Experimental study of an OHP-cooled thermal management system for electric vehicle power battery

•Oscillating heat pipe-cooled battery thermal management system was designed.•Higher temperature section of battery should be near the condensation section of OHP.•The OHP should avoid to place horizontally.•OHP must start before the battery reaches to its maximum temperature and temperature difference. Excessive high and low temperature can significantly reduce the performance of power battery. To extend the cycle life of battery and then improve the performance of electric vehicles, an oscillating heat pipe (OHP)-cooled battery thermal management (BTM) system was designed and experimentally studied in this paper. The results showed that the higher temperature section of battery should be near the condensation section of OHP. The OHP should not be placed horizontally in order to reduce the reflow resistance of the working fluid within OHP. The start-up temperature of OHP is determined by the desired maximum temperature and the acceptable maximum temperature difference of the battery. The conclusions can be used as reference for the design of OHP-based battery thermal management system.