Enhancing lithium-ion battery cooling efficiency through leaf vein-inspired double-layer liquid cooling plate design

To address the issues of high temperature rise and uneven temperature distribution in battery packs when using traditional channel cold plates, we propose a double-layer liquid cooling plate inspired by the structure of leaf veins. In this design, the upper flow channel of the cold plate comes into contact with the battery module for heat exchange, while the lower flow channel complements the areas not covered by the upper flow channel, ensuring more uniform heat dissipation throughout the module. Thermal simulation results for the double-layer leaf vein bionic channel liquid cooling plate indicate that it outperforms the traditional channel design. Moreover, it significantly improves the heat uniformity of the battery pack, effectively resolving the issue of a large temperature difference between the two traditional channel cooling systems. Furthermore, we optimized and analyzed the cooling plate's ability to remove heat under various structural parameters. The results reveal that the best cooling efficiency at low power consumption is achieved when the coolant outlet and inlet are positioned on opposite sides, the branch angle is set to 80°, the branch channel width is 5 mm, the mainstream channel width is 7.5 mm, and the inlet fluid mass flow rate is 0.03 kg/s. •In this paper, the thermal management design of large energy storage battery module in static application scenario is carried out, which provides a reference for the design of cooling system of power battery module in mobile application scenario.•A double-layer structure cold plate with a leaf-vein channel liquid cold plate has a mainstream channel and a branch channel, which is similar to the main vein and lateral vein of the plant leaves.•A vein bionic flow channel structure enables the coolant to be evenly arranged throughout the cold plate.•The double-layer structure plays the role of coolant recovery and auxiliary cooling. The double-layer flow channel structure can make the cold plate have better cooling effect and reduce power consumption.•The overall design of the cold plate improves and balances the effect on the maximum temperature and maximum temperature difference of the battery module. The optimization of the structure in all aspects further improves the cooling effect of the cold plate.