The improvement of heat transfer in water cooling passage of lithium-ion battery is numerically studied by employing trapezoidal vortex generators. Battery Design StudioⓇ software is used for modeling electro-chemical heat generation in the battery. The conjugated heat transfer is analyzed with the commercial package STAR-CCM+ in terms of inlet flow velocities. The result shows that vortex generator enhances the convective heat transfer by developing thermal boundary layers and secondary flows in downstream, which results in reducing the average temperature of the battery by about 1℃. The heat transfer is enhanced for the whole inlet velocity, while the pressure loss sharply increases at more than inlet velocity of 0.1m/s. The optimum inlet velocity is around 0.1m/s for in terms of the heat transfer and pressure loss.

The effect of inclination angle and attack angle on heat transfer enhancement of trapezoidal vortex generator was numerically investigated. The commercial package STAR-CCM+ was utilized to analyze the heat transfer and flow characteristics with various inclination and attack angle of vortex generator. The result shows that the optimum inclination angles are α =30°~40° in terms of the heat transfer and pressure drop. At more than 40° of inclination angle, the transverse vortex is dominant, so that the pressure drop is severe and the heat transfer is reduced. As the attack angle is increased, the transverse vortex is reduced, so that the pressure drop is improved. The optimum attack angle is β =30° because the heat transfer performance is maintained. However, more than 30° of attack angle, the heat transfer is decreasing.

Vortex Generators are used in heat exchanger to enhance the heat transfer of air side. 3-D numerical analysis is performed on heat transfer characteristics of a channel with trapezoidal vortex generator. We investigate the effects of vortex generators with two different inclined angles to flow direction which are forward and backward vortex generators. The thermal hydraulic performance such as Nu and pressure drop, is compared quantitatively. The results show that vortex generator enhances the heat transfer by developing boundary layers and secondary flow in the downstream. The downwash flow region corresponds to the maximum Nu, while the upwash flow region corresponds to Nu minimum. In the view of the heat transfer characteristics, FVG is better than BVG. However, when flow is turbulent as Re increases, the pressure drop for FVG is higher than that for BVG.