Unit cells for multiphysics modelling of structural battery composites

Paper in proceeding, 2019

To predict the multifunctional performance of structural battery composites, multiple physical phenomena need to be studied simultaneously. Hence, multiphysics models are needed to evaluate the complete performance of this composite material. In this study the coupled analysis for multiphysics modelling of structural battery composites is presented and modelling strategies and unit cell designs are discussed with respect to the different physical models. Furthermore, FE-models are setup in the commercial Finite Element (FE) software COMSOL to study if existing physics-based modelling techniques and homogenization schemes for conventional lithium ion batteries can be used to describe the electrochemical behaviour of structural battery composites. To predict the microscopic behaviour, the local variation of the mass and charge concentrations need to be accounted for. Hence, refined models with appropriate boundary conditions are needed to capture the microscopic conditions inside the material. The numerical results demonstrate that conventional physics-based 1D battery models and homogenization schemes based on porous media theory can be used to predict the macroscopic electrical behaviour of the fibrous structural battery. For future work electrochemical experiments on battery cell level are planned to validate the numerical results.