Distribution of relaxation times-based analysis of aging mechanisms and prediction of heating domain for alternating current pulse self-heating lithium-ion batteries

Abstract

Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs)-based electric vehicles (EVs) often encounter challenges such as the reduction in endurance mileage and the increase in charging time at low temperatures. To address these issues, the alternating current (AC) pulse self-heating in LIBs emerges as a pivotal method to overcome performance limitations of EVs at low temperatures. However, employing AC pulsing with high amplitude and low frequency can potentially lead to battery degradation. In this study, the state transitions and aging causes of LIBs during the self-heating are meticulously examined using the distribution of relaxation times (DRT) method. The results reveal that at an AC frequency of 50 Hz or higher, even with amplitudes up to 12 C, there is no degradation for the battery used in this study. For aged LIBs, the significant rise in impedance of solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) due to lithium plating, is the main factor driving battery aging during AC self-heating. Subsequently, an electrochemical-thermal coupling (ETC) model grounded in the degradation mechanism has been developed and experimentally validated to accurately predict the optimal heating domain for self-heating. This approach holds significant implications for the rapid selection of self-heating parameters for facilitating efficient battery performance enhancement.