Abstract
Structural batteries consist of carbon fibres embedded in a porous structural battery electrolyte (SBE), which is composed of two continuous phases: a solid polymer skeleton and a liquid electrolyte containing Li-salt. In this paper we elaborate on a computational modelling framework to study the electro-chemo-mechanical properties of such structural batteries while accounting for the combined action from migration as well as stress-assisted diffusion and convection in the electrolyte. Further, we consider effects of lithium insertion in the carbon fibres, leading to insertion strains. The focus is placed on how the convective contribution to the mass transport within the SBE affects the general electro-chemo-mechanical properties. The numerical results indicate that the convective contribution has only minor influence on the multifunctional performance when the mechanical loading is caused by constrained deformation of constituents during electro-chemical cycling. However, in the case of externally applied mechanical loading that causes severe deformation of the SBE, or when large current pulses are applied, the convective contribution has noticeable influence on the electro-chemical performance. In addition, it is shown that the porosity of the SBE, which affects the effective stiffness as well as the mobility and permeability, has significant influence on the combined mechanical and electro-chemical performance.
Highlights
A trivial observation is that Li-ion based batteries are currently the dominating solution for energy storage in electrical vehicles, see e.g. Cano et al (2018)
These results clearly demonstrate that the convective contribution must be accounted for to accurately predict the electro-chemo-mechanical performance when the structural battery electrolyte (SBE) is subjected to severe in-plane deformation, or when high current pulses are applied
In this paper we present a computational modelling framework to study the electro-chemo-mechanical properties of structural batteries while accounting for the combined action from migration as well as stress-assisted diffusion and convection in the electrolyte
Summary
A trivial observation is that Li-ion based batteries are currently the dominating solution for energy storage in electrical vehicles, see e.g. Cano et al (2018). One may favourably apply the same conceptual model framework to structural batteries while keeping in mind that the main differences are: (i) Carbon fibres (with anisotropic properties) are used as active electrode material in the negative electrode and as current collectors in both electrodes; (ii) A porous structural battery electrolyte (SBE) is used (instead of conventional liquid or solid-state electrolyte). By employing the general computational framework for analysis of the studied material, our main objectives are (i) to investigate the importance of accounting for seepage of the liquid electrolyte within the SBE and (ii) to evaluate how the pore structure/porosity of the SBE affects the electro-chemo-mechanical properties of the structural battery.
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