A 3D Framework for Characterizing Microstructure Evolution of Li-Ion Batteries

Lithium-ion batteries are commonly found in many modern consumer devices, ranging from portable computers and mobile phones to hybrid- and fully-electric vehicles. While improving efficiencies and increasing reliabilities are of critical importance for increasing market adoption of the technology, research on these topics is, to date, largely restricted to empirical observations and computational simulations. In the present study, it is proposed to use the modern technique of X-ray microscopy to characterize a sample of commercial 18650 cylindrical Li-ion batteries in both their pristine and aged states. By coupling this approach with 3D and 4D data analysis techniques, the present study aimed to create a research framework for characterizing the microstructure evolution leading to capacity fade in a commercial battery. The results indicated the unique capabilities of the microscopy technique to observe the evolution of these batteries under aging conditions, successfully developing a workflow for future research studies

Advances in test and measurement of the interface adhesion and bond strengths in coating-substrate systems, emphasising blister and bulk techniques

In this paper, recent advances in the minimum-destructive testing of the adhesion of coating-substrate systems are reviewed, focusing on key techniques such as micro- and nano-scale levels of indentation, scratching, laser-induced wave shock, as well as the blister and buckle approach. Along with adhesion failure tests, the latest and most extensive applications of the adhesion test methods in nano-, micro- and bulk-coating technology and the associated techniques to determine the minimum damage defects left on the coatings are discussed and their use reviewed

Marshall Space Flight Center Research and Technology Report 2019

Today, our calling to explore is greater than ever before, and here at Marshall Space Flight Centerwe make human deep space exploration possible. A key goal for Artemis is demonstrating and perfecting capabilities on the Moon for technologies needed for humans to get to Mars. This years report features 10 of the Agencys 16 Technology Areas, and I am proud of Marshalls role in creating solutions for so many of these daunting technical challenges. Many of these projects will lead to sustainable in-space architecture for human space exploration that will allow us to travel to the Moon, on to Mars, and beyond. Others are developing new scientific instruments capable of providing an unprecedented glimpse into our universe. NASA has led the charge in space exploration for more than six decades, and through the Artemis program we will help build on our work in low Earth orbit and pave the way to the Moon and Mars. At Marshall, we leverage the skills and interest of the international community to conduct scientific research, develop and demonstrate technology, and train international crews to operate further from Earth for longer periods of time than ever before first at the lunar surface, then on to our next giant leap, human exploration of Mars. While each project in this report seeks to advance new technology and challenge conventions, it is important to recognize the diversity of activities and people supporting our mission. This report not only showcases the Centers capabilities and our partnerships, it also highlights the progress our people have achieved in the past year. These scientists, researchers and innovators are why Marshall and NASA will continue to be a leader in innovation, exploration, and discovery for years to come

Establishment of surface functionalization methods for spore-based biosensors and implementation into sensor technologies for aseptic food processing

Aseptic processing has become a popular technology to increase the shelf-life of packaged products and to provide non-contaminated goods to the consumers. In 2017, the global aseptic market was evaluated to be about 39.5 billion USD. Many liquid food products, like juice or milk, are delivered to customers every day by employing aseptic filling machines. They can operate around 12,000 ready-packaged products per hour (e.g., Pure-Pak® Aseptic Filling Line E-PS120A). However, they need to be routinely validated to guarantee contamination-free goods. The state-of-the-art methods to validate such machines are by means of microbiological analyses, where bacterial spores are used as test organisms because of their high resistance against several sterilants (e.g., gaseous hydrogen peroxide). The main disadvantage of the aforementioned tests is time: it takes at least 36-48 hours to get the results, i.e., the products cannot be delivered to customers without the validation certificate. Just in this example, in 36 hours, 432,000 products would be on hold for dispatchment; if more machines are evaluated, this number would linearly grow and at the end, the costs (only for waiting for the results) would be considerably high. For this reason, it is very valuable to develop new sensor technologies to overcome this issue. Therefore, the main focus of this thesis is on the further development of a spore-based biosensor; this sensor can determine the viability of spores after being sterilized with hydrogen peroxide. However, the immobilization strategy as well as its implementation on sensing elements and a more detailed investigation regarding its operating principle are missing. In this thesis, an immobilization strategy is developed to withstand harsh conditions (high temperatures, oxidizing environment) for spore-based biosensors applied in aseptic processing. A systematic investigation of the surface functionalization’s effect (e.g., hydroxylation) on sensors (e.g., electrolyte-insulator semiconductor (EIS) chips) is presented. Later on, organosilanes are analyzed for the immobilization of bacterial spores on different sensor surfaces. The electrical properties of the immobilization layer are studied as well as its resistance to a sterilization process with gaseous hydrogen peroxide. In addition, a sensor array consisting of a calorimetric gas sensor and a spore-based biosensor to measure hydrogen peroxide concentrations and the spores’ viability at the same time is proposed to evaluate the efficacy of sterilization processes

Towards Better Understanding of Failure Modes in Lithium-Ion Batteries: Design for Safety

In this digital age, energy storage technologies become more sophisticated and more widely used as we shift from traditional fossil fuel energy sources to renewable solutions. Specifically, consumer electronics devices and hybrid/electric vehicles demand better energy storage. Lithium-ion batteries have become a popular choice for meeting increased energy storage and power density needs. Like any energy solution, take for example the flammability of gasoline for automobiles, there are safety concerns surrounding the implications of failure. Although lithium-ion battery technology has existed for some time, the public interest in safety has become of higher concern with media stories reporting catastrophic cellular phone- and electric vehicle failures. Lithium-ion battery failure can be dangerously volatile. Because of this, battery electrochemical and thermal response is important to understand in order to improve safety when designing products that use lithium-ion chemistry. The implications of past and present understanding of multi-physics relationships inside a lithium-ion cell allow for the study of variables impacting cell response when designing new battery packs. Specifically, state-of-the-art design tools and models incorporate battery condition monitoring, charge balancing, safety checks, and thermal management by estimation of the state of charge, state of health, and internal electrochemical parameters. The parameters are well understood for healthy batteries and more recently for aging batteries, but not for physically damaged cells. Combining multi-physics and multi-scale modeling, a framework for isolating individual parameters to understand the impact of physical damage is developed in this work. The individual parameter isolated is the porosity of the separator, a critical component of the cell. This provides a powerful design tool for researchers and OEM engineers alike. This work is a partnership between a battery OEM (Johnson Controls, Inc.), a Computer Aided Engineering tool maker (ANSYS, Inc.), and a university laboratory (Advanced Manufacturing and Design Lab, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). This work aims at bridging the gap between industry and academia by using a computer aided engineering (CAE) platform to focus battery design for safety

Simulação numérica baseada em software comercial para reproduzir o comportamento eletroquímico e térmico 3D de baterias de lítio

Nowadays the increasing awareness for environmental preservation makes finding environmentally sustainable solutions more and more important. An option to reduce the environmental impact of fossil fuels is switching to renewable energy sources, and batteries play a key role in that transition process. It is increasingly fundamental to this energy sources continue to meet the market’s demands regarding performance, sustainability, and efficiency. This increase in battery dependence requires more rigorous monitoring of its functional status. The monitoring process using physical sensors can be very chemical aggressive and its installation and maintenance is expensive. A reasonable option is using virtual sensors instead. This thesis contributes to the development of a thermal virtual sensor by developing a 3D battery model. The model is developed using the softwares Siemens Battery Design Studio and StarCCM+. Their potential to model the batteries available at the laboratory is also evaluated. Electrochemical, equivalent-circuit, and thermal models are explored. The NTGP (Newman, Tiedemann, Gu, Peukert) and RCR (Resistance, Capacitive, Resistive) models are used to model the prismatic battery of choice. When compared to the given experimental results, the NTGP model proved to be the most adequate to use. For lower C-rates both models got close results to the experimental value. However, for higher C-rate the NTGP proved to be more suitable. For 2C the model got relative errors of 17.33% and 21.31% against 144.61% and 67.35% for the RCR. It was also seen the influence of the boundary condition and the importance of considering heat transfer mechanisms, as the lack of them provides unrealistic results. The tests made on the prismatic cell allowed to see the influence of the C-rate and initial temperature on the cell behaviour. When modelling the cylindrical cell, deep discharging issues occurred. Despite of that, the behaviour of the cell was the expected: the voltage does not exceed the defined range and the temperature increases during the charge and discharge procedures at higher pace when it’s further from the defined ambient temperature. The simulated data was used as input data as input data to the estimation prediction algorithm based on EKF which presented good convergence to the real values.Atualmente a maior preocupação com a preservação ambiental torna encontrar soluções sustentáveis cada vez mais importante. Uma opção para reduzir o impacto ambiental dos combustíveis fosseis é mudar para fontes de energia renováveis, e as baterias têm um papel importante neste processo de transição. É cada vez mais fundamental que estas fontes de energia continuem a atender às exigências do mercado em relação a performance, sustentabilidade e eficiência. Este aumento na dependência requere uma monitorização mais rigorosa do seu estado. Este processo de monitorização através de sensores físicos pode ser muito agressivo e a sua instalação e manutenção dispendiosa. Uma opção mais viável é utilizar sensores virtuais. Esta dissertação contribui para o desenvolvimento do sensor térmico virtual através do desenvolvimento de um modelo 3D para simulação de baterias, que é desenvolvido através dos softwares Siemens Battery Design Studio e StarCCM+. O seu potencial para a modelação das baterias disponíveis no laboratório também é avaliado. Modelos eletroquímicos, de circuito equivalente e térmicos também são explorados. Os modelos NTGP (Newman, Tiedemann, Gu, Peukert) e RCR (Resistance, Capacitive, Resistive) são utilizados para modelar a bateria prismática escolhida. Quando comparados com os resultados experimentais dados, os resultados da simulação com o modelo NTGP provaram que este é o modelo mais adequado a utilizar. Para C-rates mais baixos ambos os modelos obtiveram resultados próximos do experimental. No entanto, para C-rates mais elevados o modelo NTGP mostrou ser o mais adequado. Para um C-rate de 2C o modelo obteve erros relativos de 17.33% e 21.31% em comparação com 144.61% e 67.35% do RCR. Também foi vista a influência da condição fronteira e a importância da consideração de mecanismos de transferência de calor, pois a sua falta causa resultados surrealísticos. Os testes feitos para a bateria prismática permitiram notar a influencia do C-rate e temperatura inicial no seu comportamento. Quanto à modelação da bateria cilíndrica, apesar dos problemas de deep discharching o seu comportamento foi o esperado: a voltagem não excedeu o intervalo definido e a temperatura aumenta durante os processos de carga e descarga a um ritmo mais elevado quando está mais longe da temperatura ambiente definida. Os dados obtidos para a bateria prismática são depois utilizados como input do algoritmo de estimação baseado em EKF que apresentou boa convergência para os valores reais.Mestrado em Engenharia Computaciona

Roadmap on semiconductor-cell biointerfaces.

This roadmap outlines the role semiconductor-based materials play in understanding the complex biophysical dynamics at multiple length scales, as well as the design and implementation of next-generation electronic, optoelectronic, and mechanical devices for biointerfaces. The roadmap emphasizes the advantages of semiconductor building blocks in interfacing, monitoring, and manipulating the activity of biological components, and discusses the possibility of using active semiconductor-cell interfaces for discovering new signaling processes in the biological world

Selected Problems of Contemporary Thermomechanics

Thermomechanics is a scientific discipline which investigates the behavior of bodies under the action forces and heat input. Thermomechanical phenomena commonly occur in the human environment, from the action of solar radiation to the technological processes. The analysis of these phenomena often requires extensive interdisciplinary knowledge and the application of advanced mathematical apparatus. Thermo-mechanical phenomena are analyzed using analytical and numerical methods. The analytical solution offers a quicker assessment of the searched values and its dependence on the various parameters. Some problems can be solved only by numerical methods, of which the finite element method is commonly used. This book intends to present current trends and methods in solving thermomechanics problems

Development of an Advanced Zinc Air Flow Battery System (Phase 2)

A zinc-air battery is the promising energy storage technology for large-scale energy storage applications due to its low cost, environmental friendliness, and high energy density. However, the electrically rechargeable zinc−air batteries suffer from poor energy efficiency and cycle life because of critical problems such as passivation, dendrite growth, and hydrogen evolution reaction. The proliferation of zinc−air batteries is limited. The zinc-air flow battery combines the advantages of both a zinc-air battery and a redox flow battery. This combination permits the zinc-air flow battery to compete with the current leading battery technologies in the marketplace. A rechargeable Zn-air flow battery with an automatic control system was designed and prototyped in our previous researches. In this study, the engineering aspects of the Zn-air flow battery system have been investigated. The reactor was re-designed and optimized. The non-reacted dead zinc problems and the deformation of the air cathode were solved in the Gen 2 design. The reactor\u27s electrochemical performance was tripled, which benefited from applying the additive manufacturing processes (3D print) in the mechanical design. The air cathode fabrication process parameters were investigated, including the thickness, the binder content, and the expanded graphite content of the active layer. The 0.2mm was chosen as the desired thickness considering the efficiency of material and the fabrication\u27s easiness. The PTFE content was determined as 5%, and expanded graphite content was 10% in the active layer for the balance of the electronic conductivity and tenacity. The LabVIEW based battery management system build-up and control algorithm was discussed