Experimental investigation of battery thermal management system based on micro heat pipe array coupled air cooling

Temperature is a key factor affecting the performance of lithium-ion batteries. Controlling the temperature and surface temperature uniformity of batteries operating in both high- and low-temperature environments is crucial. In this study, a battery thermal management system (BTMS) based on micro heat pipe array (MHPA) was developed. A battery preheating module and heat dissipation module were combined in a simple and efficient way. Three cooling methods were studied with the heat dissipation module, i.e., natural cooling, MHPA cooling, and MHPA-coupled air-cooling. At 35 degrees C and a C-rate of 1.0 C, the maximum temperature of the battery module cooled by MHPA-coupled air-cooling was 44.06 degrees C, which was much lower than that by natural cooling (70.20 degrees C), and the maximum battery surface temperature difference is 2.76 degrees C. For the preheating module, the preheating performance of batteries heated under 15 W and 30 W was compared. At 30 W, the battery temperature increased from-20 degrees C to 20 degrees C in just 5.4 mins, with a maximum temperature difference of 4.78 degrees C. Both the system preheating module and heat dissipation module showed excellent performance and had little impact on each other. The experimental results showed that the BTMS- MHPA could not only effectively control the battery temperature and reduced the temperature difference under high-temperature heat dissipation, but also achieved fast and stable temperature rise under low-temperature preheating.