Performance enhancement of battery thermal management based on liquid cooling plate channels embedded with non-uniform spiral fin structures

To address the critical effects of heat dissipation capacity on the lifespan, safety, and heat utilization efficiency of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) under high-rate discharge conditions, this study proposes an innovative liquid cooling plate (LCP) integrated with nonuniform spiral fins (NUSF). Compared with conventional flow channel configurations, namely multichannel (MC), straight channel (SC), and serpentine channel (SPC), the NUSF design induces secondary flows to disrupt thermal boundary layers, reducing the maximum temperature ( T max ) of the battery module by 3.04 K, 1.95 K, and 1.01 K relative to the MC, SC, and SPC configurations, respectively, while maintaining low parasitic power consumption. Key parameters including flow channel spacing, spiral period, spiral structure distribution pattern, and inlet mass flow rate were optimized via single-factor analysis and orthogonal tests. The optimal parameter combination is determined as follows: flow channel spacing of 37.75 mm, spiral period of 14, gradient tolerance of −1 mm, and single inlet mass flow rate of 0.001 kg∙s −1 . Compared with the baseline NUSF configuration, the optimized system reduces T max and maximum temperature difference (Δ T max ) by 0.21 K and 0.26 K, respectively, with only a 7.56% increase in parasitic power. The proposed NUSF design achieves a precise balance between heat transfer efficiency and energy consumption, providing a cost-effective and engineering-scalable solution for enhancing the thermal management performance of LIB modules in electric vehicles and energy storage systems.