Numerical study of lozenge, triangular and rectangular arrangements of lithium-ion batteries in their thermal management in a cooled-air cooling system

This paper simulates a battery pack with 45 lithium-ion battery cells. As the coolant in the laminar flow range, the air fluid is responsible for cooling these cylindrical batteries. The battery cells are arranged in three different shapes, lozenge, rectangle and triangle. By changing the Re in the range of 500 to 2000, the temperature values of the battery cells and air, the drop in air pressure in the battery pack, as well as the heat transfer coefficient (HTC) between the battery cells and air have been studied for these three different models of battery cell arrangement. Investigations showed that increasing the Re decreases the maximum and average temperature of battery cells for all three models studied. However, the amount of pressure drop (∆Pa) has increased with increasing the Re for the three layout models. The triangular arrangement of the batteries together makes the maximum and average temperature of the battery cells lower than in other models, while the lozenge arrangement has the opposite effect. The triangular model had the highest ∆Pa and the lozenge arrangement had the lowest air ∆Pa in the battery pack. Triangular, rectangular and rhombic arrangement models have higher HTC values, respectively. Increasing the Re increases this coefficient but decreases the air temperature at the outlet (TOut). The rectangular model has the highest air TOut among the various models.