Sensitivity analysis of factors influencing a heat pipe-based thermal management system for a battery module with cylindrical cells

Highlights: • A heat pipe-based thermal management system for a battery module is designed. • CFD simulation results are in good agreement with the experimental results. • An orthogonal numerical test is used to obtain the sensitivity of parameters. • The height of conduction element has the most sensitive effect on battery module. -- Abstract: Structural parameters have a significant effect on the thermal performance of a battery thermal management system (BTMS). In the present study, a thermal management system based on heat pipes is proposed for a battery module with cylindrical cells. A computational fluid dynamics model is built for the BTMS and validated with experimental results. An orthogonal numerical test is conducted to obtain the sensitivity of various parameters, including the battery spacing, the thickness of conduction element, the circumference angle between battery and conduction element, and the height of conduction element on the thermal performance for the proposed BTMS. Results show that the height of conduction element has the most sensitive effect on the maximum temperature and temperature difference of battery module; the circumference angle between battery and conduction element is the second; the battery spacing and the thickness of conduction element has the minimal effect. The best thermal performance is obtained under the condition of 19 mm battery spacing, 4 mm conduction element thickness, 120° circumference angle and 60 mm conduction element height. Based on the optimal parameters, the maximum temperature and the temperature difference of battery module are 27.62 °C and 1.08 °C, respectively.