Godwin Kwadwo Peprah

Godwin K. Peprah is a PhD student in the Automatic Control research group. His research is focused on thermal control and fault prognosis of Li-ion batteries.

The safety, lifetime and performance of battery systems are heavily influenced by their thermal behaviour. Specifically, high temperature can significantly accelerate solid-electrode interface growth, one of the two dominant ageing mechanisms, and may even cause fire and explosions in the presence of thermal runaway. By contrast, low temperature has the potential to largely limit the charging/discharging performance and dramatically trigger lithium deposition, another dominant ageing mechanism. How to operate the batteries always under the best temperature profile poses a fundamental and interdisciplinary research question.

Godwin's project aims to develop an intelligent thermal management system that attains significant performance improvements as well as permits battery operation in all climates. This will be achieved through control-oriented thermal modelling, effective online monitoring and design of optimal cooling and preheating strategies.