International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

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

A novel battery thermal management system based on P type triply

periodic minimal surface
Zhaohui Fan, Renjing Gao, Shutian Liu∗
State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116024, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: As an effective cooling method, liquid-cooled battery thermal management system (BTMS) is crucial to
Received 17 October 2021 maintain the performance of the battery packs. Triply periodic minimal surface (TPMS) is a mathemati-
Revised 10 January 2022
cally described surface with large surface area and tortuous regions. These features allow the TPMS-based
Accepted 28 May 2022
structures to be used as the internal filling structures of the heat exchangers for thermal performance
Available online 7 June 2022
improvement. In this study, the TPMS-based internal filling structures in the liquid-cooled BTMS are pro-
Keywords: posed. The results demonstrate that the cooling performance and temperature consistency of the battery
Battery thermal management module can be enhanced by filling the TPMS-based structures in the cooling channel. Compared with
Triply periodic minimal surface the conventional straight tube, at the inlet flow rate of 0.003 kg/s, the maximum temperature and tem-
Lithium-ion battery perature difference of the battery module in the BTMS with the sheet structure decrease by 9.0% and
liquid cooling 59.8%, respectively. In addition, the gradient sheet structure is designed to alleviate the temperature gra-
dient of the coolant in the flow direction. The results illustrate that the temperature difference of the
battery module in the gradient sheet structure decreases by 15.7% than that in the uniform sheet struc-
tures (c = ±0.5). This study can provide a new approach for thermal performance enhancement of the
liquid-cooled BTMS.
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction phase change material (PCM) [11,12] and combination of them

With the energy consumption and environmental pollution
around the world, the application of new energy has been widely
concerned. Traditional fossil-oil fueled vehicles are regarded as the
main source of fuel consumption and air pollution. Electric vehicles
(EV) have become alternative solutions to traditional fossil-oil fu-
eled vehicles. Lithium-ion battery (LIB) is widely used due to their
high-efficiency electrical performance and environmentally friendly
features [1–3]. To maintain an optimal battery performance, dur-
ing charge and discharge processes, the LIB temperature should
be controlled between 20°C to 40°C with 5°C temperature differ-
ence of the battery module [4]. High battery operating tempera-
ture can cause life reduction, thermal runaway and even explosion
[5], while low battery operating temperature can cause battery ca-
pacity degradation [6]. Therefore, a battery thermal management
system (BTMS) is significant to ensure the thermal safety of the
battery and enhance the battery electrical performance in the op-
erating process.
According to the different cooling medium, BTMS can be clas-
sified into three methods: air cooling [7,8], liquid cooling [9,10],
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: stliu@dlut.edu.cn (S. Liu).
[13,14]. Air cooling, as one of the traditional methods, is widely
adopted in commercial electric vehicles due to its low cost,
lightweight and convenient maintenance [3,15,16]. However, the
low heat exchange capacity and the unavoidable temperature gra-
dient have limited the application of air cooling in EVs [8]. The
latent heat of PCM is utilized to store the battery heat during the
phase change process [17]. However, the application of PCM has
been limited by its low thermal conductivity [18,19]. In order to
recover the latent heat of PCM, the active cooling methods are also
required to be integrated with PCM, which will increase the instal-
lation space, weight and cost of the BTMS.
Liquid cooling has attracted widespread attention by re-
searchers and EV manufacturers. Compared with the air medium
and PCM, liquid cooling can provide better cooling effect with
higher thermal conductivity, greater specific heat capacity and a
more compact structure. Lan et al. and Zhao et al. [20,21] investi-
gated the thermal performance of mini-channel tubes for cylindri-
cal and prismatic LIB. The mini-channel cooling provided a promis-
ing solution for the BTMS through the parameter optimization. In
order to eliminate the restriction of the low thermal conductivity
of the coolant, the liquid metal was used to improve the cooling
performance of the BTMS in extreme charge and discharge con-
ditions [10,22]. In a battery pack, temperature difference is a sig-

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2022.123090
0017-9310/© 2022 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090

nificant parameter to ensure the battery performance. Wang et al.

[23] studied the cooling mode of a liquid-cooled system. Because
the coolant is heated by the battery as it flows, the temperature
consistency of the battery module is promoted in the parallel cool-
ing mode. In order to counteract the effects of the temperature
gradient of the liquid cooling, the gradient method has used to de-
sign the contact surface between the tube and the cells [24,25].
The heat generation characteristics of LIBs are complicated in dif-
ferent operation conditions at battery pack level. Liu et al. [26] de- Fig. 1. Description of the P type TPMS in an enclosing cube.
veloped liquid-based cooling strategies to enhance thermal perfor-
mance at battery pack level based on the battery operating charac-
where x, y and z are spatial coordinates, ω = 2π /l is periodic pa-
teristics. Although the above innovative studies have proposed for
rameters, l is the side length of an enclosing cube and c is the
the thermal performance improvement of BTMS, the channel de-
level set value. When c is zero, the TPMS structure has zero thick-
sign with TPMS-based structures has not been considered.
ness and zero volume. In this paper, the parameter c of 0 is called
It is an attractive approach to fill the periodic metallic cellular
as the benchmark surface. As depicted in Fig. 1, the enclosing cube
architectures into the cooling channel for heat dissipation enhance-
is divided into two regions with equal volume by the benchmark
ment [27,28]. The architecture of low-density cellular metal plays
surface. In order to conveniently describe the formed regions, these
an important role in the heat exchanger [29–31]. Triply periodic
two regions are respectively named inner region (inner ) and outer
minimal surface (TPMS), originated from nature, has received great
region (outer ) according to the position of the coordinate points
attention in the research fields of tissue engineering and struc-
in the space. In the regions of inner and outer , the coordinate
tural engineering [32,33]. TPMS is a mathematically described sur-
points are satisfied with the Eq. (2). When the value of c is pos-
face with three-dimensional periodicity, large surface area and zero
itive or negative, the formed P surface is respectively located on
Gaussian curvature [34]. Considering the large area-to-volume ra-
both sides of the benchmark surface.
tio, smooth surfaces and complex geometry, the TPMS-based struc-

tures can be investigated as potential high-performance internal cos(ωx ) + cos(ωy ) + cos(ωz ) < c, (x, y, z ) ∈ inner
filling structures of the heat exchangers. Compared with the most φ (x, y, z ) =
cos(ωx ) + cos(ωy ) + cos(ωz ) > c, (x, y, z ) ∈ outer
utilized truss lattices, the TPMS architectures are more similar with
natural structures without excessive connection joints. By adjust- (2)
ing the parameters of the TPMS, it is convenient to design the TPMS develops a smooth and continuous surface with a large
thermal performance of the heat exchanger filled with the TPMS- surface area, which can enhance heat convection between fluid-
based structures. The cube space is divided into two tortuous and solid interfaces. Fig. 2 depicts the design process of the TPMS-
continuous sub-domains by the TPMS [35]. According to differ- based liquid-cooled BTMS. In order to obtain an entity, the TPMS
ent entity generation methods, TPMS structures can be classified sheet structure is directly constructed by sealing two surfaces with
into skeleton and sheet structures. The sheet structure and the positive and negative values of c. In the cooling tube, the sheet
skeleton structure can be formed by sealing different sub-domains structure array is filled into the aluminum cooling channel. The
[36,37]. Compared with the skeleton structure, the sheet struc- semicircle side surfaces of the cooling tube are in close contact
ture has larger surface area and void space, which provides am- with the cells. The integrated cooling module is assembled by the
ple opportunities to transfer heat at solid-liquid interface of liq- parallel minimum cooling modules.
uid cooling structure. When the coolant flows through the channel
with metallic TPMS sheet structures, battery heat can be efficiently
3. Mathematical analysis
taken away in the relatively small space. It is extremely challenging
to fabricate the metallic TPMS sheet structures due to the intricate
3.1. Battery model
geometries. Additive manufacturing (AM) provides an approach to
efficiently and precisely process intricate geometries with fine fea-
According to the lumped model, the cell is regarded as a uni-
tures [38].
form body heat source in the analysis. The equivalent thermo-
In this paper, the liquid-cooled BTMS based on the TPMS sheet
physical parameters of an individual cell are calculated based on
structure is designed for heat dissipation performance improve-
the weighted average method of each region.
ment. Firstly, the experiments are performed to measure the bat-
tery heat generation rate. Secondly, the accuracy of battery heat
3.2. Governing equations
generation model and the rationality of the CFD model are respec-
tively verified by simulations and experiments. Thirdly, the TPMS
Assuming that the thermal conductivity of the cell is isotropic,
sheet structure exhibits best cooling performance and temperature
the energy conservation equation of the cell is:
consistency than the TPMS skeleton structure. Finally, according to
the effect of parameter c on the cooling performance, an optimal ∂ Tb
ρbCp,b = ∇ · (kb ∇ Tb ) + Q˙ gen (3)
gradient TPMS sheet structure is designed for the temperature con- ∂t
sistency enhancement of the battery module.
The conservation equations for continuity, momentum and en-
2. Design of TPMS-based liquid-cooled BTMS ergy of coolant are expressed as:

∇ ·u=0 (4)
In mathematical terms, a minimal surface is defined as a sur-
face with zero mean curvature at all points. TPMS can be expressed
du
as φ (x, y, z) = c by implicit methods, where c is a constant value. ρw = −∇ P + μ∇ 2 u (5)
In the interior of the cooling channel, the Schwartz’s “Primitive” dt
structure (P type TPMS) [39] is chosen as the filling structure. The
∂ Tw
level set equation of the P type TPMS is as follows: ρwCp,w + ρwCp,w u · ∇ Tw = ∇ · (kw ∇ Tw ) (6)
∂t
φ (x, y, z ) = cos (ωx ) + cos (ωy ) + cos (ωz ) = c (1)

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Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090

Fig. 2. Schematics of TPMS-based BTMS.

In the aluminum cooling tube, the energy conservation equa-

tion can be given as:
∂ Ts
ρsCp,s = ∇ · (ks ∇ Ts ) (7)
∂t
where (ρ b , ρ w , ρ s ), (Cp,b , Cp,w , Cp,s ), (kb , kw , ks ) and (Tb , Tw , Ts )
are average density, average specific heat, thermal conductivity and
temperature of battery, water and solid cooling tube, respectively;
Qgen is the heat generation rate across the battery cell; u, P and μ
denote the velocity vector, static pressure and dynamic viscosity of
water, respectively.

3.3. Battery heat generation model

The battery heat generation rate is mainly caused by electro-

chemical reaction heat and joule heat. According to the classic
model [40], the battery heat generation is described as follows:
 
dUOCV
Qgen = I (UOCV − U ) − Tb (8)
dT
where UOCV is the open circuit voltage; U is the terminal voltage of
∂U
the battery; Tb is the temperature of the lithium-ion battery; ∂OCVT
is the entropy heat coefficient.
In formula (8), the first term and the second term represent the
irreversible heat generation rate and the reversible heat generation
rate, respectively. The battery heat generation rate can be rewritten
as follows [41]:
Fig. 3. Analysis model of the TPMS-based BTMS.
dUOCV
Qgen = I2 R + ITb (9)
dT
where R is the total internal resistance of the battery. due to the symmetrical geometry of the BTMS. The sub-module
The source term Q˙ gen in Eq. (3) can be calculated by: contains 1 cooling tube and 8 cells, whose dimensions (L × W × H)
are 180 mm × 15 mm × 32 mm. The P type sheet structure is
Qgen
Q˙ gen = (10) filled into the aluminum cooling channel of BTMS. The c value of
Vb the P type TPMS sheet structure is ±0.3. The length of the envelope
where Vb denotes the volume of the battery cell. cube (l) outside the TPMS sheet structures is 10 mm. The diameter
and height of the cell are 18 mm and 65 mm, respectively. The
4. Numerical investigation and experimental verification spacing between adjacent cells on the same side (d) is 4 mm.

4.1. Analysis model 4.2. Boundary conditions of the analysis model

As shown in Fig. 3, the rectangle region of the sub-module is For the sub-module of the TPMS-based BTMS, the liquid wa-
selected as the computational domain for the numerical analysis ter flows through the cooling tube to take away the battery heat.

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Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu
Fig. 4. Grid independence verification.
The liquid water flows through the cooling channel with constant
mass flow rate of 0.003 kg/s. The outlet boundary condition is de-
termined as pressure-outlet. The contact surfaces of the cells, the
aluminum cooling tube and the coolant are all set as coupled walls.
The initial temperature of the analysis model is 25°C. As depicted
in Fig. 3(a), the side surfaces of the analysis domain are set as
symmetric boundaries. In the real EVs, since the cells are usu-
ally assembled into compact space without effective ventilation,
the outer surfaces of the analysis domain are set as the adiabatic
conditions. The battery heat generation rate at 2C discharge rate is
utilized as the heat source term.
4.3. Grid independence verification
In this study, the average battery temperature and total heat
transfer rate of the battery module are used to verify the grid in-
dependence. The analysis model is divided into three grid number,
which are 806537, 2161478 and 3160545. Grid independence veri-
fication is presented in Fig. 4. The relative deviations of the aver-
age battery temperature and total heat transfer rate are 0.18% and
0.12%, respectively, which indicates that the effect of the grid num-
ber on the results is gradually weakened with the grid number in-
creases.
The mesh of the CFD model is shown in Fig. 5. The unstruc-
tured grids are adopted to discretize fluid and solid domains. The
boundary layers are established in the fluid domain near the walls.
The number of the mesh element for the computational domain is
2161478.
Fig. 5. The mesh of CFD model.
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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090
Table 1
The technical parameters of the battery cell.
Property Parameter Property Parameter
Normal voltage 3.7 V Capacity 2.6 A·h
Maximum voltage 4.2 V Cathode material LiCoO2
Maximum voltage 2.75 V Anode material graphite
4.4. Measurement and validation of battery heat generation rate
4.4.1. Experimental setup
Commercial 18650 lithium-ion batteries (Samsung SDI Co. Ltd)
are used in this work. The main technical parameters of the bat-
tery cell are listed in Table 1. Fig. 6 presents the experimental
platform of the battery heat generation rate. The 18650 battery is
placed into the thermostatic chamber, the T-type thermocouple is
mounted on the surface of the cell, and the temperature data of
the cell is recorded by the temperature data acquisition. The bat-
tery test module is used to charge and discharge the cell.
4.4.2. Experimental methods of battery heat generation rate
As described in formula (9), the total heat generation rate of a
cell is divided into the irreversible heat generation rate and the re-
versible heat generation rate. In order to obtain the total heat gen-
eration rate, several experiments are conducted to measure some
electric parameters.
The irreversible heat generation rate can be calculated from the
total internal resistance and the electric current. For a lithium-
ion battery, the total internal resistance includes ohmic resistance
and polarization resistance. Under normal working condition, the
ohmic resistance has a dominant influence on the voltage drop,
which can be obtained by the intermittent discharge experiment
[42]. As depicted in Fig. 7, the current and voltage profiles in the
intermittent discharge process of 0.1 depth of discharge (DoD) in-
tervals are plotted, where t1 and t2 denote the discharge time and
the rest time of every interval. According to the Ohm’s law, the
ohmic resistances R under different DoD can be calculated by the
ohmic voltage drop and discharge current, which is depicted in
Fig. 8.
The reversible heat generation rate can be obtained by the en-
tropic heat coefficient and the battery temperature. The entropic
heat coefficient can be experimentally determined as a function
of DoD. The entropic heat coefficient at 0.6 DoD is calculated by
the gradient of UOCV with respect to the temperature, which is de-
picted in Fig. 9. The entropic heat coefficients at other DoDs are
determined by this experimental method. In addition, the battery
Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu
Fig. 6. The experimental platform of battery heat generation rate.
Fig. 7. Ohmic resistances measurement intermittent discharge.
Fig. 8. Ohmic resistances of the battery at different DoDs.
temperature is measured during a constant current discharge pro-
cess.
The battery heat generation rate versus to DoD is determined
by the irreversible heat generation rate and reversible heat gener-
ation rate. It is clearly seen in Fig. 10 that the heat generation rate
changes greatly at different DoDs. The heat generation rate of the
battery is affected by the temperature. In our study, the heat gen-
eration rate of the battery is obtained by experiments at a constant
temperature of 25°C, which ignores the effect of the temperature
change of the battery. In order to obtain the heat generation rate
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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090
Fig. 9. Changes of open circuit voltage by temperature at 0.6 DoD.
Fig. 10. Relation curve between battery heat generation rate and DoD.
of the cell at each point in time, the curve of heat generation rate
is fitted by the experimental data, which is depicted in Fig. 10. The
coefficient of determination is 0.97, which means the fitting effect
is ideal.
At 2C discharge rate, the fitting function is given below:
Qgen = 39.46 · DoD4 − 61.48 · DoD3 + 28.85 · DoD2
−4.587 · DoD + 1.822 (11)
Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090

Table 2
The material properties used in the simulation[9].

Material ρ (kg·m−3 ) cp (J·kg−1 ·K−1 ) κ (W·m−1 ·K−1 ) μ (kg·m−1 ·s−1 )

Battery[9] 2500 1200 4 -
Aluminum 2719 871 202.4 -
Air 1.225 1006.43 0.0242 1.7894 × 10−5
Liquid water 998.2 4128 0.6 1.003 × 10−3

Fig. 11. Experimental and simulated temperature of the battery.

Fig. 13. Experimental and simulated temperatures of the battery in the BTMS.

4.4.3. Validation of battery heat generation rate

To validate the accuracy of the heat generation rate, a ther-
mal performance of the single cell is simulated at 2C discharge
rate. The material properties are listed in Table 2. The experimental
temperature and the simulated temperature are shown in Fig. 11.
The simulated results in good agreement with the experimental re-
sults in the trend of the curves, which validates the accuracy of the
measured battery heat generation rate.
4.5. Experiment and validation of thermal management system
The experimental platform of the liquid-cooled BTMS based on
the TPMS sheet structure is shown in Fig. 12. The coolant sup-
ply system consists of the thermostatic water tank, the flowme-
ter and the pump, which can provide the coolant with a constant
temperature and a constant flow rate. In order to reduce the con-
tact thermal resistance, the thermal silicone grease is spread on
the contact surface between the cooling tube and cells. The ex-
panded polystyrene box is used to insulate the heat exchange be-
tween the cooling module with the surrounding environment. The
battery temperature acquisition system consists of the T-type ther-
mocouples and the temperature data acquisition unit.
The experimental and simulated results of the liquid-cooled
BTMS based on the TPMS sheet structure are depicted in Fig. 13.
Because the generated heat of the battery is greatly affected by

Fig. 12. The experimental platform of thermal management system.

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Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090

Fig. 14. Schematics of different entity structures formed by P type TPMS.

Fig. 15. Designs of straight tube, sheet structure, outer skeleton structure and inner skeleton structure.

temperature [43], the deviations of the experimental and simulated
temperature are appeared. In the study, the heat generation rate
of the battery is measured by experiments at 2C discharge rate in
the thermostatic chamber without liquid cooling, and the obtained
heat generation rate is used as the heat source in the simulation.
The higher battery temperature in the thermostatic chamber re-
sults in a lower heat generation rate of the battery. Due to the
addition of the liquid cooling, the battery operates at lower tem-
perature, which results in a higher heat generation rate of the bat-
tery during the experiments. The different heat generation rates of
the battery in different temperature conditions are the dominant
reasons for the deviation of the simulation and experiment. In ad-
dition, the contact thermal resistance of the cooling tube and the
heat exchange with the surrounding environment are inevitable in
the experiments.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Channel designs with different internal filling structures
Different TPMS structures can be formed by sealing the differ-
ent regions in the enclosing cube, which are shown in Fig. 14. In
this study, the sheet structure is formed by sealing the region be-
tween two P type surfaces with c of ±0.5. The outer skeleton struc-
ture is formed by sealing the outer of the P type surfaces with c
of 0.5, while the inner skeleton structure is formed by sealing the

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Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090

Fig. 16. Temperatures of the battery module with different channel designs: (a) maximum temperature, (b) temperature difference.

Fig. 17. Temperature contours of the battery module with different channel designs.

inner of the P type surfaces with c of -0.5. The side length of the
enclosing cube is 10 mm.
As depicted in Fig. 15, the cooling performance of different in-
ternal filling structures is investigated, including the conventional
straight tube, the sheet structure, the outer skeleton structure and
the inner skeleton structure. Herein, blue arrows represent flow in-
lets, while red arrows represent flow outlets. For the straight tube,
the internal channel is divided into three small straight channels
with same size. For the other tubes, as heat dissipation enhancers,
the arrays of these periodic lattices are respectively filled into the
cooling channel. The lattice number of the array in three directions
is 1 × 18 × 3. The tube is divided into two tortuous and continu-
ous flow channels by the sheet structure, while only one continu-
ous flow channel is formed in the tube with the skeleton structure.
The performance of Tmax (maximum temperature), T (temper-
ature difference), P (pressure drop), A (contact surface areas be-
tween fluid and solid), V (volume), A/V (area-to-volume ratio) and
Q/m (heat-to-weight ratio) are shown in Table 3. Compared with

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Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090

Table 3
Performance of different TPMS-based structures.

Sheet structure Outer skeleton structure Inner skeleton structure

Tmax (°C) 31.87 33.74 32.13

T (°C) 1.15 1.62 1.23
P (Pa) 183.19 9.3 28.25
A (mm2 ) 36143 16719 25457
V (mm3 ) 14348 19826 19826
A/V (mm−1 ) 2.52 0.84 1.28
Q/m (J·kg−1 ) 239.6 197.8 217.1

Fig. 18. Contact surface between fluid and solid in the skeleton structures.

the straight tube, the cooling performance and temperature unifor-

mity of the battery module are improved by the TPMS-based struc-
tures. Among the TPMS type filling structures, the sheet structure
provides the best cooling performance and temperature uniformity,
but simultaneously causes higher pressure drop. Compared with
the straight tube, the Tmax and T of the battery module in the
sheet structure decrease by 9.0% and 59.8%, respectively. Fig. 16 (a)
and (b) illustrate the maximum temperature and temperature dif-
ference of the battery module with different channel designs dur-
ing the discharge process. The temperature contours of the BTMS
with different cooling structures at the end of the discharge pro-
cess are depicted in Fig. 17.
Contact surface area between fluid and solid is a significant
parameter for the cooling performance of the heat exchanger. In
the convective heat transfer process, thermal resistance is inversely
proportional to the product of convective heat transfer coefficient
and heat transfer area, which means that the large heat transfer
area will result in small thermal resistance under constant con-
vective heat transfer coefficient. Although the volume of the outer
skeleton structure is same as that of the inner skeleton structure,
the inner skeleton structure exhibits better cooling performance
and temperature consistency than the outer skeleton structure. As
shown in Fig. 18, in the channels with different internal filling
structures, the contact surface between fluid and solid is divided
into two types of surfaces, which are the contact surface between
fluid and internal filling structure and the contact surface between
fluid and tube. At the same volume, the larger contact surface area
significantly enhances the heat exchange between the water and Fig. 19. Flow field diagrams of the battery module in different channel designs.
tube. The area-to-volume ratio is proposed to evaluate the ther-
mal performance and the lightweight performance. As depicted in increases by 200% and 96.9%, respectively. The heat-to-weight ratio
Table 3, compared with the outer skeleton structure and the inner is also a critical parameter to evaluate the practicability of BTMS,
skeleton structure, the area-to-volume ratio of the sheet structure which is defined as the ratio of heat transfer between solid and

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Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu
Fig. 20. Uniform and gradient designs of P type sheet structure.
Fig. 21. Temperatures of the battery module with different parameter c: (a) maximum temperature, (b) temperature difference.
fluid to the weight of the cooling tube. Compared with the outer
skeleton structure and the inner skeleton structure, the heat-to-
weight ratio increases by 17.4% and 9.4%, respectively. Considering
the different requirements of the cooling performance, tempera-
ture uniformity, pressure drop and lightweight, the optimal choice
of the structure depends on the users.
In order to analyze the heat transfer mechanism of the P type
TPMS structures, the flow patterns in different channel designs are
depicted in Fig. 19. In the straight tube, the water flow exhibits
a typical laminar pattern. Owning to the different shapes of the
outer skeleton structure and the inner skeleton structure, these
two types of skeleton structures show different flow patterns. In
the outer skeleton structure, three mainstreams flow through the
inner from the inlet to the outlet, which means that the heat can
be taken away rapidly by the water flow. In the inner skeleton
structure, the velocity distribution of the water flow is more uni-
form in the outer , which indicates that the sufficient heat transfer
between the fluid and solid is conducted. It can be also concluded
from Table 3 that the P of the inner skeleton structure is much
higher than that of the outer skeleton structure. In the sheet struc-
ture, the water flows rapidly in the inner and flows uniformly in
the outer . The flow pattern in the sheet structure combines the
advantages of the outer skeleton structure and the inner skele-
ton structure. The heat can be quickly taken away by water in the
inner and the heat exchange between the fluid and solid is en-
hanced in the outer .
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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090
5.2. Effect of parameter c
The sheet structure is formed by sealing the region between
two P type surfaces. In order to study the thermal performance of
the sheet structure with different parameter c, the uniform sheet
structures with c of ±0.3, ±0.5, ±0.7 and gradient sheet structure
with c of ±0.3 & ±0.5 are designed, which is depicted in Fig. 20.
The parameter l of the sheet structure lattice is 10 mm.
It can be clearly seen from Fig. 21 that the maximum temper-
ature and temperature difference of the module in the uniform
sheet structures gradually decrease with the increase of the abso-
lute value of parameter c, and the downtrend tapers off. According
to this regularity, a gradient filling structure along the flow direc-
tion is designed to alleviate the temperature gradient of the liq-
uid cooling. Along the flow direction, the channel is evenly divided
into two design sections. The sheet structure with c of ±0.3 is filled
in the front half of the channel, and the sheet structure with c of
±0.5 is filled in the back half of the channel. These two sections
are smoothly joined together by surfaces.
Although the gradient sheet structure is designed by two pa-
rameters c of ±0.3 and ±0.5, the maximum temperature of the
battery module in the gradient sheet structure is consistent with
that in the uniform sheet structure with c of ±0.5. For the gradi-
ent sheet structure and the uniform sheet structure (c = ±0.5), as
shown in Fig. 21(a), the curves of maximum temperature are es-
sentially coincident, which demonstrates that the gradient design
Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090

Fig. 22. Temperature contours of the battery module with different parameter c of the sheet structures.

Table 4
Performance of the battery module in TPMS sheet structures with dif-
ferent parameter c.

Uniform sheet structure Gradient sheet structure

±0.3 ±0.5 ±0.7 ±0.3 & ±0.5

Tmax (°C) 32.23 31.87 31.67 31.85

T (°C) 1.31 1.15 1.06 0.97
P (Pa) 82.61 183.19 588.24 136.95

with c of ±0.3 in the front half of the channel does not weaken the
heat dissipation performance. In addition, Fig. 21(b) shows that the
temperature distribution in the gradient sheet structure is more
consistent than that in the other three uniform sheet structures.
The temperature contours of the battery module with different pa-
rameter c of the sheet structures are depicted in Fig. 22.
The Tmax , T and P of the uniform sheet structures and the
gradient sheet structure are listed in Table 4. In the uniform sheet
structures, with the increase of the parameter c, the maximum
temperature and the temperature difference of the battery mod-
ule decrease, and the pressure drop increases. Compared with the
uniform sheet structures, the gradient sheet structure provides bet-
ter cooling performance and lower pressure drop. At the end of
the discharge process, the temperature difference of the battery
module and the pressure drop in the gradient sheet structure de-
crease by 15.7% and 25.2% than that in the uniform sheet struc-
tures (c = ±0.5), respectively.
Fig. 23 shows the flow patterns in different sheet structures. It
Fig. 23. Flow field diagrams of the battery module with different parameter c of
can be seen that the flow patterns are similar in the uniform sheet
the sheet structures.
structures, and the velocity of the mainstream increases with the

11
Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu
Fig. 24. The cooling tubes fabricated by additive manufacturing technology.
Fig. 25. The experimental data of the battery with liquid cooling: (a) maximum temperature, (b) temperature difference.
increase of the parameter c. However, the flow pattern in the gra-
dient sheet structure is obviously different from that in the uni-
form structures. The velocity of the mainstream is higher in the
rear half of the channel than that in the front half of the chan-
nel. The higher velocity of the water flow in the rear half of the
channel increases the heat conduction from heating surfaces, and
it enhances heat absorption of the cooling fluid of channels. This
flow pattern in the gradient sheet structure can enhance fluid-solid
coupled heat transfer.
In order to validate the thermal performance of the opti-
mal structure, the liquid-cooled experiments of the gradient sheet
structure (c = ±0.3 & ±0.5) and the uniform sheet structure
(c = ±0.3) are conducted. As shown in Fig. 24, the cooling tubes
are fabricated by additive manufacturing technology. The experi-
mental platform is shown in Fig. 12, where the mass flow rate of
the inlet is 0.003 kg/s and the discharge rate of the battery is 2C.
Fig. 25 shows that the maximum temperature and the temperature
difference of the gradient sheet structure (c = ±0.3 & ±0.5) are
lower than that of the uniform sheet structure (c = ±0.3), which
demonstrates that the cooling performance and the temperature
uniformity can be enhanced by the gradient sheet structure.
6. Conclusions
This paper focus on designing a TPMS-based BTMS with excel-
lent cooling performance and temperature consistency. The ther-
12
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 194 (2022) 123090
mal performance of the BTMS is investigated by simulations and
experiments. The main conclusions are summarized as follows:
(1) Due to the large surface area and tortuous shape of the flow
channels, the TPMS-based sheet structure significantly improves
the heat dissipation performance of the liquid-cooled BTMS, but
simultaneously cause higher pressure drop.
(2) In the inner , the heat is taken away rapidly by the main-
streams. In the outer , the velocity distribution of the water
flow is more uniform, which can improve the heat transfer be-
tween the fluid and solid.
(3) At the end of the discharge process, the maximum temperature
and temperature difference of the battery module in the sheet
structure (c = ±0.5) decrease by 9.0% and 59.8% than that with
the conventional straight tube.
(4) The gradient sheet structure along the flow direction can alle-
viate the temperature gradient of the liquid cooling. The tem-
perature difference of the battery module in the BTMS with the
gradient sheet structure (c = ±0.3 & ±0.5) decreases by 25.2%
than that with the uniform sheet structures (c = ±0.3).
CRediT authorship statement
Zhaohui Fan: Conceptualization, Writing - original draft,
Methodology, Software. Renjing Gao: Supervision, Visualization,
Formal analysis. Shutian Liu: Methodology, Investigation.
Z. Fan, R. Gao and S. Liu
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work is financially supported by the National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China (U1808215), the National Key Research
and Development Program of China (2020YFB1708303) and the 111
Project (B14013). These financial supports are acknowledged.
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