Challenges in Moving to Multiscale Battery Models - Where Electrochemistry Meets and Demands More from Math

Abstract

There has been significant recent interest in studying multiscale characteristics of current and next-generation batteries, including lithium-metal and lithium-sulfur batteries. Multiple studies have conveyed the importance of microscale effects, pressure effects, and morphology changes. Advances in computing power make researchers believe that the detailed multiscale models can be efficiently simulated to arrive at the insights for the degradation and performance loss; however, this is not true and special attention needs to be paid to local singularities, boundary layers, moving boundaries, etc. This work presents 2D examples that illustrate the importance of grid convergence studies, provides well-defined detailed models to test the efficiency of numerical schemes, and discusses the associated simulation challenges. Perspective on important numerical aspects for robustness and efficiency, and recommendations on the possible best practices for studies involving multiscale modeling are also provided.