temperature rise, of which the simulated tempera­
ture is slightly lower than the tested temperature at the end of discharge.
Fig. 8(b) presents that the test temperature deviation is within 2.5 ◦ C,
implying that the established thermal model and cooling solution is
reliable for the pouch cell temperature field controlling. Unavoidable
are the deviations, whose main causes include: 1) Difference dwells in
established thermal model and actual battery cell; 2) Inevitably, the
simulating battery cell has some differences with the actual cell; 3)
There exists deviation between the logging temperature point of the

8
Z. Zhang et al.
Fig. 7. Diagram of the constructed thermal test system (a) Diagrammatic sketch of the thermal test system; (b) Actual test system for the battery module.
simulating battery module and the established thermal model, etc.
5. Conclusions
This study introduces a new method of thermal control for a pouch
LIB battery as per a LCP with streamline channels. Thermal effects of
various mass flow rate, cooling trigger-time, and GS concentration on
the cell thermal distribution are analyzed numerically, and meantime
the simulation results are validated experimentally per a constructed
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Applied Thermal Engineering 211 (2022) 118417
thermal test system. The key conclusions are as follows:
Thermal effect of boosting mass flow rate on reducing the cell′ s
temperature rise and temperature differences is effective. However, a
marginal effect exists in this phenomenon. Simultaneously, the
increasing mass flow rate G increases the channel pressure drop ΔP in a
form of linearity (ΔP = 1.33G − 0.393). The increasing delay of cooling
trigger-time boosts the temperature rise and temperature difference,
playing a negative role in optimizing the cell thermal distribution.
However, it can save more energy and reduce operating-cost when the
Z. Zhang et al.
Fig. 8. Temperature history comparison between experiment and simulation
(a) Obtained cell temperature variations from the simulation and test; (b)
Temperature deviation analysis.
cooling trigger-time delays gradually. The maximum cell temperature
rises with the increases of GS concentration of 0 ~ 80%, meanwhile the
maximum temperature difference drops with increasing GS concentra­
tion before 2300 s around, and presents an opposite phenomenon after
about 2300 s. Experimentally, the validation presents that the test re­
sults coincide with the simulation results, of which the temperature
deviation is under 2.5 ◦ C, implying a better effectiveness. Meantime, the
constructed thermal test system in this work indicates a reliable solution
to verify the effectiveness of thermal management in battery module.
The later the cooling trigger-time, the lower the operating cost; The
higher the GS concentration, the higher the operating cost. In actual
application, appropriate cooling trigger-time and lower concentration of
GS can be used in the hotter areas. Therefore, the thermal management
requirements can be met and meanwhile the operating cost be reduced.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Zhendong Zhang: Investigation, Data curation, Writing – original
draft. Linxiang Fu: Writing – review & editing. Lei Sheng: Conceptu­
alization, Project administration, Methodology, Resources. Wen Ye:
Software, Formal analysis. Yuedong Sun: Validation, Supervision.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
10
Applied Thermal Engineering 211 (2022) 118417
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by China Postdoctoral Science Foundation
(2021M702191) and National Nature Science Foundation of China (No.
51275309).
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