THERMAL SCIENCE

International Scientific Journal

Tzu – Chi Chan

,

Van Tuan Do

,

Huy Phong Truong

,

Minhhieu Pham

EFFECT OF COOLING AIR INLET ANGLE ON THERMAL MANAGEMENT OF LITHIUM-ION BATTERY MODULES WITH FLOW-CONTROLLED BAFFLES

ABSTRACT
The battery thermal management system plays an important role in controlling temperature to ensure safe and stable battery operation. In this study, a traditional Z-flow airflow pattern was applied to a 4 × 6 lithium-ion battery module consisting of cylindrical 18650 cells. The effect of varying the cooling air inlet angle was investigated using computational fluid dynamics simulations to evaluate thermal performance. The results show that changing the inlet angle to 120° provides the most uniform cooling, with the maximum temperature and maximum temperature difference reduced by 5.03 K and 5.09 K, respectively, compared to the original Z-flow model. However, airflow distribution remained insufficient in regions farther from the inlet. To overcome this limitation, an improved design incorporating flow-control baffles and a redesigned outlet configuration was proposed. The optimized model further reduced the maximum module temperature to 308.50 K and the maximum temperature difference to 2.97 K. Although the pressure drop increased from 20.71 Pa to 31.65 Pa, the enhanced airflow circulation significantly improved temperature uniformity and cooling effectiveness. These results are based on CFD simulations under the specified operating conditions and are therefore limited to the investigated battery module configuration and airflow conditions. Future experimental validation is recommended to verify the practical applicability of the proposed design.
KEYWORDS
Battery thermal management, Inlet Air Angle, Cooling Air, Module Baffle, computational fluid dynamics
PAPER SUBMITTED: 2026-05-06
PAPER REVISED: 2026-05-28
PAPER ACCEPTED: 2026-07-14
PUBLISHED ONLINE: 2026-09-03
DOI REFERENCE: https://doi.org/10.2298/TSCI260506166C
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Effect of cooling air inlet angle on thermal management of lithium-ion battery modules with flow-controlled baffles

© 2026 Society of Thermal Engineers of Serbia. Published by the Vinča Institute of Nuclear Sciences, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, Belgrade, Serbia. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence