A 1-D physical model of lithium-titanate battery for

control applications
Emil Namor, Rachid Cherkaoui, Dimitri Torregrossa, Mario Paolone
Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Switzerland
Email: emil.namor@epfl.ch

AbstractThis document proposes a semi-physical model for a

lithium titanate battery. Its aim is to find a compromise between
the complex battery models based on PDEs and electrochemical
laws and the simple models needed in control applications. In
this work this objective is fulfilled using a single particle model
(SPM) and a series of reasonable simplifications derived from
observation and experimental data. The parameter identification
procedure is described and an experimental validation is carried
on.

I. I NTRODUCTION
There has been a considerable effort in recent years towards
the integration of physical models of lithium-ion batteries in
their control algorithms. The main reasons for this are:
1) the major accuracy of these models;
2) their ability to estimate the internal states of the battery;
3) their capacity to integrate aging phenomena within the
models and control strategies.
The literature focuses on the reduced order modeling of
lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) and whereas several methods have
been described [1][2] still there are few examples of works
that conjugate the model formulation with its parameter identification and experimental validation. In the present work we
present a model that although simpler that many presented in
literature, preserves its physical foundation and allows a plain
parameter identification. The paper is structured as follows.
In chapter II the model is described. The SPM on which it
is based and the simplifications made are detailed. Chapter
III treats the parameter identification procedure. Chapter IV
presents the data of the experimental validation. Chapter
V analyze the computational efficiency of the model and
compares it to that of a commonly used circuit model. The
conclusion sums up the document and underlines the merits
we see in this work.
II. M ODEL OVERVIEW
A. The single particle model
The most widely used electrochemical model for lithiumion batteries is the so called pseudo-2-dimensional model
firstly presented in [3][4]. This model takes into account
the reaction kinetics at the two electrodes, the insertion and
conduction phenomena within them and the conduction and
diffusion of ions in the electrolyte through the thickness of the
cell. The insertion phenomena are described through diffusion
partial differential equations along the radial dimension of
the particles composing the electrodes, whereas the diffusion

Fig. 1. Scheme of the pseudo-2-dimensional model

and conduction in the electrolyte composing the electrodes

through additional PDEs along an x dimension. These last
phenomena force to consider the insertion problem at every
x discretization point, hence multiplying the number of radial
PDEs to consider and greatly increasing the complexity and
the computational burden of the model.
In first approximation, the inhomogeneities along the x
direction can be disregarded therefore representing the two
electrodes through two particles of appropriate size and limiting the model to two diffusion PDEs, two surface reaction
equations describing the reaction kinetics and a simplified
conduction through the electrolyte law.
The reaction kinetics follows a Butler-Volmer equation that
can be inverted as in eq. 1. Us and Ueq are respectively the
potential at the surface of the particle and the equilibrium
potential, R is the universal gas constant, T is the temperature,
F is the Faraday constant, a is the area of the electrode, i0 the
exchange current and Iapp the applied current. This leads to a
non-linear relation between the overpotential at the surface of
the particle due to the charge transfer process and the applied
current. The equilibrium potential Ueq is defined through an
empirical relation with the lithium ion stoichiometry on this
same surface.

 = Us Ueq =

2RT
Iapp
arcsinh(
)
F
2ai0

Ueq = f (cs )

(1)

(2)

The diffusion equation describes how the reacted lithium

ions intercalate or de-intercalate in the active material of
the electrodes. In the SPM, where the whole electrode is
represented by one particle whose size is accordingly scaled,
the whole current participate to the intercalation process,
and the boundary condition at the surface of the particle is
therefore defined as in eq. 4.
D 1 c
c
=
(
)
t
r r r r

(3)

With the boundary conditions:

c
|r=0 = 0
r
c
Iapp
|r=R =
r
S

(4)

In eq. 4 r is the radial coordinate, R the particle radius,

c the solid concentration, D the diffusion coefficient of the
active material and S the total surface (CONTROLLARE) of
the electrode.
B. Simplifications based on physical observations
This work focuses on commercial batteries having Nickel
Cobalt Aluminum Oxide (NCA) cathodes and lithium-titante
(LTO) anodes and a nominal capacity of 30 Ah. Their specific
chemistry allows some simplifications to the model described
above. The LTO anode has a very flat open-circuit potential
(OCP) curve in its functioning region [7], so its intercalation
and de-intercalation processes do not affect considerably the
output voltage. The diffusion problem related to the anode
can therefore be neglected causing little loss in accuracy and
a considerable speed-up in computational time.
The voltage drops that this model keep into consideration
are that relative to the electrolyte conduction Rcond and the
charge-transfer resistances Rct , that can be extrapolated from
the Butler-Volmer relation in eq. (1). Experimental observations led to consider the latter as the major reason for the
voltage drop during charges and discharges. In first approximation, and for low currents this relation can be linearized.
The charge-transfer resistance Rct can be defined through the
equation:
Rct =

RT
nF i0

(5)

where:
p
i0 = k ce (cmax cs )cs

(6)

This equation holds for low currents and reflects a Tafel

behaviour.

Fig. 2. Open circuit potential curve for the anode (a) and for the cathode (b)

C. Model implementation
The model described here above has been implemented in
R
Matlab
. The diffusion problem has been discretized through
a forward finite difference method, as in equation []. The
particle radius has been discretized in 10 steps, whereas the
time steps have been adapted to the different simulations
executed, within the interval 1s - 10s.
ct+1
cti
D
D t+1 2D t+1
D
D t+1
i
=
)c
)c
+
c +

t
r2 rr i+1 r2 i
r2 rr i1
(7)
With the BCs:
ct+1
ct+1
1
1
=0
r
(8)
t+1
ct+1
Iapp
R+1 cR1
=
r
S
The resistance is defined in the general form in eq. 9, in
order to represent the two sources of voltage drop described in
chapter II.b, i.e. the conduction in electrolyte and the charge
transfer. A, B and C are the parameters to be determined
through the optimization procedure.
Rcond+ct = A + p

B
C(cmax cs )cs

(9)

III. PARAMETER IDENTIFICATION

The literature on LIB electrochemical modeling for control
purposes focuses so far mainly on the model formulation and
is less broad, to the best of the authors knowledge, relatively

TABLE I
E XPERIMENTAL VALIDATION SUMMARY
Cycle
RCC 1
RCC 2
RCC 3

SOC0
0.15
0.22
0.34

LSME (V)
0.0092
0.0152
0.0051

Max error (%)

0.072
0.1358
0.0062

EOS error (V)

0.0039
0.0028
0.0015

to the parameter identification and experimental validation.

[5] uses a genetic algorithm procedure to characterize a
whole P2D model, seeking 88 parameters. This is a quite
complex procedure. [6] assumes instead that the knowledge
of certain values is given and limits the optimization to a
smaller number of relevant parameters. In this paper this
second procedure is utilized. Notably, the OCP curve is found
through experimental and manufacturer data. The radius of the
active material particles and the geometrical data of the cell are
given by the manufacturer. The optimizations duty is therefore
to determine the diffusion coefficient of the cathode and the
variables given in equation [] related to the internal resistance
of the battery. The optimization is carried out by seeking the
minimum of a least square value produced by experimental
and simulation data.
X
(Vsim Vmeas )2
(10)
min  =
Ds ,Rct

The problem thus expressed is then solved through the

R
function GA.
Matlab

Fig. 3. Results for the cycle RCC1 . (a) applied current (b) measured (blue)
and simulated (red) voltage (c) error

IV. E XPERIMENTAL VALIDATION (TEMPORARY)

The model is then validated experimentally. A series of
charging-discharging cycles has been carried out on a 30 Ah
cell kept at the constant temperature T = 20 C thanks to
a climatic chamber. These cycles are composed by constantcurrent and constant-voltage charges and discharges of variable
duration and intensity. The starting point for these cycles
is at different SOCs. The cycles follow a period of rest of
several hours, so that the concentration profile can be assumed
constant and the initial SOC is known through the open circuit
voltage curve, and can be inserted as an initial condition in
the simulations. A further work will concern the estimation of
the initial SOC in a non-rest condition. The cycle RRC 1 has
then been used to fit the model, whereas the others have been
used to estimate its goodness.
The simulated voltage satisfactorily follows the measured
one on a timescale of several hours. The tab. I summarizes the
characteristics of the various cycles and the obtained results
in terms of maximum and mean error.
It is worth notice that two weaknesses are for the moment
evident: the spikes at the beginning of the charges and the
drift of the voltage at very high SOC. This is due to the high
gradient of its curve at high SOCs and therefore to its high
sensitivity with regard to the parameters.
V. C OMPUTATIONAL EFFICIENCY
In this section the computational efficiency of the model is
compared to that of a circuit model.

Fig. 4. Results for the cycle RCC2 . (a) applied current (b) measured (blue)
and simulated (red) voltage (c) error

Fig. 5. Results for the cycle RCC3 . (a) applied current (b) measured (blue)
and simulated (red) voltage (c) error

VI. C ONCLUSION
A simplified single particle model has been proposed for the
simulation of a commercial lithium-titanate cell. The model
has been parametrized through an optimization procedure and
validated on a series of voltage profiles. A good performance
has been observed. Further work will concern the estimation
of the SOC and internal states, the utilization of this model in a
control algorithm and its improvement through the integration
of an aging model.
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