Structure optimization of a heat pipe-cooling battery thermal management system based on fuzzy grey relational analysis

Abstract An efficient thermal management system is essential to maintain its good performance of a power battery pack. Evaluating the impacts of influential factors on the system cooling performance helps guide the design of the battery thermal management system. In the present work, a battery thermal management system based on heat pipes combined with a liquid-cooling plate is proposed. Orthogonal design and fuzzy grey relational analysis are employed as evaluating methods, and numerical simulations are carried out to investigate the influence of four structure parameters of the aluminum sheet (the height, the thickness, the covering angle to battery, and the covering angle to heat pipe) on the temperature distribution of the battery pack. Results show that, in order to keep a good operating temperature range of the battery, the values of the height, the thickness, the covering angle to battery and the covering angle to heat pipe of the aluminum sheet are suggested to be above 50 mm, 2 mm, 75° and 60°, respectively. The covering angle of aluminum sheet to battery has the most influential impact on the system cooling performance, and the covering angle to heat pipe has the slightest influence. The optimal value of the maximum temperature is 37.58 °C and the temperature difference is 3.67 °C.