Thermal performance of symmetrical double-spiral channel liquid cooling plate based battery thermal management for energy storage system

The battery energy storage system (BESS) has the characteristics of high efficiency, fast response and flexibility, but the uneven temperature and heat accumulation inside the system seriously affect its cycle life and safety. Therefore, addressing the temperature differences and enhancing heat dissipation efficiency is critical to improving system performance and stability. In this paper, a symmetrical double-spiral channel liquid cooling plate (LCP) is designed for the cooling and uniform temperature requirements of the BESS. Through numerical simulation methods, a comparative study of the flow and heat transfer performance of this LCP with existing serpentine flow channel LCP and two parallel flow channel LCPs is conducted. The thermal management model of the energy storage battery pack based on the above four different structural LCPs is further established, and the influence of the cooling plate channel on the cooling and uniform temperature of the BESS under 0.5C charging conditions is compared and studied. The results indicate that the symmetrical double-spiral channel achieves a more uniform flow field and heat transfer surface temperature distribution at varying inlet flow rates. When considering heat transfer and BESS energy consumption, at an inlet flow rate of 5 L/min, the symmetrical double-spiral channel LCP improves the performance evaluation criteria (PEC) by 21.2 %, 59.8 %, and 72.1 % compared to the serpentine and two parallel channel designs under steady-state analysis. In transient analysis, the temperature difference between the cells in the battery pack is reduced by 0.67 degrees C, 0.85 degrees C, and 0.35 degrees C, respectively. This study demonstrates that the symmetrical double-spiral channel significantly enhances cooling efficiency, reduces flow resistance, and improves temperature uniformity within the battery pack, filling the gap in existing literature for high uniformity and low-energy consumption LCP designs for BESS.