Thermal uniformity performance of a hybrid battery thermal management system using phase change material and cooling plates arrayed in the manner of honeycomb

•A BTMS with PCM coupled cooling plate arrayed in honeycomb manner is proposed.•The temperature distribution of the battery pack has good uniformity.•The coupling of PCM and cooling plate greatly improve the heat dissipation effect.•Influence of cooling plate channel number on heat dissipation efficiency is low. A hybrid battery thermal management system (BTMS) with phase change material (PCM) coupled cooling plate arrayed in the manner of honeycomb is proposed for the cylindrical lithium battery pack in this paper. Paraffin wax and glycol are used as PCM and cooling liquid, respectively. 3D numerical simulations are carried out to analyze temperature characteristics of the system, coupling characteristics of PCM and cooling plate, mass flow rate of cooling liquid and channel number of cooling plate on the heat dissipation of battery pack. Results show that the temperature distribution of the battery pack has good uniformity, which is the most prominent advantage of the proposed system. The coupling of PCM and cooling plate greatly improve heat dissipation effect. Increasing mass flow rate of cooling liquid can significantly improve heat dissipation efficiency, but the maximum temperature difference (ΔTmax) of battery cell also increases. However, the influence of channel number of cooling plate on heat dissipation efficiency is lower than that of mass flow rate. Adding one channel can reduce the battery temperature by 2 K, but it has little effect on ΔTmax. This study may provide effective guidance for the design of the PCM coupled liquid cooling BTMS.