A review on the liquid cooling thermal management system of lithium-ion batteries

With the rapid progress of the new power automotive industry, the requirements for vehicle range and charging ratio have gradually increased. With the high-speed cycling of batteries, the heat content increases rapidly, and the thermal problem has become the main factor restricting its development. One of the key technologies to maintain the performance, longevity, and safety of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) is the battery thermal management system (BTMS). Owing to its excellent conduction and high temperature stability, liquid cold plate (LCP) cooling technology is an effective BTMS solution. Currently, the maximum surface temperature (Tmax), the pressure drop loss of the LCP, and the maximum temperature variance (Tmax-v) of the battery are often applied to evaluate the cooling capacity of LCP cooling BTMS. These parameters are also used as design indicators to guide the optimization of new liquid cooling BTMS. However, objective factors such as system safety, cost, system simplification, and heating or cooling efficiency should also be considered in the design and evaluation process of BTMS. Therefore, it is necessary to explore a multi-objective optimization system to design liquid plate BTMS and use a unified evaluation system to assess the capability of LCP cooling BTMS to comprehensively analyze and achieve the whole system performance improvement. Four common BTMS cooling technologies are described in this paper, including their working principle, advantages, and disadvantages. Direct liquid cooling and indirect liquid cooling BTMS are compared and analyzed. The BTMS optimization technology of LCP is reviewed and discussed from the aspects of structure design, type of working liquid, space arrangement, and system. Finally, the challenges affecting the development of liquid-cooled BTMS are outlined and suggestions for future research are made.