摘要：
Micro heat pipe arrays (MHPAs), owing to their excellent temperature uniformity and structural adaptability, exhibit broad application prospects for thermal management in large-capacity lithium-ion batteries. In this study, three types of MHPA with varying copper foam lengths were designed and fabricated by covering three walls of the microchannel with copper foam. The effects of copper foam length on their temperature characteristics, uniformity, and heat transfer capability were systematically investigated, along with their thermal behavior under different gravity orientations. The results indicate that introducing copper foam significantly enhances the temperature uniformity and adaptability of the heat pipes under different gravity orientations. Among the three configurations, MHPA-W, with copper foam covering the entire length, exhibited the best temperature uniformity. In contrast, at α = 90°, the evaporator section temperature of the MHPA without copper foam was only 44.9 °C at 220 W, which is 3.1 °C lower than that of the MHPA-Wev and 4.2 °C lower than that of the MHPA-W, demonstrating favorable temperature characteristics. Based on the experimental results, the MHPA without copper foam, which exhibited better temperature control performance under the vertical orientation, was selected and applied to a battery thermal management system, where two arrangement schemes, front cooling and lateral cooling, were designed and numerically simulated. Simulation results show that front cooling reduces the maximum temperature by 4.23 °C and 3.08 °C, respectively, compared with lateral cooling at discharge rates of 0.5C and 1.5C, due to its larger contact area and shorter heat conduction distance. Additionally, temperature difference control can be effectively improved by increasing the coolant flow rate. This work offers a theoretical basis and data support for the structural optimization of MHPAs and their engineering application in energy storage battery thermal management.
