BattLab aims to develop functional polymers and advanced simulation techniques to improve the safety and performance of battery systems. By creating functional polymer materials for temperature monitoring, evaluating thermal barriers at their operating temperature, and utilizing cell and system-level simulations, the program seeks to prevent thermal propagation in battery systems and optimize battery design for enhanced reliability and safety.
Project Manager
- Dr. Johannes Macher, Researcher and Project Manager in the division “Simulation & Modeling”
Project Dates
- Project Start: 01.01.2024
- Project End: 31.12.2027
- Project Duration: 48 months
Project partners
- Polymer Competence Center Leoben GmbH
- 4a engineering GmbH
- AIT Austrian Institute of Technology
- AVL List GmbH
- Budapest University of Technology and Economics
- CIDETEC Energy Storage
- hofer powertrain GmbH
- Isovolta AG
- M-Chem FlexCo
- Montanuniversität Leoben
- Resch GmbH
- Virtual Vehicle Research GmbH
Motivation and Goals
Batteries are essential to address climate change as they enable electric mobility and facilitate the storage of renewable energy from sources such as solar and wind power. However, improving battery performance is a major challenge due to their complexity as multi-material systems. Changes to individual components can have unforeseen effects on the overall system, which may only become apparent during the qualification or operational phase. Current research efforts are not sufficient to meet the requirements of high-power densities and stringent safety requirements, as the investigation of isolated components is not sufficient to accurately predict the behavior of the overall system.
The COMET module BattLab represents a research initiative that combines virtual multiphysics and materials engineering with fundamental polymer science to advance the development of safe high-performance battery systems. BattLab uses a virtual engineering approach that leverages the insights of materials science and considers system physics across multiple scales.
This method enables the prediction of how individual changes influence the behavior of the overall system by coupling global and local models. For this reason, the project requires interdisciplinary expertise in areas such as chemistry, electrochemistry, materials physics and machine learning.
BattLab focuses on four interrelated goals: the development of functional polymer materials to improve battery safety: i) coatings capable of detecting potential failures, ii) the thermal evaluation of heat shield materials at operating temperatures, iii) the identification and modeling of degradation mechanisms at the battery cell level to better understand and map battery aging, and iv) the development of computational tools that simulate battery behavior at different system levels to detect potential problems at an early stage. Simulations at a local level form the basis for global models and for training meta-models that link system-wide behavior with local property predictions. By integrating different scientific disciplines and using virtual tools, BattLab accelerates the development of new battery technologies and sustainably increases the safety of battery systems.
Main Goals
- Designing functional polymers to enable cost-efficient and reliable detection of thermal runaway in battery systems
- Constructing a test rig to evaluate heat shields for preventing thermal propagation in battery systems under operating temperature
- Improving the understanding of aging processes in batteries through innovative methods, including electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), caloric measurements, and data science methodologies
- Developing a virtual system to predict the thermomechanical properties of battery systems using a multiscale, multiphysics approach based on the characterization of battery cell components.
Objectives and Approach
The COMET module BattLab aims to improve the safety and performance of batteries through four key research topics. i) Advanced polymers with thermally labile groups, such as thiols and alcohols, will be designed to release detectable, non-toxic gases at certain temperatures, signaling early thermal runaway. ii) A dedicated test rig will be set up to measure the thermal conductivity of insulating materials under extreme pressures and temperatures, with conditions designed to match the scenarios of a battery stack during thermal runaway. iii) Electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS), caloric measurements and data analysis techniques such as PCA and cluster analysis will be used to decipher the aging mechanisms in lithium-ion batteries. Data fusion will be integrated to model critical charge temperature (CCT) as a function of state of health (SOH) and state of charge (SOC) to enable predictive health assessment. iv) A virtual system combining finite element analysis and machine learning will be built to predict the thermomechanical properties of the battery. This system will be validated with prototype data, and local material behavior will be linked to global performance. Overall, these efforts will lead to safer and more reliable battery systems, in particular addressing key challenges faced by battery module and system manufacturers.
“Methods for detecting thermal runaway and modelling the thermomechanical properties of batteries through component characterization can play a crucial role in solving key challenges for battery system manufacturers in Europe.”
Downloads & Links
Success Storys:
- Design of smart and sustainable coatings for safe battery systems
- Smart solution for calorimetrical examination of battery cells
Funding Body
The COMET-Module project “BattLab” (project-no.: 904924) receives funding within the framework of the COMET-program of the Federal Ministry for Climate Action, Environment, Energy, Mobility, Innovation and Technology and the Federal Ministry of Labour and Economy. Funding is additionally provided by the Austrian Government and the State Government of Styria. The program is managed by the FFG.
