Liquid-cooled cold plate for a Li-ion battery thermal management system designed by topology optimization

Modern commercial electric vehicles often have a liquid-based BTMS with excellent heat transfer efficiency and cooling or heating ability. Use of cooling plate has proved to be an effective approach. In the present study, we propose a novel liquid-cold plate employing a topological optimization design based on the globally convergent version of the method of moving asymptotes (GCMMA) method. Comparison with a traditional liquid-cold plate with straight cooling channels revealed that the topology-optimized configuration provides more uniform temperature distribution on the cold plate surface by reducing 48 % of the maximum temperature difference and 57 % of the temperature standard deviation for Q(0) = 1255 W/m(2). This shows that the topology optimization method is a useful and high-efficiency approach for the innovative design of liquid-cooling plates used for battery thermal management.