Abstract:

A multi-heat-source zoning topology optimization method for liquid cooling plates coupled with actual non-uniform heat generation characteristics was proposed to address the issue of uneven temperature caused by heat accumulation in the central region of lithium-ion batteries during high-rate discharge. A dual-objective model minimizing both average temperature and fluid power dissipation was constructed based on the density method. Subsequently, three zoning models (a dual-source model, a 9-zone 3-level model, and a 15-zone 5-level model) were sequentially established to investigate the effect of zoning refinement on channel configuration and heat dissipation performance. The results show that the topological cooling plate based on the dual-source zoning significantly outperforms traditional preset configurations. Compared with the traditional serpentine cooling plate, the dual-source model reduces the maximum temperature by 0.6 K, decreases the temperature standard deviation by 16.67%, and lowers the pressure drop by 69.4%. Furthermore, as the zoning refinement increases, the optimization automatically generates a bionic tree-like composite channel characterized by a dense center and sparse edges. Among them, the most refined 15-zone 5-level model achieves the optimal temperature control performance, realizing the best spatial matching between flow resistance control and local targeted cooling. This study provides a new approach for the “heat-source-aware” design of cooling plates.

Key words: lithium ion battery, liquid cooling plate, topology optimization, multi-heat source partition, heat accumulation inhibition