Energy efficient thermal and hydraulic performance analysis of a serpentine liquid cooled lithium ion battery pack for electric vehicles.

Dagnaw, ES; Aga, AG; Sufe, G · 2026 · PubMed Central

DOI: 10.1038/s41598-026-46404-1

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Summary

This study addresses the critical challenge of thermal management in lithium-ion battery packs for electric vehicles, specifically focusing on the trade-offs between thermal performance and hydraulic energy consumption. As electric vehicle adoption increases, maintaining battery temperature uniformity is essential for safety, durability, and efficiency, yet existing cooling solutions often suffer from non-uniform coolant distribution or excessive pumping power. The research aims to provide a comprehensive, pack-scale evaluation of a serpentine liquid cooling system, integrating thermal, hydraulic, and energy efficiency metrics to offer actionable design guidance. The authors conducted a three-dimensional conjugate heat transfer analysis using ANSYS Fluent to model a 288-cell prismatic lithium-ion battery pack, based on the architecture of the Volkswagen ID.4. The system utilized an aluminum cold plate with serpentine channels positioned beneath the battery modules. The simulations assumed steady-state operating conditions with a total thermal load of 2880 W, representing high-load discharge scenarios. Heat generation was modeled as a constant volumetric source, and the coolant was a 1:1 ethylene glycol-water mixture. The study explicitly benchmarked the serpentine configuration against a conventional parallel flow design under identical geometric and thermal boundary conditions. The results demonstrated that the serpentine cooling design effectively maintained cell temperatures between 298 K and 308 K, with a maximum temperature of 315.3 K and a temperature non-uniformity of ±4 °C at a coolant flow rate of 9.84 L/min. The pressure drop across the cooling channels was 15 kPa, resulting in pumping losses that accounted for only 4.2% of the total thermal energy removed. Compared to the parallel flow baseline, the serpentine configuration reduced peak temperature by 2.7% and improved temperature uniformity by 20%. The analysis confirmed that the thermal benefits of the serpentine design justified the associated hydraulic penalties, as the energy cost of pumping remained low relative to the heat removed. The significance of this work lies in its integrated quantitative framework, which evaluates full-pack-scale performance rather than isolated cell or module analyses. By coupling thermal behavior with hydraulic and energy penalties, the study provides a rigorous benchmark for comparing cooling architectures. The findings offer practical engineering guidelines for designing compact, energy-efficient battery thermal management systems that minimize peak temperatures and thermal gradients without imposing excessive parasitic power losses, thereby enhancing the safety and longevity of electric vehicle batteries.

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