An Invitation to Engage with Computational Modeling: User‐Friendly Tool for In Silico Battery Component Generation and Meshing

Abstract

With the growing interest in battery computational modeling to work hand‐in‐hand with experiments, the lack of user‐friendly software, in particular accessible for experimentalists, is an impediment to its development. In the battery field, time dependent 3D‐resolved computational modeling is a more promising approach compared to trial and error to capture the impact of the mesostructure of components (e. g. electrode, separator) on the electrochemical and transport properties of the cell. In this Concept, we introduce and describe an application, freely accessible and usable through an internet browser, that allows to import, generate and mesh battery components suited for time dependent 3D‐resolved electrochemical and transport process simulations.

About the Consideration of the Inactive Materials and the Meshing Procedures in Computational Models of Lithium Ion Battery Electrodes

“…To grasp how the propagation of error could occur during the meshing process, Figure 12 shows generated meshes for different numbers of elements as a function of the time they took to be generated, for an electrode sub‐volume arising from nano‐CT (Figure 12a). INNOV, the meshing algorithm developed by us, was used for the mesh illustration discussed here [32,33] . It can be observed that there is a significant improvement of the mesh when comparing the coarser mesh (light blue) with the finer mesh (red).…”

“…INNOV, the meshing algorithm developed by us, was used for the mesh illustration discussed here. [32,33] It can be observed that there is a significant improvement of the mesh when comparing the coarser mesh (light blue) with the finer mesh (red). Whether it is the interface between the AM and the CBD or the AM morphology both have a smoother aspect in the meshes with the highest amount of elements.…”

Digitalization of Battery Manufacturing: Current Status, Challenges, and Opportunities

“…[95] A freeware alternative called INNOV is also available, which allows users to generate battery electrodes by controlling for example the shape of carbon-binder domain partially covering the surface of active material particles. [96][97][98]…”

Deconvoluting the Impacts of the Active Material Skeleton and the Inactive Phase Morphology on the Performance of Lithium Ion Battery Electrodes

“…Moreover, our INNOV algorithm that can control the morphology of the CBD was used to add the CBD as a film or as an aggregate. 13 For a given NMC skeleton HP-1, arose two electrodes with CBD as film (HP-1film-1, HP-1film-2) and two with CBD as aggregates (HP-1agg-1, HP-1agg-2). The difference between the two configurations can be seen in Figure 1(b,c) for a slice of respectively HP-1film-1 and HP-1agg-1.…”

“…The difference between the two configurations can be seen in Figure 1(b,c) for a slice of respectively HP-1film-1 and HP-1agg-1. Finally, the electrode mesostructures were meshed using INNOV 13,14 (with all the NMC particles individually identified), and fed to a Newman-based 15,16 3-D model used in our previous studies, 5,17 to simulate a discharge at rate of 3C. In Figure 2a, the discharge curves obtained for the four different cases are represented with the dispersion related to the stochastic nature of the electrode generation.…”