Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862

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Energy Conversion and Management

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

A novel liquid cooling plate concept for thermal management of lithium-ion

batteries in electric vehicles
Mohsen Akbarzadeh a, b, *, Joris Jaguemont a, b, Theodoros Kalogiannis a, b, Danial Karimi a, b,
Jiacheng He a, b, Lu Jin c, Peng Xie c, Joeri Van Mierlo a, b, Maitane Berecibar a, b
a
ETEC Department & MOBI Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussel, Belgium
b
Flanders Make, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
c
Global Energy Interconnection Research Institute Europe GmbH, 10623 Berlin, Germany

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

Keywords: In this paper, an innovative liquid cooling plate (LCP) embedded with phase change material (PCM) is designed
Battery thermal management for electric vehicle (EV) battery thermal management. The proposed cooling plate is named “hybrid cooling
Liquid cooling plate plate” as it takes advantage of both active (liquid) and passive (PCM) cooling methods. The hybrid LCP is 36%
Phase change material
lighter than a volumetrically equivalent traditional aluminum LCP, and in addition to the cooling capability, it
CFD analysis
provides a heating solution to slow the temperature loss of the batteries during the cold stop. The thermal
Electric vehicles
behavior of the hybrid LCP for two different scenarios including the cooling performance under a real driving
cycle, and the cold stop temperature performance are investigated and compared with a traditional aluminum
LCP using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. An experimental test bench is developed to test a
prototype of the hybrid LCP and verify the CFD model. The cooling performance results indicate that the use of
hybrid LCP could reduce the energy consumption of the pump required for circulating the coolant up to 30% in
comparison with an aluminum LCP. Moreover, the novel designed LCP improves the temperature uniformity
effectively. It was also found that the hybrid LCP could significantly delay the temperature drop at the cold stop
situation of the EV and therefore, reduce the energy needed for the active heating of the batteries after short-term
parking. These imply that the hybrid liquid cooling plate concept could be a promising thermal management
solution for EVs.

between the modules in a battery pack should be less than 5 ◦ C to

1. Introduction
In recent decades, the shortage of energy resources and the climate
change caused by the use of fossil fuels have become serious global
challenges. Since the transportation sector is one of the biggest con­
tributors to fossil fuel consumption [1], the automotive industry is
moving toward clean energy technologies such as hybrid electric vehi­
cles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs). In this regard, lithium-ion (Li-
ion) batteries as the core component in clean energy vehicles have
attracted increasing research attention. In comparison with other
rechargeable battery technologies, Li-ion batteries have superior fea­
tures such as high power and specific energy, low self-discharge rate,
and long lifetime [2,3]. However, the cycle life, performance, and safety
of Li-ion batteries are highly dependent on the working temperature [4].
The proper temperature range for the operation of a Li-ion battery is
between 25 ◦ C and 40 ◦ C, and the maximum temperature difference
achieve the optimum performance and lifetime of the battery [5].
Furthermore, at high temperatures, there is the risk of a thermal
runaway as a serious safety issue for Li-ion batteries which causes fire
and explosion of the battery [6]. Thus, a well-designed and efficient
battery thermal management system is crucial for the further develop­
ment of electric vehicle technologies.
According to the control strategies, the battery thermal management
systems (BTMSs) can be classified into active and passive systems [7]. In
the active methods, the cooling/heating rate could be controlled
actively by power-consuming equipment [8]. Forced airflow, liquid
circulation, and utilizing refrigerant coolant are such examples of active
BTMSs in which the cooling/heating rate is controlled by using fans,
pumps, and compressors, respectively. On the other hand, in the passive
systems, there is no power-consuming equipment, and they require no
control system to vary the cooling/heating rate such as natural air
convection, phase change materials (PCMs), and heat pipes [9]. Each

* Corresponding author at: ETEC Department & MOBI Research Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussel, Belgium.
E-mail address: Mohsen.Akbarzadeh.Sokkeh@vub.be (M. Akbarzadeh).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enconman.2021.113862
Received 30 September 2020; Received in revised form 30 September 2020; Accepted 13 January 2021
Available online 1 February 2021
0196-8904/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
M. Akbarzadeh et al.
Nomenclature
A Surface area [m2]
C1∊ model constants [–]
C2∊ model constants [–]
C3∊ model constants [–]
Cμ model constants [–]
Cp Specific heat [J.kg− 1.K− 1]
E Electrical energy consumption [W.h]
Gb generation of turbulence kinetic energy due to buoyancy
[–]
Gk generation of turbulence kinetic energy due to the mean
velocity gradients [–]
H Enthalpy [J.kg− 1]
h Heat transfer coefficient [Wm− 2K− 1]
hs Sensible enthalpy [J.kg− 1]
I Current [A]
K Turbulent kinetic energy [J]
P Power consumption [W]
p Pressure [Pa]
Pr Prandtl number [–]
Prt Turbulent Prandtl number [–]
q˝ Heat flux [W.m− 2]
R Internal resistance [Ω]
T Time [s]
T Temperature [K]
V̇ Flow rate [m3.s− 1]
one of the mentioned BTMSs has its benefits and drawbacks. Generally,
active methods are more controllable and they have a higher regener­
ation rate, while passive methods have more energy efficiency [8,10].
Therefore, to take advantage of both active and passive strategies,
recently, a new concept of thermal management for batteries has been
developed which is a combination of active and passive methods known
as hybrid thermal management systems [10,11].
Among active thermal management systems, liquid cooling is one of
the most common BTMSs in EVs due to the high cooling efficiency and
compact structure. So far, liquid cooling systems have been applied in
numerous EVs on the market, such as Tesla Model S and Model 3,
Chevrolet Volt, Chevrolet Bolt, and Audi e-Tron. In general, the liquid-
based cooling systems are divided into direct and indirect cooling
methods [11]. In direct cooling, batteries are submerged in a dielectric
liquid such as mineral oil, silicon-based oil, and deionized water [2]. The
direct liquid cooling method has not been widely used in practical ap­
plications for EVs because of safety concerns, the difficulty of selecting a
proper coolant, and high power consumption [7,12]. The indirect liquid
cooling as the mainstream battery thermal management is a cooling
scheme in which the heat is removed from batteries by a coolant (usually
water or water/glycol) flowing inside a metal plate with internal flow
channels called a cooling plate. Numerous studies have been conducted
on the structure of cooling plates for battery thermal management since
the cooling plate design enormously affects the effectiveness of the
overall cooling system. Jarret and Kim [13] performed a CFD study on a
serpentine-channel cooling plate to optimize pressure drop, average
temperature, and temperature uniformity for battery thermal manage­
ment. They also studied the effect of different operating conditions on
the optimum design of the cooling plate and found that the temperature
uniformity is the most sensitive parameter to the operating conditions
[14]. Jin et al. [15] developed a new oblique mini channel cooling plate
for cooling EV batteries. They found that the heat transfer coefficients of
the oblique cooling plate are higher than a conventional mini channel
cooling plate. Deng et al. [16] investigated numerically the influence of
channel number, the layout of the channel, and coolant inlet
2
Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862
v Velocity [m.s− 1]
YM contribution of the fluctuating dilatation in compressible
turbulence to the overall dissipation rate [-]
Greek symbols
ρ Density [kg.m− 3]
β liquid fraction of the melted PCM [–]
γ specific latent heat of PCM [J.kg− 1]
μ Viscosity [Pa.s]
φ Reynolds stress [–]
Δt Cooling cycle duration time [s]
σk Turbulent Prandtl numbers for k [–]
σ∊ Turbulent Prandtl numbers for ∊ [–]
Subscripts/superscripts
amb Ambient
f Fluid
in Inlet
s Solid
l Liquid
out Outlet
Acronyms
LCP Liquid cooling plate
PCM Phase change material
BTM Battery thermal management
CFD Computational fluid dynamics
SOC State of charge
temperature on the performance of a serpentine-channel cooling plate
with U-tube shape for thermal management of Li-ion battery. They
concluded that the maximum temperature of the cooling plate decreases
with an increase in the number of channels. Huang et al. [17] proposed a
streamline shape concept in designing of mini channel cooling plate. The
results pointed out the streamline design leads to a lower flow resistance
and consequently improves the performance of the cooling plate. Bar­
sotti et al. [18] presented a new cooling plate by implementing a copper
pipe in a plate made of graphite-matrix-PCM. They carried out a nu­
merical simulation to examine the effectiveness of the PCM cooling plate
and showed that the liquid cooling pump requirements could be reduced
in intensity and duration.
In recent years, the use of PCMs as a new passive solution for battery
thermal management has attracted growing research attention. PCMs
are classified into three groups including organic compounds (paraffin,
non-paraffin such as fatty acids), inorganic compounds (hydrated salts,
metallic), and eutectic mixtures [19]. Due to the variety of PCMs, the
proper selection of PCM is an important aspect for battery thermal
management applications. An appropriate PCM for battery thermal
management must have a melting point in the desired temperature
range of the battery operation, good thermal conductivity, high latent
heat and high heat capacity. Moreover, low volume change during the
phase change process and little (or no) subcooling during the freezing
are crucial factors. Additionally, the PCM should be stable, non-
flammable, non-poisonous, low cost, and available in large quantities
[20,21]. Among different types of PCMs, paraffin possesses most of the
mentioned features which makes it a suitable PCM for thermal man­
agement of Li-ion batteries [22,23]. However, the low thermal con­
ductivity of pure paraffin significantly restricts its applications. To
overcome this limitation, adding high thermal conductive materials to
paraffin such as metal foams, metal fins, nanoparticles and carbon-based
materials is an effective way to enhance the thermal conductivity of the
PCM. Ping et al. [24] developed a cooling system based on paraffin with
aluminum fins for a battery module at the temperature of 40 ◦ C. They
found that the PCM-fin structure improves the natural convection, and
M. Akbarzadeh et al.
conduction heat transfer within the PCM, and accordingly improves the
heat dissipiation effectively. Karimi et al. [25] added metal nano­
particles to paraffin to develop a composite PCM for battery thermal
management. They found that among Ag, Cu and Fe3O4 nanoparticles,
the best performance is achieved with the composite PCM containing Ag
nanoparticles. Wang et al. [26] conducted an experimental investigation
on a paraffin/aluminum foam composite PCM for cooling a Li-ion bat­
tery. They indicated that the addition of aluminum foam could signifi­
cantly improve the thermal performance of the PCM. For the heat flux
equal to 7000 W/m2, the phase transition time for the composite PCM is
26.4% lower than the pure paraffin. Greco et al. [27] investigated the
passive cooling of a cylindrical cell using n-heptadecane paraffin (PCM)
with compressed expanded natural graphite (CENG). It was concluded
that the maximum temperature of the battery with PCM/CENG com­
posite is much lower than forced convection with the same configura­
tion. Karimi et al. [28] compared the pure paraffin (PCM), paraffin with
an aluminum-mesh grid foil (PCM-Al), and forced convection for cooling
a lithium-capacitor module. It was concluded that the PCM-Al method
reduces the maximum temperature of the module around 20% and 13%
more than the forced convection and pure PCM methods, respectively.
The capability of PCM in storing a massive amount of heat during the
phase change process makes it an interesting battery thermal manage­
ment solution not only for cooling applications but also for heating
purposes. Ghadbeigi et al. [29] studied the cold temperature perfor­
mance of high power Li-ion batteries with PCM. They showed that the
heat released from the PCM during the solidification process could delay
the battery temperature drop in the cold environment, which is bene­
ficial for short-term parking of the EV. Ling et al. [30] investigated the
thermal management performance of composite PCMs for a Li-ion bat­
tery pack operated at low temperatures. They concluded that the PCM
can prevent the warm battery pack from fast cooling. Besides, PCM with
higher thermal conductivity leads to better performance of the battery
pack at low temperatures.
The heat accumulation in case of running out of the available latent
heat of the PCM is a crucial issue that rapidly reduces the heat dissipa­
tion effectiveness [31]. Therefore, the PCM-based cooling systems are
usually coupled with active cooling methods such as air cooling and
liquid cooling systems. Ling et al. [32] combined the forced convection
of air with PCM for battery thermal management. They found that the
forced convection of air can significantly recover the energy storage
capacity of PCM. Mehrabi-Kermani et al. [33] developed a hybrid
cooling system using PCM embedded in copper foams integrated with
forced-air convection and concluded that the thermal performance of
the hybrid system is much better than the pure PCM. Hekmat and
Molaeimanesh [10] embedded water pipes in PCM and developed a
thermal management system for a Li-ion module with prismatic batte­
ries. They found that the PCM can effectively improve the temperature
uniformity among the cells. Zhang et al. [34] proposed a hybrid cooling
system based on PCM and liquid cooling to avoid thermal runaway
propagation in a Li-ion battery module. It was found that the proposed
cooling system has a good heat transfer performance in avoiding the
thermal runaway by optimizing some parameters such as fluid velocity
and PCM thermal conductivity. Kong et al. [31] proposed a coupled
liquid cooling and PCM thermal management system for a battery pack
with cylindrical cells. The results indicated that for a 3C discharge rate at
the environment temperature of 30 ◦ C, the hybrid cooling system can
keep the maximum battery temperature and the temperature difference
at 41.1 ◦ C and 4 ◦ C, respectively. Cao et al. [35] introduced a delayed
cooling scheme by integrating PCM and liquid cooling for a large battery
module with cylindrical cells. They showed that the developed hybrid
cooling system keeps the maximum temperature below 55 ◦ C and the
temperature difference below 5 ◦ C at for a 4C discharge rate. Zhang et al.
[36] developed a hybrid cooling system for a cylindrical battery module
using PCM with the bottom liquid cooling. They compared the hybrid
cooling method and pure liquid cooling method and found that the
hybrid cooling reduces the maximum temperature and temperature
3
Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862
difference at steady-state in comparison with liquid cooling. Wu et al.
[37] conducted an optimization study on a hybrid cooling system
comprised of liquid and PCM cooling methods for a cylindrical battery
module. Their results indicated that the maximum temperature and
temperature difference of the module with hybrid cooling are around
42.67% and 38.27% lower than the liquid cooling without PCM.
Based on the above literature review, most of the previous research
on liquid cooling plates for the BTMSs has been focused on the structure
of the flow channels in traditional aluminum cooling plates. Although
hydrodynamic and thermal characteristics of the cooling plate could be
remarkably enhanced by improving the configuration of flow channels,
there is an opportunity for further development of cooling plates by
reducing the weight of the cooling plate to increase the energy efficiency
of the overall cooling system. Additionally, there is increasing research
attention on integrating PCMs with liquid cooling as an emerging hybrid
thermal management solution for Li-ion batteries. Despite the high
effectiveness and great interest in coupling PCM with liquid-based
thermal management systems, their implementation in practical appli­
cations is still challenging because of the difficulty of molding batteries
with PCM, adding extra weight to the battery pack, and safety concerns.
The literature review also indicates that most former studies on the
combination of PCMs with liquid cooling systems are limited to cylin­
drical battery types, and little attention is paid to the prismatic-shape
batteries. Moreover, no research study on hybrid thermal management
systems has so far been presented considering both the cooling and
heating of batteries.
To address these gaps in the literature, in this paper, a novel liquid
cooling plate (LCP) embedded with phase change material is designed
for thermal management of Li-ion batteries. The proposed cooling plate
which is named “hybrid liquid cooling plate”, possesses a modular
design and provides a rigid encapsulation for the PCM. In addition, the
hybrid LCP has several great features over a volumetrically equivalent
conventional aluminum LCP such as lower weight, higher energy
effectiveness, and the potential of keeping the battery warm in the cold
environment. The cooling effectiveness and the cold temperature per­
formance of the hybrid LCP are studied and compared with an aluminum
LCP using a three-dimensional CFD model. An experimental setup is
developed to test the prototype of the proposed LCP and verify the nu­
merical model. For the cooling mode, the effect of different coolant flow
rates on the energy consumption needed for circulating the coolant is
investigated under a real driving cycle. For the cold temperature per­
formance, the effect of ambient temperature and heat transfer coeffi­
cient of air on the temperature drop of the cooling plate is evaluated.
2. Description of the proposed cooling plate
The schematic diagram of a battery module and the proposed cooling
plate are depicted in Fig. 1. It is seen in Fig. 1(a) that the thermal
management system is comprised of two identical cooling plates which
are placed on both sides of the module. As shown in Fig. 1(b), the hybrid
cooling plate consists of a flat plate with the size of 8 mm × 91 mm ×
360 mm, which is in contact with the battery module, and two sections
at both ends of the plate as the inlet and outlet of the coolant. The di­
mensions of the inlet and outlet parts are depicted in Fig. 1(b). The
interior design of the cooling plate is illustrated in Fig. 1(c). It can be
observed that there are three parallel extruded flow channels inside the
cooling plate with the same cross-section and length. Two identical
compartments are designed inside the cooling plate to imbed the PCM.
Two cylindrical inlets are also situated on the cooling plate end to pour
the PCM into the cooling plate, and the inlets will be closed after the
compartments are filled with PCM. The coolant is forced from the fluid
inlet into the cooling plate and flows through the channels and leaves
the cooling plate on the other side. The dimension of the fluid channels
and the PCM chambers are shown in Fig. 1(c). Since the proposed
cooling plate benefits from both passive cooling (PCM) and active
cooling (liquid), in the rest of the paper, the term “hybrid liquid cooling
M. Akbarzadeh et al.
Fig. 1. Schematic of the proposed cooling plate, (a) Battery module with cooling plates, (b) Exterior design of the cooling plate, (c) Interior structure of the
cooling plate.
plate or hybrid LCP” is used to refer to the proposed cooling plate. The
hybrid LCP concept possesses several great features listed as below:
1) One of the problems for using PCMs as the battery thermal man­
agement system is the difficulty of molding battery modules and
packs with PCM [38]. Besides, the thermo-mechanical properties of
PCM are highly affected by temperature [39]. The hybrid cooling
plate is practically the same as traditional aluminum cooling plates
in terms of thermo-mechanical behavior and provides a rigid
encapsulation for the PCM. Further, it possesses a modular archi­
tecture which means that it can be easily integrated to the battery
pack and also be disassembled for maintenance.
2) The weight of the battery pack in EVs has a significant effect on the
efficiency of the EV and driving mileage. The lighter weight of the
battery pack results in lower energy consumption, and consequently,
greater driving mileage can be achieved. Despite the high cooling
efficiency of liquid cooling for battery thermal management, it is
known as a heavyweight thermal management system [4,9]. The
proposed hybrid LCP has the advantage of being lighter in compar­
ison with an aluminum LCP with the same dimensions due to the
lower density of PCM than aluminum. In the present study, the
density of the PCM used to fill the hybrid LCP is 1305 mkg3 , which
eventually leads to a cooling plate 36% lower in weight than
aluminum cooling plate.
4
Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862
3) Another positive feature of the hybrid LCP is the potential of using
the heat stored in the PCM in a cold environment. The latent heat of
the PCM could be returned to the battery during a cold stop of the EV.
This could be useful to keep the battery warm for a short-term
parking period, and as a result, reduce the energy for active heating.
3. Model development
3.1. Physical model establishment
The geometrical model of the hybrid cooling plate is shown in Fig. 2.
As mentioned earlier, the cooling plate is designed to be placed at both
sides of a battery module with prismatic-shape Li-ion cells. The contact
surface of the cooling plate with the battery module is highlighted in
red. The length and height of the contact surface are 330 mm and 91
mm, respectively, which is selected based on the size of the module. The
cooling plate is made of aluminum, and water is used as the coolant. In
addition, a composite paraffin/graphite PCM is used to fill the hybrid
LCP. It is worth noting that the inlets of PCM are not considered in the
model. The contact surface is subjected to heat flux which represents the
heat generation of the module. The thermophysical properties of the
mentioned materials are listed in Table 1.
In this work, the thermal behavior of the hybrid LCP for two different
scenarios are studied and compared with a volumetrically equivalent
M. Akbarzadeh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862

Fig. 2. Geometrical model of the cooling plate.

Fig. 3. WLTC profile.

Table 1
Thermophysical properties of aluminum, water, and PCM.
I(t)
Properties Aluminum Water PCM SOC(t) = SOC(t − 1) + .Δt (2)
Capacity
3
Density (kg/m ) 2719 998.2 1305
Considering the initial state of charge equal to 90% and the capacity
Heat capacity (j/kg.K) 871 4182 1430
of the battery as mentioned earlier equal to 43 Ah, the time needed for
Thermal conductivity (W/m.K) 202.4 0.6 2.32
the cells to reach 15% of SOC is in the vicinity of 2.07 h. This is rounded
Viscosity (kg.m/S) – 0.001003 0.005
to 2 h; thus, the heat flux is calculated based on four repeated WLTC
Melting temperature (◦ C) – – 27–28
Latent heat (J/kg) – – 150,000 cycles. It is worth mentioning that the range of SOC is selected based on
the standard SOC range for battery packs in EVs. The calculated heat flux
with four WLTC cycles is depicted in Fig. 4.
aluminum LCP. The first scenario is to investigate the cooling perfor­
mance (scenario 1) of the cooling plate during the normal operation of B) Scenario 2: Cold temperature performance
the EV. The second scenario is to assess the cold temperature perfor­
mance (scenario 2) or the ability of the hybrid cooling in preventing the In order to study the capability of the hybrid cooling plate in
batteries from a fast temperature loss during a cold stop of the EV. delaying the battery temperature loss in cold weather conditions, the
vehicle stop situation after a regular operation in a cold environment is
A) scenario 1: Cooling performance considered. It is assumed that the initial battery temperature is in the
optimum operating temperature range. Since the battery is not oper
To investigate the cooling performance of the cooling plate, heat flux
is applied to the contact surface of the cooling plate with the battery
module representing the heat generation inside the batteries. As it was
shown in Fig. 1, since the battery module is surrounded by two cooling
plates, it is assumed that half of the generated heat in the batteries is
transferred to each cooling plate. Therefore, the heat flux applied to the
cooling plate is calculated as follows:
( 2 )/
R.I
q˝ = A (1)
2

where R, I and A are the internal resistance of the battery cell, working
current and the contact surface area of the cells with the cooling plate.
The internal resistance of R = 0.002Ω is assumed for the batteries which
corresponds to a prismatic NMC cell with a capacity of 43 Ah according
to our previous work [40]. In the present study, a realistic driving cycle
is considered to determine the thermal load of the battery cells. In this
regard, the load profile of the worldwide harmonized light-vehicle test
cycle (WLTC) for the sub-urban driving condition is used as the input
current. Fig. 3 represents the WLTC profile for 30 min of driving dura­
tion taken from Ref. [41].
The time period in which the heat flux is applied to the cooling plate
is determined based on the SOC of the batteries according to the
following equation:
Fig. 4. Heat flux applied to the cooling plate versus time.

5
M. Akbarzadeh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862

ating when the vehicle is stopped, there is no heat flux on the contact
k2
surface of the module and cooling plate. Except for this surface, all other μt = ρ C μ (8)
surfaces transfer heat to the ambient by convection heat transfer ∊
mechanism. As in automotive applications, there is no airflow inside the where Cμ is a constant. The model constants have the following values:
battery pack due to the casing, a poor convection heat transfer is
considered from the cooling plate to the environment by using small Cμ = 0.09, σ k = 1, σ ∈ = 1.3, C1∊ = 1.44, C2∊ = 1.92 (9)
values of heat transfer coefficient from h = 1 mW W
2 .K to h = 5 m2 .K on the

cooling plate walls. The influence of heat transfer coefficient and the • Aluminum
ambient temperature on the temperature drop of the contact surface is
investigated for 3 h. For the solid region of the cooling plate, the energy balance equation
is expressed as follows:
3.2. Governing equations
∂( )
ρ .Cp,s .Ts = ∇.(ks .∇Ts ) (10)
The computational domain is comprised of 3 sub-domains including ∂t s
fluid domain (water), the solid region of the cooling plate (aluminum),
where ρs , Cp,s and ks are density, heat capacity and thermal conductivity,
and PCM. The following assumptions are invoked before carrying out
respectively.
the simulations:
• PCM
1) The fluid is single-phase, incompressible and turbulent.
2) An infinity viscosity is assumed for the PCM, and the density change
The energy conservation equations for the PCM are formulated as
because of solid-liquid phase change is not considered [42].
follows [35,42]:
3) A constant thermal conductivity and heat capacity is used for PCM.
4) The radiation heat transfer is neglected. ∂H
ρPCM = ∇.(kPCM .∇T) (11)
∂t
Based on the above assumption, the governing equations for different
sub-domains are formulated as follows: H = hs + ΔH (12)
∫ T
• Coolant hs = Cp,PCM dT (13)
T0

The governing equations for the fluid including mass, momentum,

ΔH = βγ (14)
and energy conservations are as bellows:
⎧
∂ρf ( ) ⎪ 0T < Ts
+ ∇. ρf v = 0 (3) ⎪
⎪
⎨
∂t T − Ts
β= Ts < T < Tl (15)
∂v ⎪ Tl − Ts
⎪
⎪
⎩
ρf + ρf (→
v .∇)v = − ∇p + [∇.(μ∇v) − φ ] (4) 1T > Tl
∂t
[( ) ]
∂Tf ( ) μ μt where ρPCM , kPCM , Cp,PCM , H, h, and ΔH are density, thermal conductivity,
ρf + ∇. ρf .→
v .Tf = ∇. + ∇Tf (5) heat capacity, enthalpy, sensible enthalpy, and latent heat of PCM,
∂t Pr Prt
respectively. β represents the liquid fraction of the melted PCM, and γ
where ρf is the fluid density, v is the average velocity, p is the pressure,μ shows the specific latent heat. Further, Ts and Tl are the solidus and
is viscosity, φ is the Reynolds stress, Pr denotes the Prandtl number, Prt liquidus temperature of the PCM, respectively.
is the turbulent Prandtl number and Tf is the fluid temperature. In this
study, the standard k − ∊ turbulence model is utilized to simulate the 3.3. Initial and boundary conditions
flow characteristics because of the robustness of this model and good
accuracy for modeling a wide range of heat transfer and fluid flow Since there are two different case studies including cooling perfor­
analysis [43,44]. The transport equations for turbulent kinetic energy mance and cold temperature performance, depending on the case study,
and turbulent dissipation rate are given as follows: different boundary conditions have been used.
[( ) ]
∂
(ρk) + ∇.[ρ→
μ
v k] = ∇. μ + t ∇k + Gk + Gb − ρ∊ − YM + Sk (6) • Scenario 1: Cooling performance
∂t σk
[( For the simulations related to the cooling performance of the cooling
∂ plate, the initial temperature of all sub-domains is set as ambient tem­
(ρ∊) + ∇.[ρ→
v ∊] = ∇. μ
∂t perature equal to Tamb = 25◦ C. A heat flux boundary condition is applied
) ]
μ ∊ ∊2 to the contact surface of the cooling plate with the battery module, and
+ t ∇∊ + C1∊ (Gk + C3∊ Gb ) − C2∊ ρ + S∊ (7)
σ∊ k k an adiabatic boundary condition is considered for the remaining walls.
The operation of the liquid cooling system is dependent on the tem­
where, k, ∊, σ k and σ ∊ are turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent dissipation perature of the contact surface. When the average temperature of the
rate, and Prandtl numbers for k and ∊, respectively. Further, Gk and Gb contact surface is reached 40 ◦ C, the liquid cooling system is triggered,
are the generation of turbulence kinetic energy due to the mean velocity and a mass flow inlet boundary condition is applied to the fluid inlet.
gradients and due to buoyancy, respectively. YM shows the contribution The inlet temperature of the fluid is set as Tinlet = 20◦ C for all simula­
of the fluctuating dilatation in compressible turbulence to the overall tions, while a variable flow rate is investigated. For the fluid outlet, the
dissipation rate. S∊ and Sk are user-defined source terms, and the pa­ pressure outlet boundary condition is used where the relative static
rameters C1∊ , C2∊ and C3∊ are the model constants. The turbulent vis­ pressure is set to zero. When the temperature of the contact surface
cosity is given as follows: drops to 27 ◦ C, which is equal to the melting point of the PCM, the liquid
cooling is deactivated. These heating and cooling cycles are repeated

6
M. Akbarzadeh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862

until the end of the simulation.

• Scenario 2: Cold temperature performance

In order to study the temperature loss of the cooling plate in a cold

environment, the initial temperature of Tinitial = 30◦ C is considered for
the cooling plate. The contact surface of the module and cooling plate is
set as an adiabatic wall, while a convection heat transfer is considered
for the remaining walls. Moreover, there is no liquid flow in the cooling
plate for this case.

3.4. Numerical method and grid independence test

The geometry creation and mesh generation are performed by pre-

processing tools packaged in the ANSYS Workbench environment. The
ANSYS Fluent software is employed to solve the governing equations
with the relevant boundary conditions using a pressure-based solver. In
addition, the SIMPLE algorithm is employed to provide coupling be­
tween the pressure and velocity terms. Grid distribution inside the
computational domain with a closer view is depicted in Fig. 5. It can be
observed that a hexahedral structured mesh is applied for this research.
A grid independence test is carried out considering four different grid Fig. 6. Grid independence test.
sizes to assess the accuracy of the numerical results. For each grid size,
the cell numbers are around 2 times larger than the previous one. The accuracy and reliability of numerical modeling. For this purpose, an
grid independence test is done for the hybrid cooling plate with a con­ experimental setup is developed employing a heater to heat the cooling
stant heat flux of q˝ = 10000 mW2 applying to the contact surface and the plate and a water-cooling circuit including a water tank, pump, and
L
coolant flow rate of V̇ = 0.75 min entering the cooling plate from the radiator. Fig. 7 shows the experimental setup and a close view of the
beginning of the simulation. The temperature of the contact surface is cooling plate with the heater. In order to fill the cooling plate with PCM,
compared at t = 500s, and the results are depicted in Fig. 6. The per­ at first, the PCM is placed in a climate chamber with T = 45◦ C for a few
centage difference for the temperature between cases 3 and 4 is 0.3%. hours, then the melted PCM is poured into the cooling plate, and the
Therefore, the grid number of 1,076,222 is selected for the rest of the grooved inlets of PCM are closed using two dedicated bolts. As it is seen
simulations. in Fig. 7(a), a silicon heater mat with dimensions of 152mm × 51mm ×
1mm is attached to one side of the cooling plate. The heater is placed in
the middle of the cooling plate surface, and two thermocouples are
4. Validation of the numerical model
attached to the plate to measure the temperature during the experi­
mental tests. One thermocouple is placed exactly in the center of the
A prototype of the proposed hybrid cooling plate is built according to
heater, and the other one is located on the cooling plate surface near the
the details and dimensions described in Section 2. A set of experimental
fluid outlet. The distance of the second thermocouple from the top and
tests and numerical simulations are conducted in order to validate the

Fig. 5. Mesh distribution inside the computational domain.

7
M. Akbarzadeh et al.
Fig. 7. Experimental test bench, (a) Hybrid cooling plate with heater and position of thermocouples, (b) Water cooling circuit.
left sides of the cooling plate is 26 mm and 50 mm, respectively. A data
logger with k-type thermocouples and ±0.2 ◦ C accuracy is used for
measuring the temperature. In addition, a thermal camera (FLIRA655sc)
with a maximum error of 2% is used to observe the temperature distri­
bution on the opposite side of the cooling plate. As it is seen in Fig. 7(b),
the surface of the cooling plate monitored by the thermal camera is
uniformly painted in black to have a constant emission coefficient on the
surface. The heater, pump, and radiator are controlled using a control­
lable DC power supply (TOPWARD 6303D). At the beginning of the test,
the pump is off, while the power supply of the heater is on and the input
power of the heater is set to 25 W. In the absence of liquid cooling, the
temperature rises until it reaches the steady-state condition. Once the
steady-state thermal behavior is achieved, the liquid cooling system is
triggered by turning on the pump, and the water with a flow rate of 0.5
L
min is forced into the cooling channels to cool down the plate and heater.
Two different experimental tests are performed for validation of the
numerical model. The first test is conducted before filing the cooling
plate with PCM (PCM chambers contain air in the cooling plate without
PCM), while the second test is conducted after the cooling plate was
filled with PCM. The ambient temperature where the experimental tests
have been performed is Tamb = 25◦ C. It is worth noting that the heat
transfer from the cooling plate to the ambient is natural convection with
h = 13 mW 2 .K . The value of the heat transfer coefficient is determined
based on the lumped thermal modeling methodology for a Li-ion cell
which is discussed in detail in our previous work [45].
Fig. 8 shows the temperature recorded by thermocouple 1 and
thermocouple 2 and the results obtained by CFD. Fig. 8(a) is related to
the cooling plate without PCM, and Fig. 8(b) corresponds to the cooling
plate filled with PCM. It is seen that for the cooling plate with no PCM
after around 1000 s the steady-state condition is reached, while for the
8
Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862
hybrid cooling plate, the steady-state condition is reached after about
3500 s. The delay in reaching the steady-state temperature in the hybrid
cooling plate is due to the absorption of heat by PCM. The liquid cooling
is triggered at around t = 2700s and t = 6300s in the cooling plates
without and with PCM, respectively. It is seen that after that the liquid
cooling is activated, the temperature in both experiments continuously
decreases until it reaches the steady-state condition with liquid cooling.
The tests are ended at around t = 3500 s and t = 7500 s for the cooling
plates without and with PCM, respectively. A fine matching between the
numerical and experimental results is observed, which confirms the
accuracy of the numerical procedure.
Fig. 9 compares the temperature distribution on the cooling surface
obtained from the CFD model and thermal camera for the cooling plate
filled with PCM. Fig. 9(a) shows the temperature distribution in the
steady-state condition before triggering the liquid cooling (t = 6000 s).
The temperature distribution at the end of the test where the tempera­
ture is in the steady-state condition with liquid cooling (t = 7500 s) is
illustrated in Fig. 9(b). The results indicate that the temperature con­
tours from the CFD model are in good agreement with the results of the
thermal camera.
5. Results and discussion
5.1. Scenario 1: Cooling performance
Fig. 10(a) and 10(b) show the average temperature of the contact
surface between the module and the cooling plate versus time for the
hybrid LCP and an aluminum LCP, respectively. It should be noted that
the considered aluminum LCP is the same as the hybrid LCP in terms of
dimension. The liquid cooling channels in the aluminum LCP are also the
same as hybrid LCP, and there is no PCM chamber in the aluminum LCP.
M. Akbarzadeh et al.
Fig. 8. Comparison of experimental and numerical results for the recorded temperatures by thermocouples; (a) LCP without PCM, (b) LCP with PCM.
For both cases, when the temperature reaches 40 ◦ C, the liquid cooling
system is triggered to cool down the cooling plate with the flow rate of
L
V̇ = 0.5 min . Once the temperature of the contact surface is dropped to
27 C, the liquid cooling is deactivated. For the hybrid LCP, it takes
◦ is Δttot = 218s for the hybrid LCP, and Δttot = 271s for the aluminum
3345 s for the temperature to reach 40 ◦ C for the first time (first heating
cycle), while it is 925 s for the aluminum cooling plate. This delay in
temperature increment in the hybrid cooling plate is due to the heat
absorption by PCM during the melting process. For both cases, the
temperature drops promptly after that the liquid cooling is activated.
The first liquid cooling cycle takes Δt1 = 71s for the hybrid LCP and
Δt1 = 34s for the aluminum LCP. As expected, the timing of liquid
cooling is longer for the hybrid LCP because the coolant also takes a
huge amount of heat from the PCM. The rest of the heating cycles for the
aluminum cooling plate are only slightly shorter than the first cycle,
while for the hybrid cooling plate, the difference is significant. At the
beginning of the first heating cycle, the PCM is totally in the solid phase,
9
Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862
but at the beginning of the other cycles, the PCM is in the solid-liquid
phase. Consequently, the re-melting cooling capacity of the PCM is
lower than the first heating cycle. The total liquid cooling operation time
LCP. Therefore, the timing of the pump could be reduced by around 21%
by using the hybrid cooling plate, which results in a more energy-
efficient liquid cooling system.
The average liquid fraction of the PCMs in the hybrid cooling plate is
extracted and presented in Fig. 11. The liquid fraction is an index rep­
resenting the progress of the PCM phase change process. It is observed
that in the heating cycles, the liquid fraction is increasing without a
constant slope due to the time-dependent heat flux. In all heating cycles,
both PCMs are fully melted, and the liquid fraction reaches to β = 1
when the temperature of the contact surface is T = 40◦ C. Once the
liquid cooling is started, the liquid fraction promptly decreases because
of the heat rejection from PCM. The liquid fraction for both PCMs is
M. Akbarzadeh et al.
Fig. 9. Temperature distribution on the cooling plate surface; (a) Steady-state condition without liquid cooling (t = 6000 s), (b) Steady-state condition with liquid
cooling (t = 7500 s).
around β = 0.8 at the end of the cooling cycles. In fact, the liquid frac­
tion of the lower PCM is a bit less than the upper one. This means that
more heat is rejected from the bottom PCM in comparison with the
upper PCM. This is due to the different values of fluid velocity in the
cooling plate channels.
Temperature uniformity is an important factor in battery modules as
uneven temperature distribution can lead to an unbalanced module,
which reduces the module performance. Fig. 12 illustrates the temper­
ature distribution on the cooling plate at the end of the first cooling cycle
for the mass flow rate of V̇ = 0.5L/min. The same legend is used for both
hybrid and aluminum LCPs to have a better comparison of the cooling
performance. It is observed that the maximum temperature of the hybrid
LCP is lower than the aluminum one. Moreover, the temperature on the
contact surface is more uniformly distributed in the hybrid cooling plate.
In the aluminum cooling plate, the temperature near the inlet is
considerably lower than the temperature close to the outlet. This is due
to the development of the hydrodynamic boundary layer along the fluid
channels which results in the reduction of convective heat transfer.
To have a better understanding of temperature distribution on the
cooling plates, the longitudinal temperature of the contact surface is
compared for the hybrid and aluminum LCPs. For this purpose, three
lines are selected on the contact surface, and the temperature of the lines
is extracted. The position of the lines on the cooling plate is depicted in
Fig. 13(a). As it is seen in this figure, the coordinate system representing
the x axis is located near the fluid outlet of the cooling plate. Fig. 13(b)
compares the temperature versus the length for the hybrid and
aluminum LCPs. For both cases, the temperature on line 2 is lower than
the other lines because it is adjacent to the fluid channel. It is clearly
seen that along each line, the hybrid LCP has a lower temperature
variation than the aluminum LCP. For the hybrid cooling plate, line 2
shows the maximum longitudinal temperature variation which is 4.6 ◦ C.
For the aluminum cooling plate, the maximum longitudinal temperature
difference corresponds to line 1 which is 8 ◦ C. Furthermore, in the
hybrid cooling plate, the temperature variation only occurs in a small
area near the inlet of the cooling plate, while in the aluminum cooling
plate, most of the contact surface area is influenced by the temperature
variation.
The effect of the coolant flow rate on the timing of liquid cooling is
shown in Fig. 14. In this regard, four different flow rates from V̇ =
L
0.25 min L
to V̇ = 1 min are investigated, and the total liquid cooling oper­
ation time is compared for the hybrid and aluminum LCPs. For both
cooling plates, the liquid cooling timing decreases remarkably as the
flow rate increases. However, this reduction is more notable for the
10
Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862
hybrid LCP. As an example, when the flow rate increases from V̇ =
L
0.25 min L
to V̇ = 1 min , the liquid cooling operation time decreases around
340% and 188% for the hybrid LCP and aluminum LCP, respectively.
The results indicated that only for the lowest value of flow rate which is
L
equal to 0.25 min , the liquid cooling timing in the hybrid cooling LCP is
longer than the aluminum one. In contrast, the hybrid LCP shows a
better performance than aluminum LCP at other values of flow rates.
The energy consumption of the pump required for circulating the
coolant is an important parameter to evaluate the performance of a
liquid-based battery thermal management system. The ideal power
consumption of the pump is calculated by [46]:
P = V̇.Δp = V̇(pin − pout ) (16)
where P is power, V̇ is the volumetric flow rate, and ΔP is the pressure
drop. The electrical energy consumption for the pump over a period of
time is defined as follows:
E = P.Δt (17)
where E is energy consumption, and Δt denotes the time duration in
which the pump is running. Fig. 15 shows the total energy consumption
of the pump for hybrid and aluminum cooling plates at different values
of the coolant flow rate. It is seen that the energy consumption increases
significantly as the flow rate increases. As expected, the energy con­
L
sumption of the hybrid cooling plate at V̇ = 0.25 min is higher than the
aluminum cooling plate because of the longer pump timing. For other
values of flow rate, the use of the hybrid LCP reduces the energy con­
sumption significantly. For example, the energy consumption of the
hybrid LCP decreases 21%, 24% and 30% in comparison with the
L
aluminum LCP at flow rates of 0.5, 0.75 and 1 min , respectively.
5.2. Scenario 2: Cold temperature performance
Fig. 16 shows the effect of the heat transfer coefficient on the average
temperature of the contact surface in the absence of heat flux at Tamb =
0◦ C. The initial temperature of the cooling plate is assumed to be 30 ◦ C,
and as mentioned before, a poor convection heat transfer from the
cooling plate to the ambient is considered. Therefore, small values of
heat transfer coefficient from h = 1 mW W
2 .K to h = 5 m2 .K are studied. For
both cooling plates, as expected, the higher values of the heat transfer
coefficient result in lower surface temperature. For h = 1 mW 2 .K , the
temperature of the contact surface in the hybrid LCP is 27.5 ◦ C after
10800 s (end of the simulation), which means that the PCMs are not fully
M. Akbarzadeh et al.
Fig. 10. The average temperature of the contact surface between the module
and the cooling plate versus time for the coolant flow rate of V̇ = 0.5L/min, (a)
Hybrid LCP (b) aluminum LCP.
solidified. It is worth mentioning that at this time, the temperature is
dropped to 14.8 ◦ C in the aluminum LCP. For the cases of h = 3 mW
2 .K and
h = 5 mW2 .K , the cooling curves for hybrid LCP show a fast temperature
drop started from t = 8685 s and t = 5345 s, respectively. This means
that all the latent heat of the PCMs is rejected at the mentioned times,
and the liquid fraction is reached to β = 0. It can also be seen that for
both h = 3 mW W the hybrid cooling plate reduces liquid cooling operation time. This
2 .K and h = 5 m2 .K , when the phase change from liquid to
solid is completed, the temperature is above 24.5 ◦ C, while in the
aluminum LCP, the temperature is reached to lower than 5.5 ◦ C.
Fig. 17 shows the effect of ambient temperature on the temperature
of the contact surface for h = 3 mW 2 .K . However, the ambient temperature
can vary from zero to extreme subzero temperatures in the winter, in this
study, the ambient temperatures of 0, 5, and − 10 ◦ C are examined. As
expected, it is seen that the ambient temperature can significantly affect
11
Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862
Fig. 11. The average liquid fraction of the PCMs versus time.
the cooling plate temperature drop. For the aluminum LCP, the lower
ambient temperature results in the lower temperature of the cooling
plate. For the hybrid cooling plate, the latent heat is rejected from PCMs
faster as the ambient temperature is decreased. After the phase change
process, the cooling plate shows a lower temperature as the ambient
temperature decreases. Nevertheless, there is a large temperature dif­
ference between the hybrid cooling plate and aluminum cooling plate at
the end of the phase change process.
Generally, the energy released by the PCMs in the hybrid cooling
plate prevents the cooling plate from a fast temperature drop. This en­
ergy could be used to keep the battery module warm for some time,
which is beneficial for short-term stops of the electric vehicle during the
cold environment by reducing the active heating required for battery
warm-up.
6. Conclusions and future work
This paper presents a new concept of the liquid cooling plate for
thermal management of Li-ion batteries in electric vehicles. In the pro­
posed cooling plate, a phase change material is embedded inside the
cooling plate. The cooling plate is named “hybrid liquid cooling plate”,
as it provides both active and passive cooling methods. The use of PCM
in the cooling plate results in a lighter cooling plate in comparison with
traditional aluminum cooling plates. In this study, the hybrid cooling
plate is 36% lighter than a volumetrically equivalent aluminum cooling
plate. In addition to the cooling capability, the hybrid cooling plate
could prevent the batteries from fast cooling in a cold climate by
releasing the latent heat from PCMs. Two different scenarios including
the cooling performance of the cooling plate under a real driving cycle,
and the cold temperature performance were numerically investigated
using a CFD model. A prototype of the hybrid cooling plate was exper­
imentally tested, and the numerical model was validated against
experimental data.
The cooling performance study under a real driving cycle shows that
reduction results in lower energy consumption by the pump. As an
example, the energy consumed by the pump to circulate the coolant for
L
the flow rate of V̇ = 1 min , decreases around 30% compared to the
aluminum cooling plate, and consequently, it can enhance the specific
energy of the battery in the electric vehicle. Moreover, more tempera­
ture uniformity could be achieved by the hybrid cooling plate. The cold
temperature study of the cooling plate demonstrates that the hybrid
M. Akbarzadeh et al. Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862

Fig. 12. Temperature distribution on the cooling plate surface at the end of the first cooling cycle.

Fig. 13. Longitudinal temperature variation on the contact surface between the cooling plate and module.

Fig. 15. Total energy consumption for circulating the coolant versus flow rate.

cooling plate delays the temperature drop significantly. For example, for
the ambient temperature of Tamb = 0◦ C and heat transfer coefficient of
h = 5 mW2 .K on the cooling plate walls, the temperature of the contact

surface between the battery module and the cooling plate after a time
period of t = 5345 s is above 24.5 ◦ C in the hybrid cooling plate, while
Fig. 14. Total operation time of the liquid cooling versus coolant flow rate. the temperature is around 5.5 ◦ C in an aluminum cooling plate. There­
fore, the hybrid cooling plate is capable of reducing the active heating

12
M. Akbarzadeh et al.
Fig. 16. Cooling curves of the contact surface at different values of heat
transfer coefficient.
Fig. 17. Cooling curves of the contact surface at different values of ambient
temperature.
needed for the batteries in a cold environment by keeping the batteries
warm for short-term parking conditions. The light-weight structure of
the hybrid cooling plate, the cooling effectiveness, and the cold tem­
perature performance indicate that the cooling plate developed in this
study is a promising candidate for thermal management of battery packs
in an electric vehicle.
The future work in the continuation of this research would be
focused on an experimental investigation of a battery module integrated
with a pair of the proposed cooling plate. In addition, the effect of the
PCM thermophysical properties and the liquid channel configuration
will be studied throughout a numerical study to optimize the cooling
plate and improve its performance.
13
Energy Conversion and Management 231 (2021) 113862
CRediT authorship contribution statement
Mohsen Akbarzadeh: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software,
Validation, Investigation, Writing - original draft. Joris Jaguemont:
Project administration, Resources, Validation, Writing - review & edit­
ing. Theodoros Kalogiannis: Software, Validation, Writing - review &
editing. Danial Karimi: Investigation, Writing - review & editing. Jia­
cheng He: Validation, Writing - review & editing. Lu Jin: Project
administration, Writing - review & editing. Peng Xie: Writing - review &
editing. Joeri Van Mierlo: Supervision, Writing - review & editing.
Maitane Berecibar: Supervision, Writing - review & editing.
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.
Acknowledgement
This research has been made possible, thanks to the research project
GEIRI. This research is part of the GEIRI project with fund number
SGRIKXJSKF[2017]632. Furthermore, we acknowledge Flanders Make
for the support of our research team.
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