Recent progress and prospects in oil-immersed battery thermal management system based on single-phase insulating oil: a review

Battery thermal management system (BTMS) is very critical to a high-performance electric vehicle. Compared with other cooling methods, the immersion cooling with heat transfer efficiency has received comprehensive attentions recently, especially that with single-phase insulating oil, since it can not only guarantee the heat transfer efficiency but also simplify the system. This article reviews the latest research progress in oil-immersed BTMS based on single-phase insulating oil. Firstly, the development of insulating oils is introduced, and their basic cooling properties are compared and analyzed. Then, the influences of different factors on the effectiveness of the oil-immersed battery cooling system are analyzed from the aspects of immersion degree, flow channel configuration, thermal property parameters, and others. Finally, challenges with using insulating oil as the immersion cooling medium for lithium batteries (LIBs) are discussed, and potential future research directions are outlined. Ultimately, the insights of this paper will hopefully provide some references for researchers to further develop and design more efficient and reliable BTMSs, thus driving the development of LIBs.