Joule Heating Dominance in Lithium-Ion Battery Packs: A Coupled Electrochemical-Thermal Analysis with Liquid Cooling Optimization
Document Type : Original Research
Authors
1
University of Bonab
2
School of Mechanical Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran
10.48311/jaert.2026.123534.82813
Abstract
The purpose of this study is to quantify the relative contribution of each heat generation (reaction heat and Joule heat) to the total heat generation in prismatic lithium-ion battery packs and to evaluate the thermal-hydraulic performance of a five-channel liquid cold plate under different Reynolds (Re) and Prandtl (Pr) numbers. The results indicate that joule heating is dominant above 4 A, where more than 85% of total heat generation is accounted for by joule heating and the joule heating is proportional to the square of the current. Increase in Re increases the thermal-hydraulic efficiency (j/f) of the liquid cooling system by 40% from Re=500 to Re=8000; Prandtl number variations have a negligible effect on the thermal-hydraulic efficiency (j/f) of the liquid cooling system. The results show that (1) reducing internal resistance is more important than managing reaction entropy for thermal control than optimizing flow rate (Re) and (2) optimizing flow rate (Re) is the key to the performance of cooling systems, rather than optimizing coolant (Pr).
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