Optimal Investigation on the Thermal Management of Battery Based on a Bionic Shark Scale Structure

To improve heat dissipation in the thermal management of batteries for electric vehicles, this study proposes a bionic structure based on shark scales. The design optimizes a phase-change material (PCM) heat sink in conjunction with axial air cooling to regulate battery temperature. Based on performance tests of the battery, a three-dimensional model was built to investigate and compare the heat dissipation of the battery under different conditions, including natural convection, forced convection, forced convection coupled with PCM, and forced convection coupled with bionics-optimized PCM. The results indicate that the temperature rise of the battery with the forced convection coupled with bionics-optimized PCM is only 33.6% of that with natural convection at a 2 C discharge rate, and the average temperature of the battery is 41.8 ℃, which keeps the battery within a suitable temperature range. In addition, the bionic structure can reduce the pressure drop at the inlet and outlet by 4% compared with the traditional method.