A Statistical Analysis of the Effect of Fin Design Factors on the Cooling Performance and System Mass of PCM–Fin Structured BTMS for LIB Cell

The low thermal conductivity of phase change material (PCM) critically constrains the cooling performance of PCM-based battery thermal management system (BTMS). To address this limitation, embedding high-thermal-conductivity fins into PCM was recently explored. However, it may increase the overall BTMS mass, degrading vehicle performance. Therefore, a quantitative evaluation of the effects of fin design on cooling performance and system mass is required. In this study, the effects of fin design factors in a PCM–fin structured BTMS on the maximum cell temperature and BTMS mass was analyzed using design of experiments (DoE) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). To characterize BTMS thermal behavior, a numerical model was developed by applying thermal fluid partial differential equations (PDEs) with the enthalpy–porosity method to represent the phase change of the PCM. Fin number, thickness, and angle were selected as design factors; responses were calculated through thermal fluid analysis. The results showed a trade-off between thermal performance and mass across all design factors. The number of fins had the greatest effect on maximum cell temperature (78.27%) but less on mass (28.85%). Fin thickness moderately affected temperature (16.71%) but strongly increased mass (63.93%). Fin angle had minimal impact, 4.10% on temperature and 3.10% on mass.