Received: 15 May 2019

| Accepted: 18 June 2019

DOI: 10.1002/htj.21526

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Exploring the heat transfer performance of

nanofluid as a coolant for power battery pack

Xiaoqin Xu1,2 | Tianli Xiao2 | Shumei Chen2 | Shaoyi Lin1

1
Department of Automobile Application
Engineering, Fujian Chuanzheng Abstract
Communications College, Fuzhou, China Nanofluids with high thermal conductivity coefficient
2
Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, are introduced to the thermal management system
School of Mechanical Engineering and
of power battery packs for electric vehicles and
Automation, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou,
China hybrid electric vehicles. Two typical cooling
structures of cylindrical and square battery packs are
Correspondence
Xiaoqin Xu, Department of Automobile
described, and their flow models are established.
Application Engineering, Fujian By similarity transformations, the nonlinear system of
Chuanzheng Communications College, partial differential equations is reduced and then
Fuzhou 350007, China.
Email: xu_xiaoqin2014@163.com solved numerically by the shooting method. The
heat transfer properties of three types of nanofluids,
Funding information
that is, CuO‐EG, Al2O3‐EG, TiO2‐EG, are analyzed in
Fujian Higher Vocational Colleges
Intelligent Equipment Application detail. It is found that CuO‐EG nanofluid is the
Technology Collaborative Innovation best coolant for the cylindrical battery pack, whereas
Center, Grant/Award Number: 201604;
Al2O3‐EG nanofluid is the best choice for square battery
Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and
Intelligent Electro‐Hydraulic Control pack cooling.
(Fuzhou University), Fujian Province
University; Science and Technology KEYWORDS
Major Project of Fujian Province, Grant/ coolant, heat transfer, nanofluid, power battery pack
Award Number: 2011HZ006‐1

1 | INTRODUCTION

The power battery pack is a key component as the main power source in electric vehicles (EVs)
or hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). Due to space constraints, the single batteries in the battery
pack are generally arranged tightly. As such, the heat is easy to accumulate. If the heat cannot
be distributed in time or excessive temperature is achieved in whole or in part, it may cause
thermal runaway,1 spontaneous combustion, and other catastrophes.2,3 Because of the large
demand for power source energy and the serious heating of batteries at work, the thermal
management of batteries is one of the key technologies to be solved in the vigorous
development of EVs or HEVs.

2974 | © 2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/htj Heat Transfer—Asian Res. 2019;48:2974-2988.
XU ET AL. | 2975

The performance and lifetime of the power battery are greatly affected by its own temperature
and internal temperature uniformity. Many scholars have been aware of these and developed
three main cooling schemes, i.e., air cooling, liquid cooling and phase change materials (PCM).
Air cooling method can be further divided into natural convection cooling and forced convection
cooling by an additional fan. In the past, air cooling was most frequently used due to its
simplicity, lightweight, and low cost. But its low heat transfer coefficient limits its application in
high heat generation or high ambient temperature cases. Liquid cooling, whether direct or
indirect, has shown many advantages over air cooling. Two kinds of 12 V liquid‐cooled heat
dissipation modules Battery X115 and Battery X20 developed by Ovonic Battery Co.4 have
achieved ideal heat dissipation effect through internal cooling. Rao et al5 proposed a variable
contact surface cooling structure to improve the cooling efficiency while making the temperature
distributions of batteries more uniform. Phase change materials use latent heat in the phase
change process to adjust the temperature of the battery pack. In case of high temperature in the
battery, the phase change material absorbs heat and stores up in the form of latent heat. The heat
is released to heat the battery once its temperature becomes low. For large amounts of heat
transfer and no extra parasitic energy expense, phase change material is thought to be a
promising method for battery thermal management. Phase change materials were first used for
cooling lithium‐ion batteries by Al‐Hallaj and Selman.6 The main drawbacks of PCM cooling are
the undesired volume change in phase change process and low thermal conductivity of raw
materials.7 Lv and Situ et al8 developed a nanosilicon reinforced composite PCM (CPCM‐NS) with
excellent leak‐proof and volume change performance for thermal management of power batteries.
Up to date, liquid cooling method is still the most effective way available in the battery
thermal management systems. Compared with the improvement of the heat dissipation
structure, less research was found on heat transfer medium. Nelson et al9 analyzed the
temperature distributions when air and polysiloxane electrolyte were separately used as cooling
mediums. It was found that polysiloxane electrolyte had uniform temperature distributions and
better heat dissipation effect.
Hung et al10 added alumina nanoparticles into water to prepare nanofluids and used them as
a coolant. The temperature distributions at different concentration and flow rate were analyzed.
It was concluded that at low Reynolds number and concentration, the heat transfer capacity of
alumina nanofluids was stronger than that of base fluids. The concept of nanofluid was first
proposed by professor Choi11 with his co‐workers in Argonne Laboratory in the USA in 1995. A
uniform and stable new heat transfer medium was prepared by adding a certain proportion of
nano‐sized solid particles into conventional fluids such as water, ethylene glycol, and oil. The
solid particles can be metals (Al, Cu, Ag, Au, Fe), oxides (CuO, ZnO, Al2O3, TiO2, SiO2), or
carbon nanotubes (CNTs). In recent years, a large amount of research has theoretically or
experimentally proved that nanofluids can significantly enhance the heat transfer perfor-
mance.12-14 Their research mainly focused on two aspects: thermal conductivity of nanofluids
and convective heat transfer of nanofluids. There are many factors affecting the thermal
conductivity of nanofluids,15-17 such as the type, volume fraction, scale, shape, temperature of
nanofluids, and even different preparation methods will have different results. Pak and Cho18
measured the convective heat transfer coefficients of two nanofluids, namely, γ‐Al2O3‐water
(13 nm) and TiO2‐water (27 nm). Two conclusions were drawn: the convective heat transfer
coefficient of nanofluids was larger than that of base fluid water at the same Reynolds number,
and increased with the volume fraction of nanoparticles increasing; at the same concentration,
the convective heat transfer coefficient of γ‐Al2O3‐water nanofluids was higher than that of
TiO2‐water nanofluids.
2976 | XU ET AL.

In recent years, research on nanofluids has made great progress in heat conduction and
convective heat transfer characteristics. Nanofluids have been applied in diesel engine cooler,19
heat pipe,20 and so on. It is of high value to introduce this new type of cooling fluids‐nanofluids
with high thermal conductivity coefficient to the thermal management system of power battery
packs for electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles.
At present, the commonly used lithium‐ion batteries are cylindrical and square shaped,
whose cooling scheme with nanofluids are discussed separately in the next part of this paper.
Three types of solid particles (CuO, Al2O3, TiO2) and the base fluid of ethylene glycol are taken
to compose three different nanofluids, whose heat transfer performance are represented
graphically and analyzed in detail.

2 | HEAT TRA N S FE R CHA R A C T E R I S T I C S O F

NANOF LU I DS FOR C YLI ND R IC AL BATTERY PAC K
(PROBLEM 1)

2.1 | Problem 1 formulation

The typical heat dissipation structure for a cylindrical battery pack is honeycomb‐shaped, as
shown in Figure 1A. It is assumed that the flow direction of the fluid is perpendicular to the

(A) Honeycomb cooling structure for cylindrical battery pac k (B) Flow model around the cell

(C) Stationary point flow on a plane and coordinate system

FIGURE 1 Typical heat dissipation structure for cylindrical battery pack [Color figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]
XU ET AL. | 2977

axial direction of the cylindrical cell, see Figure 1B. Blasius21 first gave the solution to this
problem. He assumed that the potential flow velocity had the form of x‐power series. The
velocity profile of the boundary layer was also expressed as a similar x‐power series and the
coefficients depended on the value of y‐coordinate. As long as the number of series terms given
was sufficient, the series solution of the boundary layer equation with arbitrary accuracy could
be further obtained. Howarth22 then extended the solution, making the potential flow
independent of the cylinder shape. The results of stagnation point flow were given in the
tabular form in symmetric and asymmetric cases.
This paper would adopt Howarth's method and extend the flow to the general case of plane
stationary point flow, see Figure 1C. The Cartesian coordinate system is set in such a way that
the x‐axis is taken along the plate and the y‐axis is orthogonal to it. The velocity components
along the x and y directions are u and v, respectively. The potential flow velocity of nanofluids is
assumed as U(x) = ax, where a is a constant.
The governing equations for the continuity, momentum, and energy can be expressed as

∂u ∂v
+ = 0, (1)
∂x ∂y

∂u ∂u dU μnf ∂2u
u +v =U + , (2)
∂x ∂y dx ρnf ∂y 2

∂T ∂T knf ∂2T μnf ⎛ ∂u ⎞2

u +v = + ⎜ ⎟ , (3)
∂x ∂y (ρCp)nf ∂y 2 (ρCp)nf ⎝ ∂y ⎠

Boundary conditions:

u = v = 0, Tw = T∞ + ax at y = 0, (4)

u = U (x ) = ax , T = T∞ at y→∞, (5)

Here T is the temperature of the nanofluid, Tw and T∞ are the temperatures on the wall and
the temperature at infinity, respectively, μ is the dynamic viscosity, ρ is the density, k is the heat
transfer coefficient, h is the convective heat transfer coefficient, α = k /(ρCp) is the thermal
diffusivity, ρCp is the heat capacitance and Cp is the heat capacity at constant pressure, the
subscripts nf, f, s represent nanofluid, base fluid and nanoparticle, respectively. Other
parameters are defined as:
Density:

ρnf = (1−ϕ) ρf + ϕρs , (6)

Viscosity:

μf
μnf = , (7)
(1−ϕ)2.5
2978 | XU ET AL.

Thermal diffusivity:

knf
αnf = , (8)
(ρCp)nf

Thermal conductivity:

knf (k f + 2ks ) − 2ϕ (k f − ks )
= , (9)
kf (k f + 2ks ) + ϕ (k f − ks )

Specific heat capacity:

(ρCp)nf = (1 − ϕ)(ρCp)f + ϕ (ρCp)s , (10)

Here ϕ is the particle volume fraction of nanofluids.

The related thermophysical parameters of nanoparticles (CuO, Al2O3, TiO2) and base fluid
(50% EG‐water) are listed in Table 1.
Introduce the similarity transformations as follows:

⎛ a ⎞2
1
⎛ υf ⎞ 2
1
T − T∞
η = ⎜ ⎟ y, ψ = ax ⎜ ⎟ f (η), θ (η) = , (11)
⎝ υf ⎠ ⎝ a ⎠ Tw − T∞

Here ψ is the stream function defined as:

∂ψ ∂ψ
u= ,v = − , (12)
∂y ∂x

Then Eqs. (1-3) are reduced to:

⎡ ρ⎤
⎢⎣ ρf ⎥⎦
(
f ′′′ + (1 − ϕ)2.5 ⎢ (1−ϕ) + ϕ s ⎥ ff ″ − f ′ 2 + 1 = 0, ) (13)

⎡ (ρCp) ⎤
Prk f ⎢ (1 − ϕ) + ϕ ρC s ⎥
⎣ ( p) f ⎦ k f Br
θ″ − (f ′θ − fθ′) + (f ″)2 = 0, (14)
knf knf (1 − ϕ)2.5

T A B L E 1 Thermophysical properties of base fluid and nanoparticles

Thermophysical properties Base fluid CuO Al2O3 TiO2

Cp(J/kg·K) 3300 540 765 686.2
ρ(kg/m ) 3
1071.11 6510 3970 4250
k (W/m·K) 0.384 18 40 8.9538
XU ET AL. | 2979

( )
Here Pr = υf / αf is the Prandtl number, Br = μf U 2/[k f Tw − T∞ ] is the Brinkmann
number.
With the boundary conditions:

f = 0,f ′ = 0, θ = 1 at η = 0, (15)

f ′ = 1, θ = 0 at η = ∞, (16)

The skin coefficient Cf and the Nusselt number Nu are defined as

τw xqw
Cf = , Nu = , (17)
ρf U 2 k f (Tw − T∞)

where τw is the skin friction and qw is the surface heat flux given by

⎛ ∂u ⎞ ⎛ ∂T ⎞
τw = μnf ⎜ ⎟ , qw = − knf ⎜ ⎟ , (18)
⎝ ∂y ⎠ y =0 ⎝ ∂y ⎠ y =0

Putting Eqs. (11) and (18) into Eq.(17), the local skin friction Cf x and local Nusselt number
Nu x get the form as:

1 Nu knf
Cf x = Rex Cf = f ″(0), Nu x = = − θ′(0). (19)
(1−ϕ)2.5 Rex kf

Here Rex = Ux / υf is the local Reynolds number.

2.2 | Numerical method

Numerical solutions to the nonlinear ordinary differential Eqs. (13) and (14) with the boundary
conditions (15) and (16) can be obtained by the shooting algorithm with a Runge‐Kutta‐Fehlberg
integration scheme. This method involves transforming the boundary value problem into a set of
initial value problems containing unknown initial values that need to be determined by guessing. The
initial value problems are then solved by the Runge‐Kutta‐Fehlberg iteration scheme. The initial
parameters are adjusted step by step by Newton iteration until the solution of the initial value
problems satisfies the given boundary conditions. This procedure is similar to the shooting process of
continuously adjusting the target center. The whole calculation process is completed by the program
code written in MATLAB language. To ascertain the validity of the numerical procedure, we add an
additional term θ to the left side of the momentum equation (13), then use the shooting method
to solve the revised problem and compare the skin friction coefficient f’’(0) and the Nusselt
number −θ’(0) with previously reported cases. Good agreement is noted, as shown in Table 2.

2.3 | Results and discussions

The effects of nanoparticles on the velocity profiles and temperature distributions when
Pr = 6.2, ϕ = 0.05, and Br = 0.1 are illustrated in Figure 2. We observe that the velocity of
2980 | XU ET AL.

T A B L E 2 Comparison of f″(0) and −θ′(0) for different values of Pr when ϕ = Br = 0

Ramachandran et al23 Devi et al24 Lok et al25 Present

Pr f″(0)/−θ′(0) f″(0)/−θ′(0) f″(0)/−θ′(0) f″(0)/−θ′(0)
0.7 1.7063/0.7641 1.7064/0.7641 1.706376/0.764087 1.706312/0.764060
1 1.6754/‐ ‐/‐ ‐/‐ 1.675428/0.870773
7 1.5179/1.7224 1.5180/1.7223 1.517952/1.72275 1.517917/1.722353
10 1.4928/‐ ‐/‐ ‐/‐ 1.492844/1.944580
20 1.4485/2.4576 1.4485/2.4574 1.448520/2.458836 1.448485/2.457567
40 1.4101/3.1011 ‐/‐ 1.410094/3.103703 1.410060/3.101063
50 1.3989/‐ ‐/‐ ‐/‐ 1.398933/3.341425
60 1.3903/3.5514 1.3903/3.5517 1.390311/3.555404 1.390277/3.551369
80 1.3774/3.9095 ‐/‐ 1.377429/3.914482 1.377394/3.909434
100 1.3680/4.2116 1.3680/4.2113 1.368070/4.218462 1.368037/4.211587

(A) Effect of nanopar ticles on the velocity pro les (B) Effect of nan opar ticles on the temperat ure
distributions

FIGURE 2 Effects of nanoparticles on the velocity profiles and temperature distributions for problem 1
[Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

CuO‐EG nanofluid is the largest while its temperature is the lowest. The velocity profiles and
temperature distributions for Al2O3‐EG and TiO2‐EG nanofluids are pretty close.
Figure 3 displays the velocity profiles and temperature distributions with increasing
nanoparticle volume fraction of Al2O3‐EG nanofluid. We can see that the particle volume
fraction has little effect on the velocity profiles, but has greater influence on the temperature
distributions. The temperature of EG‐water (ϕ = 0) is the lowest and the temperature increases
gradually with increasing nanoparticle volume fraction of nanofluids, as depicted in Figure 3B.
This is due to the fact that nanofluids with high nanoparticle volume fraction enhance the heat
transfer performance and absorb more heat from the wall.
The effects of particle volume fraction of different nanofluids on the local skin friction and
local Nusselt number are shown in Figure 4. The results show that the local skin friction and
the local Nusselt number increase with the increase of particle volume fraction in each
XU ET AL. | 2981

(A) Eff ect of particle volume fraction on the velocity (B) Eff ect of part icle volume fractio n on the
profiles temperature distributions

FIGURE 3 Effects of particle volume fraction on the velocity profiles and temperature distributions for
problem 1 [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

(A) Effect of particle volume fraction on the skin friction (B) Effect of particle volume fraction on the local Nusselt
number

F I G U R E 4 Effects of particle volume fraction on the skin friction and local Nusselt number for problem 1
[Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

nanofluid, which is expected by experience. From Figure 4B we can see that CuO‐EG nanofluid
has the highest local Nusselt number, which means that CuO‐EG nanofluid has the best heat
transfer rate and can remove more heat from the wall. Compared to the other two nanofluids,
CuO‐EG nanofluid flows faster (see Figure 2A) and has better heat transfer performance (see
Figure 4B). Therefore, CuO‐EG nanofluid is the best coolant for problem 1.
Figure 5 shows the effect of Brinkmann number on the temperature distributions for CuO‐
EG nanofluid. It can be seen that the temperature increases with the Brinkmann number. The
reason is that viscous dissipation can produce additional heating in the flow.
The effects of particle volume fraction and Brinkmann number on the local Nusselt number
for CuO‐EG nanofluid are illustrated in Figure 6. Obviously, the local Nusselt number goes
up with an increase in particle volume fraction, which is consistent with the result shown
2982 | XU ET AL.

FIGURE 5 Effect of Brinkmann number on the temperature distributions for problem 1 [Color figure can
be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

FIGURE 6 Effects of particle volume fraction and Brinkmann number on the local Nusselt number for problem 1
[Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

in Figure 4B. In addition, the local Nusselt number goes down with the Brinkmann
number increasing. Therefore, the Brinkmann number due to viscous heating reduces the heat
transfer rate.

3 | HEAT TRA N S FE R CHA R A C T E R I S T I C S O F

N A NO F LU I DS F O R S QU A R E BA T T E R Y P A CK ( PR O B LE M 2 )

3.1 | Problem 2 formulation

As to the battery pack including square cells in series and in parallel, the heat dissipation
structure usually adopts an indirect cooling way using a cold plate with cooling pipes arranged,
as shown in Figure 7A. The cooling pipes can be simplified into a flow model in pipe shown in
XU ET AL. | 2983

(A) Liquid cooling plate for square battery pack (B) Flow model in pipe and coordinate system

FIGURE 7 Typical heat dissipation structure for square battery pack [Color figure can be viewed at
wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Figure 7B. The coordinate system is established with the radial axis of the circular pipe as the
r‐axis and the central line as the x‐axis. u and v are the velocity components along the x and r
axes, respectively. U and T are the inflow velocity and temperature of the nanofluid,
respectively. No slip is assumed and the velocities of the nanofluid on the wall are u = v = 0.
The governing equations of continuity, momentum, and energy are:

∂ (ru) ∂ (rv )
+ = 0, (20)
∂x ∂r

∂u ∂u 1 ∂p μnf ⎛ ∂2u 1 ∂u ⎞
u +v = − + ⎜ 2 + ⎟, (21)
∂x ∂r ρnf ∂x ρnf ⎝ ∂r r ∂r ⎠

∂T ∂T knf ⎛ ∂2T 1 ∂T ⎞ μnf ⎛ ∂u ⎞2

u +v = ⎜ 2 + ⎟+ ⎜ ⎟ , (22)
(ρCp)nf ⎝ ∂r r ∂r ⎠ ⎝ ∂r ⎠
∂x ∂r ρCp ( ) nf

Here p is the pressure of the nanofluid, other letters denote the same meaning as problem 1.
Boundary conditions:

u = U = ax , v = 0, T = T0 at r = 0, (23)

∂T
u = v = 0, − knf
∂r
(
= hf Tf − T ) at r = R, (24)

Introduce the similarity transformations as follows:

r2 UR2 T − T0
η= 2
,ψ= f (η), θ (η) = , (25)
R 2 Tf − T0

Here ψ is the stream function defined as:

1 ∂ψ 1 ∂ψ
u= , v =− , (26)
r ∂r r ∂x
2984 | XU ET AL.

Then the Equations (20)‐(22) are reduced to

⎛ ρ⎞
(1−ϕ)2.5 ⎜1−ϕ + ϕ ρs ⎟
⎝ f⎠
ηf ′′′ + f ″ + (ff ″ − f ′ 2 ) = 0, (27)
4γ

⎡ (ρCp) ⎤
Prk f ⎢ (1−ϕ) + ϕ ρC s ⎥
⎣ ( p) f ⎦ k f Br
(ηθ″ + θ′) + (fθ′ − f ′θ) + η (f ″)2 = 0, (28)
4γknf knf (1−ϕ)2.5

The boundary conditions (23)‐(24) also get the form as:

f = 0, f ′ = 1, θ = 0 at η = 0, (29)

f = 0, f ′ = 0, θ′ = − Bi (1−θ) at η = 1, (30)

(
Here γ = υf /(aR2) is the curvature parameter, Br = μf U 2/[k f Tf − T0 ] is the Brinkmann )
number, Bi = Rhf /(2knf ) is the Biot number.

3.2 | Results and discussions

Similarly, the nonlinear ordinary differential Equations (27)‐(28) with the boundary conditions (29)‐
(30) can be solved by the shooting method, whose validity has been proved in the previous part.
Figure 8 depicts the effects of nanoparticles on the velocity profiles and temperature
distributions when Pr = 6.2, γ = 5, ϕ = 0.05, and Bi = 0.5. We can see that different types of
nanoparticles have little influence on the velocity profiles and temperature distributions,
especially for TiO2‐EG and Al2O3‐EG nanofluids. Compared to the other two nanofluids, CuO‐
EG nanofluid exhibits the least velocity and the highest temperature while Al2O3‐EG nanofluid

(A) Effect of nanoparticles on the velocity profiles (B) Effect of nanoparticles on the temperature
distributions

FIGURE 8 Effects of nanoparticles on the velocity profiles and temperature distributions for problem 2
[Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
XU ET AL. | 2985

(A) Effect of particle volume fraction on the velocity (B) Effect of particle volume fraction on the
profiles temperature distributions

FIGURE 9 Effects of particle volume fraction on the velocity profiles and temperature distributions for
problem 2 [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

(A) Effect of curvature parameter on the temperature (B) Effect of Biot number on the temperature
distributions distributions

(c) Effect of Brinkmann number on the temperature distributions

FIGURE 10 Effects of different parameters (curvature parameter, Biot number, and Brinkmann number)
on the temperature distributions for problem 2 [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]
2986 | XU ET AL.

is just the opposite. It is clear that Al2O3‐EG nanofluid is the best choice for problem 2 for it
flows faster and absorbs more heat from the wall, making the temperature on the wall lower.
Take Al2O3‐EG nanofluid for example to explore the effects of volume fraction on the velocity
profiles and temperature distributions, as shown in Figure 9. We observe that the volume fraction of
Al2O3 nanoparticles has quite little effect on the velocity, but the effect on the temperature is
relatively obvious. When the volume fraction is zero, the nanofluid is equivalent to EG‐water. From
Figure 9B, we can see that the temperature of nanofluids on the wall is lower than that of EG‐water.
That is due to the fact that the average convective heat transfer coefficient of nanofluids is higher
than that of EG‐water, thus removes more heat from the wall. This is in accordance with expectation,
and properly increasing the volume fraction of nanofluids can carry away more heat from the wall.
Figure 10 displays other parameters (curvature parameter, Biot number, and Brinkmann
number) on the temperature distributions in Al2O3‐EG nanofluid for problem 2. We observe that
the temperature decreases with the curvature parameter or Biot number for the whole flow area.
Because higher Biot number increases the rate of convective heat transfer from the wall to the
nanofluid and makes the thermal boundary layer thickness increase. While with an increase of
Brinkmann number, the temperature first increases when η is small, but then decreases when η is
large. Note that the temperature rises relatively slowly for large Brinkman number on the wall.
Thus the Brinkmann number decreases the heat transfer rate, which is similar to problem 1.

4 | C ON C LU S I O N S

In this paper, two flow models are established for typical flow patterns in power battery packs:
stationary point flow for the cylindrical battery pack and in‐pipe flow for the square battery
pack. The shooting method is used to solve these two problems. The effects of three different
nanofluids (CuO‐EG, Al2O3‐EG, and TiO2‐EG) and their particle volume fractions on the
velocity profiles and temperature distributions are analyzed and graphically presented. The
main conclusions are summarized as follows:

1. The heat transfer performance of nanofluids is superior to EG‐water (traditional coolant).

2. Nanofluids with higher particle volume fraction hold better heat transfer performance but
also have larger skin friction.
3. CuO‐EG nanofluid is the best coolant for cylindrical battery pack while Al2O3‐EG nanofluid
is the best choice for square battery pack cooling.
4. The Brinkmann number reduces the heat transfer rate for both battery packs.

ACKNOWLEDGMEN TS
This work was supported by the Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Intelligent Electro‐Hydraulic
Control (Fuzhou University), Fujian Province University, the Science and Technology Major
Project of Fujian Province (grant number 2011HZ006‐1), and Fujian Higher Vocational Colleges
Intelligent Equipment Application Technology Collaborative Innovation Center (201604).

ORCID
Xiaoqin Xu http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6115-8296
XU ET AL. | 2987

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How to cite this article: Xu X, Xiao T, Chen S, Lin S. Exploring the heat transfer
performance of nanofluid as a coolant for power battery pack. Heat Transfer—Asian Res.
2019;48:2974‐2988. https://doi.org/10.1002/htj.21526