Experimental investigation of a thermal management device based on a novel thin heat-pipe array for energy storage battery packs

High density battery packs have extensive applications both in power supplier and extremely large-scale energy storage equipment. Current thermal management solutions for high density packs have limitations and weakness, and cannot meet the thermal management requirements in a limited spaces. Therefore, a novel heat pipe array was proposed, fabricated and tested experimentally. The thermal performance of the device was evaluated at various operating conditions such as tilt angles, cooling air speed and heat generation rate. Experimental results showed that the developed thermal management unit has excellent heat dissipation capacity and temperature uniformity. Maximum temperature of the batteries was 40.44 degrees C by natural convection at per battery of 50 W (1C); and maximum temperature could be controlled within 50 degrees C and temperature difference below 5 degrees C at air speed of 6 m/s at 250 W (3C). In addition, the minimum total thermal resistance was 0.086 degrees C/W at 300 W. Consequently, the novel thin heat pipe array device proposed has potentially extensive applications in high density battery packs with high heat dissipation capacity, temperature uniformity, high reliability and low cost; which also can meet the thermal control requirements at extreme operating conditions and accidental case.