Cooling characteristics of a lithium-ion battery module based on flat aluminum heat pipe by considering thermal radiation

Aiming at the thermal safety and inconsistency caused by the high temperature of lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery, a cooling structure embedded with a flat aluminum heat pipe (FAHP) for a Li-ion battery module is proposed. The three-dimensional thermal model of the FAHP module is established by considering regionalized thermal radiation. The thermal characteristics of the module are compared with four progressive cooling schemes, and the temperature performance affected by different convection (h(conv)) and radiation (h(rad)) heat transfer coefficients are analyzed. Results show that, the thermal model with the thermal radiation is more precise than that without the thermal radiation under the natural convection. Adding FAHPs can effectively reduce the maximum temperature (T-max) and the maximum temperature difference (Delta T-max,T-pack) of the FAHP module. Especially adding FAHPs with fins, even at 3C discharging, the average cooling performance can be improved by 33.3%, 25.0%, and 14.4% than that of natural convection, aluminum plates sandwiched between cells and FAHPs with no fins, respectively. Meanwhile, the decrease in rates of T-max and Delta T-max,T-pack are gradually increasing with the increasing of h(rad), but decreased with the increasing of h(conv). When 5 W center dot m(-2)center dot K-1 <= h(conv) <= 35 W center dot m(-2)center dot K-1, the average ratio of radiation heat dissipation to total heat dissipation (eta) is 35.7%, but when h(conv) > 55 W center dot m(-2)center dot K-1, eta is less than 1.5%.