bridging science and engineering
Great improvements in battery performance need both scientific and engineering approaches. While performance and lifetime of a battery is largely governed by the electrochemical reactions within it, good thermal management can maintain cells at their optimum conditions, slowing down the reactions that lead to ageing.
computationally efficient models
There is a trade-off between the accuracy of a model and the time it takes to run.
cells testing and validation
In order to confirm that the models are accurately predicting cell behaviour over a long time period, we need to run rigorously controlled experiments which show how real batteries behave under certain conditions and over time. This data can be compared against the models’ predictions, as validation.
The Multiscale Modelling project brings together world-leading battery experts with a broad set of skills at every level to build the critical bridge between science and engineering, working alongside UK industry to ensure that the work is innovative and delivers high impact. This consortium uniquely blends theoreticians with modellers, mathematicians and experimentalists, ensuring that the models developed are scientifically rigorous, computationally efficient and experimentally validated in parallel, to maintain a high degree of usefulness and accuracy. The first challenges to be tackled include fast-charging of batteries, low temperature operation and thermal management of cells within battery packs.
Accurate models enable us to predict battery behaviour, understand the barriers to performance and design batteries and battery materials which help us to overcome these barriers.
The project team is divided into three Work Packages, tackling different aspects of the multiscale challenge. WP1 develops both experimental and digital methods for parameterising models; WP2 focuses on models for predicting battery
cell behaviour and designing new cells; and WP3 considers the challenges of modelling whole packs and the interactions between the cells within them.
