Porous media characterisation of lithium-ion battery cathode during calendering
- Academic lead
- Dr Masoud Jabbari, School of Mechanical Engineering, m.jabbari@leeds.ac.uk
- Co-supervisor(s)
- Dr Sepideh Khodaparast, School of Mechanical Engineering, s.khodaparast@leeds.ac.uk, Dr David Harbottle, School of Chemical and Process Engineering, D.Harbottle@leeds.ac.uk
- Project themes
- Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy, Computational & Analytical Tools, Data-driven methods, Experimental Techniques, Fundamental, Transport
Studying fluid flow in microscale porous media of battery electrodes is crucial for optimising the performance of lithium-ion batteries (LIBs), which are widely used in various applications from portable electronics to electric vehicles. The porous structure of the electrode materials significantly affects the transport properties, which in turn influence the overall efficiency, capacity, and lifespan of the battery. This project aims at developing novel experimental techniques and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approaches to estimate key characteristics of porous LIB electrodes, i.e. porosity, permeability, tortuosity, and ionic diffusion, at microscale. A novel experimental microchannel setup suitable for measuring LIB porous media properties with variable compaction rates will be developed together with a CFD model capable of simulating flow in micro-porous media and predicting LIB porous media characteristics. Consequently, the optimum compaction rate for the LIB porous media using both experimental and numerical methods will be found and used in the existing electro-chemical-thermal models to simulate LIB performance.
