A Numerical Investigation on the Comprehensive Performance of Common Plate Heat Exchangers for Commercial Electric Vehicle

Plate heat exchangers (PHEs) have become a necessity for battery thermal management systems (BTMSs) on hybrid electric vehicle and electric vehicle, and served the ideal discharge performance of power battery with a proper operating temperature. It is essential to investigate the unambiguous effects of common structures on comprehensive performance of PHEs. In this study, Schemes a-d were assigned to Double chevron, Single chevron, Spherical corrugated and Flat corrugated PHEs, respectively. For a start, considering the periodicity of the PHE, a simplified model of elementary unit between two adjacent plates out of Double chevron PHE was established, and the numerical analysis was employed to examine the comprehensive performance of Scheme a with an experimental validation. Following that, four PHEs were analyzed under the same configuration, and their heat transfer coefficients and pressure losses were compared. Finally, by the JF factor, comprehensive performance was examined among those PHEs. It is found that, among the four types of PHEs, the highest heat transfer coefficient and pressure loss stays on Scheme a, while the pressure loss of Scheme c is far less than others. The outcome of JF factor indicates that the relatively better comprehensive performance prefers Scheme c, whose JF factor is 1,11 times of Scheme a, 1.27 times of Scheme b and 1.10 times of Scheme d, respectively. The work holds a high expectation for the following research as a fundamental basis.