Sharma, Ashutosh, Sreedhara, Sheshadri, Khatamifar, Mehdi, and Lin, Wenxian (2026) Comparative investigation of different liquid-cooled battery thermal management systems (LC-BTMS) designs for battery module of electric vehicle. Applied Thermal Engineering, 292. 130436.

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Abstract

Efficient thermal management of lithium-ion batteries is crucial to ensuring the safety, reliability, and longevity of electric vehicles, particularly in hot climates. In this study, seven different liquid-cooled battery thermal management systems (LC-BTMS) designs for cylindrical lithium-ion battery (LIB) modules are comparatively investigated. The considered configurations include cold-plate-based, rigid-channel-based, flexible-channel-based, and block-based cooling concepts. A three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model is developed to analyse the thermo-hydraulic behavior of each design under 1C and 3C discharge conditions at an ambient temperature of 30 °C. The performance of the LC-BTMS designs is evaluated using four key indicators: maximum battery temperature (Tmax), temperature non-uniformity (ΔT), pressure drop (ΔP), and HTF outlet temperature (THTF,outlet). The results indicate that the block-based design provides the best thermal performance, achieving the lowest Tmax of 298.62 K at 1C and 304.25 K at 3C and the smallest ΔT of 2.08 K at 1C and 3.16 K at 3C due to enhanced heat spreading and effective convection. Flexible channel-based designs offer reasonable thermal control but impose higher hydraulic penalties, with ΔP reaching 173.71 Pa. To include practical considerations, a survey involving experts from industry and academia was conducted. The combined thermo-hydraulic and practical criteria are integrated using the VIKOR multi-criteria decision-making method, which identifies the flexible straight-channel design as the best overall compromise. The findings offer valuable guidance for selecting LC-BTMS designs for electric vehicles operating in hot climate environments.

Item ID:	94184
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1873-5606
Copyright Information:	© 2026 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Date Deposited:	02 Oct 2026 07:06
FoR Codes:	40 ENGINEERING > 4012 Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering > 401204 Computational methods in fluid flow, heat and mass transfer (incl. computational fluid dynamics) @ 80% 40 ENGINEERING > 4012 Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering > 401299 Fluid mechanics and thermal engineering not elsewhere classified @ 20%
SEO Codes:	17 ENERGY > 1703 Energy storage, distribution and supply > 170399 Energy storage, distribution and supply not elsewhere classified @ 100%
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