At present, the heat dissipation methods of new energy vehicles include natural cooling, air cooling, liquid cooling and direct cooling. Among them, natural cooling is a passive thermal management method, while air cooling, liquid cooling and direct cooling are active. The main difference between these three methods lies in the different heat exchange media used.
Liquid cooling technology is favored by the industry due to its fast cooling, high specific volume and large heat transfer coefficient. Well-known brands such as BMW and Tesla have adopted liquid cooling technology and made it the mainstream heat dissipation method.
The advantages of liquid cooling systems are mainly reflected in the following aspects:
First of all, it has fast cooling speed, good temperature uniformity, and simple fluid (temperature and flow) control. Through liquid convection heat transfer, liquid cooling technology can effectively take away the heat generated by the battery, thereby reducing the battery temperature. Secondly, the liquid medium has a high heat transfer coefficient, large heat capacity, and significant cooling effect, which helps to reduce the maximum temperature of the battery and improve the consistency of the battery pack's temperature field. In addition, the liquid cooling system is relatively small, which helps save space.
In the conventional water-cooling plate manufacturing process, the base plate composite plate and the flow channel plate are brazed to form a flow channel for the coolant to achieve the heat dissipation function of the battery. Therefore, the aluminum alloy material used in the water-cooling plate needs to have good coolant corrosion resistance and high stamping performance.
