Experimental insights into application of helical liquid flow skeletons for thermal management of cylindrical lithium-ion batteries

Lithium-ion battery systems (LIBs) are generally preferred for energy storage purposes in electric vehicle (EV) applications. However, effective thermal management of such energy storage systems is crucial to ensure their efficient and extended operational performances. Utilizing a liquid flow-assisted battery thermal management system is recognized as one of the significant methods for temperature management of LIB packs even under extreme working conditions. In this work, an innovative active thermal control scheme utilizing a helical heat transfer fluid flow skeleton is proposed and tested experimentally to investigate the effects of discharge rates, heat transfer fluid inflow temperatures, and ambient temperature variations on thermal characteristics of the LIB modules incorporating 32700-format cylindrical cells. Out of several tested configurations, the liquid flow-assisted arrangements with fluid inflow temperature of 25 °C were reported as the most effective systems with maximum average temperature drops recorded as 38.16 % and 40.89 % relative to bare battery modules at 22 °C and 34 °C ambient conditions, respectively. Further, the effects of fluid flow activation delay on the thermal behavior of liquid flow-assisted battery thermal management systems (BTMS) were explored. The results confirmed the proposed strategy was effective enough to maintain the module average temperature within the permissible limits.