Project Brief

To design an aluminium liquid-cooling cold plate for EV battery packs, and optimise it using computational analysis to improve thermal uniformity while reducing hydraulic resistance and pressure drop.

Three-quarter render of the 3D-printed car design

Focus

Fluid Mechanics · CFD · Thermal Management

Timeline

4 Weeks · 2026

Toolkit

SolidWorks · ANSYS Discovery · Figma

Iteration 1: Initial Design

Iteration 1:
Cd ~ 0.3823, Cl ~ 0.0887

Iteration 1: Initial Design

  • Generated a 640 Pa pressure drop caused by inlet jet impingement and sharp bend friction losses.

  • Reached a peak velocity of 0.61 m/s, causing uneven momentum distribution and flow separation.

  • Maintained a 46°C peak temperature but showed poor thermal uniformity and localised channel imprinting.

CFD Plots:

CFD Plots:

Iteration 2: Thermal Uniformity Optimised

Iteration 2: Thermal Uniformity Optimised

Iteration 2:
Cd ~ 0.3694, Cl ~ 0.0713

  • Cut hydraulic resistance by 63% down to 236 Pa, reducing the required pumping power.

  • Lowered peak velocity to 0.34 m/s to eliminate high-pressure bottlenecks and smooth the coolant flow.

  • Achieved superior thermal uniformity, taking a higher 49°C peak temperature as a

    trade-off for the hydraulic efficiency gains.

CFD Images:

CFD Images:

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The Team:

Ikem Enebeli

Chiara Foschi

Joseph Birch

Safaa Qazi