Modeling of Battery Systems and

Installations for Automotive Applications

Richard Johns, Automotive Director, CD-adapco
Robert Spotnitz, President, Battery Design

Predicted Growth in HEV/EV Vehicles

Source: Hiedge

Typical HEV Battery Installation

Picture A123

HEV Battery Installation

Picture Daimler

EV Battery Installation

Cooling Outlets

EV Battery Installation

Cooling Outlets

Issues to be Addressed

Li-ion batteries offer the most likely route to HEVs and EVs and

are being actively pursued by most OEMs

However, there are many issues to be resolved:

Cost, Lifetime, Durability, Safety
Rapidly developing battery technology

Many of the important technical problems incl. Lifetime,

Durability, Safety, are related to high temperatures and thermal
management is one of the critical issues to be resolved

CD-adapco and Battery Design LLC are investing heavily to have

the right software tools available for the analysis of battery pack
and vehicle installations
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Thermal Management: Cooling Strategies

Air cooling

Liquid cooling

Refrigerant
2

3
Pump Battery
6

4
TXV

Air Evaporator
Coolant circuit
Battery

radiator
condenser

)(

Chiller

E-compressor
5

Battery cooling of various cells types

Source: Behr

Typical cell internal construction details

Source: Behr

10

Thermal Management

Load cases:

Pelec
(W)

Drive-Cycle

Hot soak
High-rate charging

t(s)

Cold start

Assessment Criteria:

T uniformity ( < 3 C)
Top ~ 35 C, Tmax < 55 C
Cooling system parasitic losses
Safety thermal runaway
Source: NREL

CD-adapco and Battery Design LLC

Partnership
CD-adapco and Bob Spotnitz, one of the worlds foremost battery
system modelers and President of Battery Design LLC, have formed a

partnership to develop a full flow-thermal-electrochemistry capability

in STAR at the cell, pack and installation levels

Picture Behr

Installation

Pack

Cell
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CD-adapco and Battery Design LLC

Partnership
Battery Design LLC: Detailed modeling of the cell electro-chemistry

CD-adapco: Detailed 3D modeling of the flow, thermal and stress

The Partnership will deliver a transient, fully-coupled
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simultaneous solution of the flow-thermal-electrochemistry

STAR-CCM+: Total Vehicle Thermal Protection

Extensive validation has been carried out in many areas

Cell Models
It is NOT possible to predict cell performance solely from design data

There are 2 levels of complexity for modeling cell behaviour:

1) Simple Circuit Model: Experimental data is used to determine the
coefficients of a curve fit over a range of battery operating
condition. This model is recommended for thermal studies within
the range of fitting.
2) ElectroChemistry Model: A detailed model of the cell physics.
Requires both experimental data AND detailed knowledge of the
cell design. This model would be necessary to predict behaviour
beyond the range of the experimental data (eg thermal runaway) or
for extended physics models (eg Li plating)

Identical cell models are implemented in STAR-CCM+ and Battery

Design Studio used to set up the parameters of the model
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Battery Design LLC

Software for Battery Design and Simulation
Battery Design Studio
the means to model batteries
To analyze data
To visualize cell designs
To compare experiments with
models
To visualize model results
Development started April 1999
Database
Lab
Input

Output
User

Models
Data

Size
Cost
Power
Impedance
Life
Abuse, etc
16

Simple Circuit Model

Example shows level of fit with experimental data for a discharge/charge cycle

Five parameters
OCV, OCV, Ro, Rp, C

Page 17

17

Unit Cell Electrochemistry Model

18

Enhancements to the standard model

Coupled to sizing programs in Battery Design Studio

all geometry information set up automatically
Temperature and concentration dependent solid-phase
diffusion coefficients important for accuracy over a
wide range of conditions
Multiple active materials common feature of many
contemporary design of batteries
Side reactions (lithium deposition component of
ageing, self discharge)
Choice of kinetics expressions (linear, Tafel, Butler
Volmer)

Electrochemistry model
Example shows comparison
level of fit with
between
experimental
measurements
data for and
a discharge/charge
simulation for acycle
HPPC (High Pulse Power Characterization) Test

Cycle 1

Cycle 9

Electrochemistry model
Exampleshows
showscomparison
level of fit with
experimental
data forand
a discharge/charge
Example
between
measurements
simulation for a cycle
C/5 discharge > charge > C/2 discharge > charge > C discharge > charge > 2C
discharge cycle

21

Coupled Flow-Thermal-Electrochemistry solution process

All cell models simple circuit to full electrochemistry are available in

STAR-CCM+

The electrochemistry models used in STAR-CCM+ and Battery Design

Studio are identical

BDS is used to set up the cell characterization, given the cell

measurement and design data. The output is the TBM file

Simple circuit cell models are relatively straightforward to set up and

users can be easily trained to do this

Full electrochemistry models are more complicated to set up and

require assistance from Battery Design LLC

The STAR-CCM+ solution is fully coupled at time-step level between

the flow, thermal and electrochemistry models

22

Electrical Model
Battery and cell electrical connections and current flows are included in the
model. Cell mapping (far right) shows discretisation of a prismatic cell to
allow for spatial variations within a cell

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The Engineering Process

CFD
Knowledge
Boundary Conditions

Battery design
Cell design

Build CFD Model

STAR-CCM+
TBM File
Cell
Characterization
BDS

Cell measurements

Li-ion cell
knowledge

Solver &
Postprocessing
STAR-CCM+
Li-ion cell
& CFD
knowledge

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Summary
All major auto OEMs have programs for electric vehicles for a rapidly
growing worldwide market
Battery technology is a key enabler and differentiator BUT thermal
issues strongly influence lifetime, durability and safety
CD-adapco and Battery Design LLC have formed a partnership to
jointly develop a coupled flow-thermal-electrochemistry solution for
cell, pack and installation level simulation
This new capability will be available in STAR-CCM+ June 2010
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