Design Optimization of Hot N₂ Inlet Pipeline for Baking Oven of Li-Ion Battery Cores:A Simulation Study

Herein, we addressed the non-uniformity problem in baking Li-ion battery cores with hot N₂ gas via design optimization of gas inlet pipeline.First, the flow fields of the baking oven, including the chamber, conventional and newly-designed configurations of gas inlet pipelines, were mathematically modeled, theoretically analyzed and numerically simulated with CFD software.The influence of the N₂ flow-rate and pipelines geometry on the flow fields, energy consumption and baking time was investigated.The simulated results show that the hot N₂ flow-rate and inlet pipeline arrangement all have a major impact.For example, at a N₂ flow-rate of 10 m/s, the uniformity of inlet N₂ through the optimized inlet pipelines was improved by 97.7%; and the energy-loss induced by N₂ turbulence wasd ecreased by 84%.Moreover, the backing time was tentatively estimated in terms of the radius/position of inlets, N₂ flow-rate, and Li-ion battery size.