Coupled mechanical-electrical-thermal modeling for short-circuit prediction in a lithium-ion cell under mechanical abuse

Abstract

In order to better understand the behavior of Lithium-ion batteries under mechanical abuse, a coupled modeling methodology encompassing the mechanical, thermal and electrical response is presented for predicting short circuit under external crush. The combined mechanical-electric-thermal response is simulated in a commercial finite element software LS-DYNA® using a representative-sandwich finite-element model, where electrical-thermal modeling is conducted after an instantaneous mechanical crush. The model includes an explicit representation of each individual component such as the active material, current collector, separator, etc., and predicts their mechanical deformation under quasi-static compression and indentation. Model predictions show good agreement with experiments: the fracture of the battery structure under anindentation test is accurately predicted. The electrical-thermal simulation predicts the current density and temperature distribution in a reasonable manner. Whereas previously reported models consider the mechanical response exclusively, we use the electrical contact between active materials following the failure of the separator as a criterion for short circuit. These results are used to build a lumped-representative sandwich model that is computationally efficient and captures behavior at the cell level without resolving the individual layers.

Integrated computation model of lithium-ion battery subject to nail penetration

“…[17]. The strain failure criteria are also used for the separator [37] with failure strain anisotropy [17]. The expression e se f ¼ 1 is chosen to describe the onset of failure [17].…”

“…For the selected internal short circuit model, the mechanical failure of the separator is the primary reason for the short circuit [5,29,37,40,47]. The short circuit resistances of the cathode, anode, and nail are configured in series.…”

“…These simulations typically involve electrochemicalthermal coupling [11,31,32] or individual jellyroll components [34][35][36]. By contrast, Zhang et al [37] were the first to suggest using a coupled mechanical-electrochemical-thermal method to study short circuit behavior under a mechanical load.…”

A Simulation Framework for Battery Cell Impact Safety Modeling Using LS-DYNA

“…11 Many of these references propose mechanical models that achieve reliable agreement between the simulated and measured indenter force and displacement. However, they employ homogenized models for the cell jelly roll aimed at a binary determination of whether a short circuit occurs, and they do not attempt to simulate the multi-physics consequences following the onset of short circuits.Multi-physics models for battery abuse response prediction have been proposed for nail penetration, 12 the short-time response to crush, 13 and general high-rate discharge pertaining to external short circuits 14 without mechanical loading or any dynamic motion creating a physical contact. In the context of this paper, the distinction between nail penetration, crush, and impact is based upon three factors.…”

“…Multi-physics models for battery abuse response prediction have been proposed for nail penetration, 12 the short-time response to crush, 13 and general high-rate discharge pertaining to external short circuits 14 without mechanical loading or any dynamic motion creating a physical contact. In the context of this paper, the distinction between nail penetration, crush, and impact is based upon three factors.…”