Multi-objective topology optimization of lithium-ion battery pack cooling plate in full-scale electric vehicles

The rapid development of new energy vehicles has led to the enlargement of battery pack dimensions, which serve as their power source. Pump-driven liquid cooling systems are most commonly used, but conventional serpentine cooling plates often generate high pressure drops, reducing overall energy efficiency. Topology optimization shows strong potential for designing efficient cooling plates with reduced flow resistance and enhanced heat transfer. However, most research focuses on small battery modules, with few studies tackling full-scale pack systems. This work optimizes a full-size EV battery cooling plate, using a conventional serpentine design as the baseline. The optimization aims to achieve substantial pressure drop reduction while preserving the required heat transfer performance, with parallel investigation of flow pattern effects on the topology-optimized cooling plate. Key evaluation parameters include average temperature, maximum temperature difference, and pressure drop. Under operational conditions (12 L/min flow rate, 20 °C inlet temperature, 3 kW heating), the design achieves a 23.33 % multi-objective performance improvement versus serpentine plates, reducing pressure drop by 275.78 kPa (59.17 %) and temperature difference by 0.09 °C (1.60 %), albeit with a 0.63 °C (2.74 %) average temperature increase. Throughout the process, experimental verification was conducted to confirm the accuracy of intermediate simulation results, with measured errors of all parameters within 8 %, which confirms the accuracy of the numerical model. The manufacturability of the topology-optimized design is also verified, demonstrating its practical feasibility for full-scale electric vehicle production.