Effect of CuO/water nanofluid as a coolant for liquid cold plate on electric vehicle battery cells

ABSTRACT

Various coolants exert different effects on the cooling performance of liquid cold plates employed for EV battery cells. This research investigates the influence of utilizing CuO/water nanofluid on the liquid cold plate’s thermal and hydraulic performance. The present study uses 40 nm CuO nanoparticles with a 1% volume fraction, and the CuO/water nanofluid is prepared using a two-step method. Using CuO/water nanofluid achieves a lower surface temperature than water at different Reynolds numbers, with a maximum difference of 4.2% at Reynolds number 382. At Reynolds number 1530, the nanofluid achieved a surface temperature of approximately 35°C, well within the recommended operational range for Li-ion batteries. The heat absorption capacity of the nanofluid was enhanced by 3.21 J/s between Reynolds numbers 574 and 765, attributed to its higher thermal conductivity and specific heat capacity. The Nusselt number for the nanofluid surpassed that of water beyond Reynolds number 1147, indicating superior performance facilitated by improved fluid mixing. The maximum increase in pumping power consumption was 25.2% at a Reynolds number of 956. However, this penalty is small compared to the energy saved due to the better cooling performance of CuO/water nanofluid.

KEYWORDS:

• CuO/water nanofluid
• coolant
• battery thermal management
• Li-ion battery
• EV

Acknowledgements

We would like to express our gratitude to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia for providing us with helpful edits and access to their laboratory facilities.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contributions

The initial manuscript draft was prepared by M.Y.A.S., who also created the data visualization. The project was funded by R.Z., who provided manuscript review. Manuscript review was also conducted by K.S. A portion of the manuscript was written by A.A.S. All authors have reviewed and approved the final version of the manuscript for publication.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The study was funded by Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and the Ministry of Education Malaysia, under the grant code FRGS/1/2018/TK03/UKM/02/2.