A liquid cooling plate based on topology optimization and bionics simplified design for battery cooling

As a critical component of the battery thermal management system (BTMS), the design and manufacture of the liquid cooling plate (LCP) has attracted great research interest worldwide. In this paper, the cooling plate with excellent heat transfer performance is obtained by topology optimization. Inspired by the streamlined design of bionics, a more simplified cooling plate with better heat transfer performance is proposed. The two cooling plates are compared with the traditional straight mini channel cooling plate (MCP) through numerical simulation. The results show that the bionics cooling plate (BCP), which inherits the position and size of the solid in the topology optimization cooling plate (TCP), sustains optimal heat transfer capabilities while reducing the complexity of manufacturing. Both cooling plates show obvious advantages compared with MCP: When the flow rate is above 400 mL/min, the maximum temperature can be reduced to 35 degrees C below, and the maximum surface temperature difference of the heat source can be controlled at 1.17-2.35 degrees C in the range of 300-600 mL/min. Both designs can significantly enhance convective heat transfer while minimizing pressure drop. Compared with experimental results, the average simulation error of BCP is 0.86 degrees C, 2.46 %. The reliability of the model is verified.