Battery thermal management system for Electric Vehicles – A CFD based scoping study of various liquid cooling configurations

Background

Current EV battery cooling technology has largely converged on indirect liquid cooling, where water-glycol coolant circulates through cold plates attached to modules or cells. This approach offers significantly higher heat removal capability and temperature uniformity than air cooling, enabling today’s fast-charging rates and high-power driving. Improvements in cold-plate design—such as optimized channel geometry, better thermal interface materials, and integration with vehicle thermal loops—have helped maintain cell temperatures within the desired ~20–40 °C window while keeping temperature gradients below ~5 °C across the pack. These systems are mature, reliable, and widely deployed across mainstream EVs.

However, rising energy density, aggressive fast-charging targets, and more compact pack designs are driving higher heat fluxes that push current systems near their practical limits. As EVs move toward 10–15-minute 10–80% charging and higher continuous power output, cooling demands can reach several kilowatts per pack and 1–3 kW/m² at the cell interface—levels that traditional cold plates struggle to manage efficiently without increased pumping power or larger heat exchangers. This has accelerated interest in more efficient liquid-cooling solutions such as immersion dielectric cooling and advanced direct-contact cold plates, which offer superior heat transfer and temperature uniformity. These next-generation liquid systems are becoming essential to improve charging performance, extend battery life, and ensure safety in high-power, high-density EV platforms.

Objective and goals

The primary objective of the thesis is to analyse the various immersion based liquid cooling configurations from the literature and to develop a CFD based investigation of the battery module unit to quantify and predict its cooling performance at various charging/discharging rates.  

Methodology

• Overview of the literature study on immersion cooling techniques of EV battery modules.

• Develop a CFD model coupled electrochemistry and conjugate heat transfer study of a proposed immersion cooled EV battery for validation from literature.

• Analyse different cooling configurations, such as forced convection cooling, nature convection cooling, two-phase immersion cooling etc. and perform numerical tests for various charging and discharging conditions.

• Compare and quantify the thermal cooling performance and efficiency across the various configurations

Expected outcomes

The work is anticipated to offer:

• Experience with the development of battery thermal management models for high performance EV mobility applications.

• Understanding of various liquid cooling techniques and mechanisms currently in development at the industry level.

• Analysis of an EV battery under different charging/discharging conditions and understanding its performance and response to the cooling conditions. 

• Possibility of publication of the outcomes from the thesis in scientific journals such as Applied Thermal Engineering, Journal of Energy Storage etc.

Deliverables

The main deliverables of the project include:

• Final project report and presentation.

• CAD/CFD models

Timeline

January 2026 – June 2026 (flexible)

Supervisors / Contact people