In this paper, a curved wavy channel was proposed to further enhance the thermal performance of the conventional wavy channel. A three-dimensional model of the curved wavy channel was established with defining the overall curvature. The flow behavior and heat transfer in the wavy and curved wavy channels were numerically investigated under various wave amplitudes. The mechanism behind the observed phenomena was revealed by analyzing the synergy between velocity and temperature fields. The results indicated that the Nusselt numbers in curved wavy channels with amplitudes of 0.40 mm and 0.80 mm can be raised by 44.3% and 15.3% compared to those in conventional wavy channels. The parametric study showed that the flow resistance is more sensitive to the wavelength. For a given amplitude, curved wavy channels always show a better field synergy than conventional wavy channels. In addition, an inferior field synergy was observed near the suction side in both types of wavy channels, which indicates that the purposive improvement needs to apply to these locations. This study also found that the field synergy angle has limitations in characterizing the heat transfer intensity in the channel with small wavelengths. This is because that extremely chaotic flow patterns caused by small wavelengths result in a negative dot product of temperature gradient and velocity over a large area.

As the most commonly used power battery in electric vehicles, lithium-ion battery is sensitive to the operation temperature. The performance and lifespan of lithium-ion battery are strongly dependent on its working temperature. Various thermal management systems have been developed to maintain batteries’ operating temperature within an appropriate range. A properly designed thermal management system relies upon the understanding of battery’s heat-generation characteristics and the temperature effect on its discharging performance. In this research, an experimental investigation is carried out to study the electro-thermal characteristics of the commercial prismatic ternary lithium-ion battery under three thermal conditions. Constant temperature condition is built to explore the effect of the operating temperature, while near-adiabatic condition and natural-convection condition are employed to study the heat-generation characteristics of lithium-ion battery. The results show that the effect of operating temperature on discharge performance becomes more pronounced as the discharge rate increases. It is found that the surface temperature decreases when the battery discharges at small rates within the capacity ranged from 17Ah to 27Ah, demonstrating that the reversible heat makes up a large proportion of battery heat generation.

Flow and heat transfer in curve channel have been studied extensively due to the presence of the secondary flow induced by the centrifugal force. However, for the curved channel with small curvature, weakened centrifugal force reduces the intensity of secondary flow and heat transfer enhancement is attenuated accordingly. For sake of maintaining high heat transfer efficiency in curve channel with a wide range of curvature, periodical wave structure was introduced into the smooth-curve channel by this study. A three-dimensional model of the curve-wave structure was established and numerical simulation was carried out to explore the flow characteristics and heat transfer performance in the proposed channel. In addition, the effects of the wave amplitude on the channel performance were analyzed. The results showed that the heat transfer of smooth-curve channel can be enhanced remarkably by applying wave structure on the channel wall, and the overall performance factor indicates that the heat transfer argumentation outweighs the pressure loss penalty. It was also found that the heat transfer in the curve wave channel can be further enhanced by increasing wave amplitude. The most effective heat transfer enhancement can be achieved based on the evaluation of the overall performance factor. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The relationship between lithium-ion battery performance and operating temperature is of significance in designing battery thermal management system (BTMS). In this study, two different thermal conditions, namely constant temperature condition and near-adiabatic condition are established to explore charging/discharging characteristics and heat generation behaviors of the lithium-ion battery with Li(NixCoyAlz)O-2 cathode. The objective of creating near-adiabatic condition is to discover the effect of the heat generated by battery itself on charging/discharging characteristics. The experimental results show that the battery charging characteristics are nearly independent on the charging temperature ranged from 20 degrees C to 40 degrees C, while the battery charging/discharging performance degrade dramatically for the battery temperature lower than 20 degrees C. Although the heat generated by battery itself may accelerate battery degradation during cycling due to the adverse effect of excessive temperature, however it improves the discharging performance in a suitable temperature range. This implies that a battery pack may have an excellent discharging performance without BTMS intervention at a moderate discharging rate (e.g., 0.5 C). The irreversible heat could be regarded as the sole heat source term to simplify the battery thermal model due to negligible thermal effect caused by the small amount of reversible heat when the battery is discharged at higher discharging rates.

The modern development of electric vehicle requires higher power density to be packed into a battery pack. It is always expected that the battery can be arranged as much as possible, however, which leads to the serious thermal management issue due to the heat generation inside the battery packs. As extreme temperature affects performance, reliability, safety and lifespan of batteries, thermal management of battery system is critical to the success of all electric vehicles. The objective of this study is to explore the air cooling capability on the temperature uniformity and hotspots mitigation of a compact battery pack subject to various air flow paths, airflow rates. The numerical results show that the improvement of effective heat transfer areas between air-coolant and battery surfaces is able to obviously lower the maximum temperature and improve the maximum temperature difference in the densely-packed battery box.

Due to the characteristics of large surface area-to-volume ratio and inter-connected ligament structure, open-cell metal foams are promising materials for enhancing heat transfer in forced convection and have been researched for thermal applications in thermal management systems, air-cooled condensers and compact heat sinks for power electronics. However, the tortuous complex flow path inside metal foams leads to relatively higher pressure drop, which requires larger system pumping power. Hence, it is important to study the heat transfer performance of metal foam compared to its flow resistance characteristics. Detailed experimental study of forced convection subjected to constant heat flux in metal foams is conducted in the present paper. The objective of the investigation is to compare the heat transfer performance and hydraulic characteristics of aluminum foams with different pore densities. The tested aluminium foam samples are of 50.0mm (L) × 25.0mm (W) × 12.0mm (H) in geometric dimensions and pore densities are of 5ppi, 10ppi and 40ppi, respectively. Experiments are performed in forced convective heat transfer using deionized water as the cooling fluid. To minimize the heat loss, the test section is built adiabatically with Teflon and polycarbonate materials. The inlet flow velocity, the temperature distribution on the heating surface and the pressure drop across the metal form are measured. Based on the analysis of experimental data, it is found that convective heat transfer performance in high ppi foam is higher than that in low ppi foam, while the pressure drop shows the opposite trend for a given flow rate.

Many forms of electronic equipment, of necessity, must be located in an outdoor environment. Such equipment in typical form may be battery packs or telecom-equipment. It is essential that these facilities be protected from a wide range of ambient temperatures and solar radiation. To this end, cabinet enclosures with proper thermal management have been developed to house such electronic equipment in a highly weather tight manner, especially for battery cabinet. Often the batteries are of a lead-acid construction which is known to be adversely affected by temperature extremes in terms of battery performance and life. Therefore, it is important to maintain the cabinet temperature ideally for ensuring battery stability and extending battery lifespan. In this paper, physical and mathematical models are established to investigate the flow field and temperature distribution inside an outdoor cabinet, which contains 24 batteries with two configurations of two-layer and six-layer respectively. The cabinet walls are maintained at a constant temperature by a refrigeration system and the ambient temperature is up to 50 °C according to the practical situation. The flow field and temperature distribution are analyzed with and without consideration of solar radiation. An experimental facility is then developed to measure the battery surface temperatures and to validate the numerical simulation. The differences between the CFD and experimental results are within 2%, which confirms the CFD model.