CHAPTER 6 Computer-Aided Design and Analysis One aspect of battery design that is evolving quickly is computer-aided design, computer- aided engineering, and advanced analysis focused on battery systems. These tools can take many forms, from 3D models of the battery packs, which are common in the engineering field today, to computer simulations of the amount and location of heat that will be generated under a specified load profile, and simulations on the mechanical performance under different vibration profiles.
There is also significant work going on to develop simulations of the different electrochemistries, the physics that occur within those chemistries, and how they will function and interact under different profiles and conditions. All of these tools are intended to help improve the battery design function and speed the development process time. When we talk about sizing batteries, there is not any industry standard “calculator” that will be able to help, at least not for lithium-ion batteries.
Several of the battery cell manufacturers have developed their own tools, some of which are available on the Web but often only for customers and they will only include their own cells in the comparison. Many of these companies develop these as tools for their sales and applications engineering teams to use in order to be able to quickly determine the size and capacity of a potential battery system using the basic theories of Ohm’s Law that were described in Chapter 5. These are relatively easy to create in MS Excel or a similar spreadsheet or database type program and if you have enough performance data you can end up with a tool that is quite accurate.
Organizations and Analysis Products When it comes to analysis tools, there are several available including some ongoing develop- ment tools that are being spearheaded by organizations such as the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in conjunction with several different companies and partially funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). One such tool is the computer-aided engineering for electric-drive vehicle batteries (CAEBAT) project, which aims to accelerate the development and reduce the cost of lithium-ion batteries for next-generation electric-drive vehicles by achieving four main targets, which are as follows:
Developing engineering tools to improve the design of lithium-ion cells and battery packs Reducing the timing required for battery prototyping and manufacturing Improving the overall battery performance, safety, and life span Reducing battery costs (National Renewable Energy Laboratory, 2013) The Handbook of Lithium-Ion Battery Pack Design. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-801456-1.00006-3 Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. 59