This paper discusses the behaviour of different thermophysical properties of CuO water-based nanofluids, including the thermal and hydraulic performance and pumping power. Different experimental and theoretical studies that investigated each property of CuO/water in terms of thermal and fluid mechanics are reviewed. Classical theories cannot describe the thermal conductivity and viscosity. The concentration, material, and size of nanoparticles have important roles in the heat transfer coefficient of CuO/water nanofluids. Thermal conductivity increases with large particle size, whereas viscosity increases with small particle size. The Nusselt number depends on the flow rate and volume fraction of nanoparticles. The causes for these behaviour are discussed. The magnitude of heat transfer rate is influenced by the use of CuO/water nanofluids. The use of CuO/water nanofluids has many issues and challenges that need to be classified through additional studies.

This paper presents a comprehensive review on the battery especially Lithium-ion batteries and the battery thermal management systems for electric vehicles. The basics of the battery system and thermal issues related to the battery have been highlighted. Different battery thermal management systems have been discussed in the review. This paper has presented different thermal management systems for electric vehicle battery in details. Air cooling, phase change, and liquid cooling are studied in the reviewed literature, by showing and discussing the results of the previous studies in these fields. Most promising thermal management system is the liquid cooling, because it has the best cooling potential for the EV batteries which gets the researchers attention to improve it based on wide number of increasing studies and developments in the EV liquid cooling systems. Improving the hydraulic and thermal performance of the liquid cold plate which is part of the EV liquid colling systems has not widely been explored in the fields of developing inlets design, outlets, and fins. The review paper could guide the researchers to innovate better liquid cooling systems and improve their cooling and hydraulic performance in battery thermal management systems.

A wavy shape was used to enhance the thermal heat transfer in a shell-tube latent heat thermal energy storage (LHTES) unit. The thermal storage unit was filled with CuO–coconut oil nano-enhanced phase change material (NePCM). The enthalpy-porosity approach was employed to model the phase change heat transfer in the presence of natural convection effects in the molten NePCM. The finite element method was applied to integrate the governing equations for fluid motion and phase change heat transfer. The impact of wave amplitude and wave number of the heated tube, as well as the volume concertation of nanoparticles on the full-charging time of the LHTES unit, was addressed. The Taguchi optimization method was used to find an optimum design of the LHTES unit. The results showed that an increase in the volume fraction of nanoparticles reduces the charging time. Moreover, the waviness of the tube resists the natural convection flow circulation in the phase change domain and could increase the charging time.

Around the world, there is a significant increase in the number of electric vehicles on the roads. Among the reasons are the aims to reduce the global dependency on oil as an energy source due to its political and economic dimensions especially for the non-oil producing countries by maximizing the use of electric vehicles. At the same time, it is also due to global concerns for the environmental aspect, especially global warming where transportation represents 30% of it. The battery is considered the main source of power for electric vehicles, but the battery tends to generate a significant amount of heat due to internal resistance during operation. The generated heat during the charging/discharging processes could lead to overheating in the battery which could end in battery failure. Therefore, dissipating the generated heat in the EV battery becomes essential through thermal management systems to ensure that the battery operates within a safe temperature range. Hence, the present study aims to introduce a new design of the liquid cooling system and also to investigate the effective parameter which affects its heat transfer performance. This paper is part of the overall study and describes the computational fluid dynamics by using ANSYS FLUENT software and numerical analysis to investigate the effect of the inlet/outlet arrangements on the heat transfer performance of a new LCP used for cooling the EV battery cell. There are three inlet/outlet arrangements: I-arrangement, Z-arrangement, and L-arrangement. The flow rate range of the present study is at the range of 0.4 – 1.6 l/min under 300 W heat flux. The L-arrangement has the best cooling performance compared to I-arrangement and Z-arrangement, where it achieves an average battery cell temperature which equals to 37.1 ⁰C along flow rates, while it is at 43.3 ⁰C and 38.0 ⁰C for I-arrangement and Z-arrangement, respectively. The temperature uniformity for both L-arrangement and Z-arrangement is almost similar, and they achieved good temperature uniformity at all flow rates, while I-arrangement failed to achieve good temperature uniformity at the lowest flow rates.

EV batteries tend to generate a significant amount of heat due to internal resistance during operation. The LCP using the regular inlet struggles to have good fluid distribution without depending on the flow rate. The aim of the present experimental study is to introduce a new design of inlet header called shower head to be used in the liquid cold plate for cooling the battery cells. The study investigates the thermal performance improvements by using the shower head and its impact on the hydraulic performance of the liquid cold plate. The shower head is studied at Reynolds number range 382–1530 and water is the working fluid. The results indicate that the shower head achieved significant reduction in the surface temperature of the battery cell and good temperature uniformity compared to the regular inlet at all Reynolds numbers due to the ability of the shower head to achieve good fluid distribution and mixing inside the LCP. The pumping power consumption difference between the regular inlet and the shower head is not significant.