Characterizing Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer Performance of a Novel Liquid Cooling Plate with Vein Flow Channels

To improve the thermal management level of power battery packs for new energy vehicles, a novel cooling plate with vein flow channels was proposed. The vein flow channel structure includes bilaterally symmetrical vein-shaped branches, a dovetail-shaped outlet branch, and a side collecting branch. This study conducted a comparative analysis on the hydrodynamic characteristics, heat transfer performance, and pumping power consumption of the novel cold plate, while investigating the influence of flow channel structure on the working fluid distribution and cooling performance of the liquid cold plate (LCP). The results indicate that the dovetail-shaped outlet branch can significantly enhance the flow distribution capacity of the tail branch channels of the LCP, the side collecting channel can improve the overall flow distribution capacity of the branch channels by reducing flow resistance, and the converging main channel can effectively compensate for the insufficient flow distribution capacity at the front part of the LCP by mitigating the uneven distribution at the tail. Additionally, the results demonstrate that the optimized design achieves a 9.5 °C (21%) reduction in the maximum temperature and a 6.3 °C (32%) reduction in the temperature difference.