Application Brief

Designing Batteries for Electrical Vehicles

An electrical battery consists of one or more electrochemical cells that convert stored
chemical energy into electrical energy. This battery is one of the critical components in a
modern hybrid and electric vehicle.
Products
ANSYS Simplorer 10.0, ANSYS Fluent 14.0
Keywords
Battery, battery circuit model, electrochemistry model, CFD, model-order
reduction, lithium-ion, HEV, EV, VHDL-AMS
Description
The lithium-ion battery is a preferred candidate as a source of power for both
hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs) and electric vehicles (EVs) because of its high
energy density, high voltage, low self-discharge rate and good stability. HEV and
EV applications require very large lithium-ion batteries. During high power
extraction required to drive a vehicle, these large batteries may experience a
significant temperature increase which can lead to safety concerns. A properly
designed thermal management system is crucial to prevent overheating and
uneven heating across a large battery pack, which can lead to degradation, mismatch in cell capacity and thermal runaway. Design of the thermal management
system requires knowledge of the amount of heat that will be generated within
cells within the battery pack as well as the cooling system.
Figure 1. Voltage discharge curves at different discharge currents
using electrical circuit battery model in ANSYS Simplorer

Electrical circuit and electrochemical battery models are the two most popular
models for studying battery heat generation.
The electrical circuit battery model expresses heat generation by open-circuit
potential along with the potential difference between positive and negative
electrodes. This model provides accurate information about temperature, but it
requires experimental testing data as input. The electrical circuit battery model
is implemented in ANSYS Simplorer; Figure 1 shows the battery discharge
curves at different discharge currents.
The electrochemistry battery model is physics based and solves for both electrochemistry and energy equations from geometry parameters and temperaturedependent properties. Since the model is physics based, it does not require
battery testing data as inputs; it can provide battery performance data that
would otherwise need experimental testing to obtain.

Figure 2. Concentration profiles calculated in the Newman

pseudo-2-D model at the same time and discharge rate (but for
different temperatures) in Simplorer

The most well-known physics-based model is the Newman pseudo-2-D model,

which is implemented in Simplorer using VHDL-AMS. Figure 2 shows the concentration profiles calculated in the Newman model at the same time and discharge
rate but for different temperatures.

Designing Batteries for Electric Vehicles

The CFD solver ANSYS Fluent can be used for thermal management design in
desired temperature ranges, reducing pressure drop and maintaining temperature uniformity. Fluid dynamics has been widely used to predict flow and heat
transfer in many industries, and it applies well to battery thermal management.
A complete battery thermalfluid dynamics analysis, including optimization, can
be done entirely within ANSYS Workbench. Figure 3 shows the temperature
distribution of a battery pack calculated in Fluent.

Figure 3. Temperature distribution of battery pack calculated in

ANSYS Fluent

Figure 4. Electrical circuit model cosimulated with reduced-order

thermal model in ANSYS Simplorer and battery cell temperatures
as a function of time in discharge process

While fluid dynamics simulation can give detailed thermal information about
battery thermal management systems, it is time consuming to perform many
transient simulations under different drive cycles. Model-order-reduction techniques exist for extracting a model from CFD results, and the extracted model
can give the same solution as that from the full CFD model but it runs much
faster compared with CFD. The model-order-reduction process is automated in
Simplorer using CFD results as inputs. Electrical circuit and electrochemical
models can cosimulate with the reduced-order thermal model in Simplorer,
which is suitable for systems-level simulation. Figure 4 shows an electrical
circuit model cosimulated with a reduced-order thermal model in Simplorer.
Summary
The knowledge of the batterys heat generation and its temperature is critical
for lithium-ion battery design in HEV/EV applications. ANSYS provides a complete solution for battery design. Electrical circuit and electrochemical models
are available in Simplorer to study heat generation. Temperature distribution of
the battery cell/pack can be calculated in Fluent. A reduced-order thermal model
based on CFD results is also available in Simplorer for systems-level simulation.
Finally, electrical and electrochemical models can cosimulate with the reducedorder thermal model in Simplorer, which provides a complete systems-level
battery model.
Authors
Eric Lin, eric.lin@ansys.com
Xiao Hu, xiao.hu@ansys.com
References
Hu, X.; Lin, S.; Stanton,S.; Lian, W. A Foster Network Thermal Model for HEV/EV
Battery Modeling. IEEE Trans. on Industry Appl., 2011, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 16921699.
Hu, X.; Lin, S.; Stanton, S.; Lian, W. A State-Space Thermal Model for HEV/EV
Battery Modeling. SAE paper 2011-01-1364.
Hu, X.; Stanton, S. Simulating Rechargeable Lithium-Ion Battery Using VHDL-AMS.
SAE paper 2012-01-0665.

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