Experimental study on U-shape flat thermosyphon for thermal management of power battery

The paper presents a new type of U-shape flat thermosyphon. The thermosyphon has several unique properties relative to general heat pipe such as compact and simple structure (no wick structure), easily to filling the coolant and flexible plate structure and so on. These properties make it an ideal heat transfer device for battery pack thermal management. In this paper, we experimentally study the thermal management performance of the U-shape flat thermosyphon for a battery module. The temperature of the battery module can be controlled below 50 °C under 1.5 C charge rate (300 W), and below 37 °C under 1 C charge rate (120 W), and the corresponding maximum temperature difference is 3 °C and 7 °C, respectively. And higher power generation is helpful to start-up the U-shape flat thermosyphonand maintain a small temperature difference between different battery cells. The performance of the U-shape flat thermosyphonis evaluated using a thermal resistance network model, which showed that there is uneven distribution of heat transfer in the two side of the heat pipe.