When heat is generated within the battery during operation, it naturally flows towards areas of lower temperature. The cooling plate acts as a conduit drawing heat away from the cells and dispersing it into the surrounding environment or to other thermal management system components, such as heat exchangers or coolant loops.
Cooling plates effectively manage temperature, enhancing battery system safety. By preventing overheating and thermal runaway events, cooling plates reduce the risk of battery fires or explosions, especially in high-stress environments like electric vehicles or grid storage systems.
Cold Plates provide localized cooling of devices by transferring heat from the device to a liquid that flows to a remote heat exchanger, which dissipates heat, for instance, via air cooling and fans. A battery cooling plate is a flat component manufactured from thermally conductive materials like aluminum or copper.
Under the BCP design, the temperature of the battery pack gradually increases along the coolant flow direction. As the cooling plate is positioned at the bottom of the battery pack, localized overheating occurs at the top of the battery pack on the outlet side of the cooling plate.
Combining other cooling methods with air cooling, including PCM structures, liquid cooling, HVAC systems, heat pipes etc., an air-cooling system with these advanced enhancements should provide adequate cooling for new energy vehicles’ high-energy battery packs.
Temperature distribution in battery thermal management systems under different cold plate structures are researched. Effects of key operating parameters on battery thermal management system are analysed. A new stereoscopic cooling plate structure is put forward. Influences of new cooling plate structure on battery thermal management are clarified.