Battery Advances for Future Transport Applications

"Key challenges for effective battery pack design include increasing energy/power density and understand/mitigating degradation. Energy and power density are heavily linked to the system design with effective thermal management defining power limits as well as the rate of degradation. Thus, there is an urgent need for tools which assist engineers in the development of battery packs.

Aston Martin Lagonda has teamed up with Dukosi and Imperial College London to put together the 'Battery Advances For Future Transport Applications' (BAFTA) project. BAFTA will aim to develop a framework that enables optimised performance and system longevity for battery packs. The 3 key pillars of this project are:

1. Model-based thermal management system design that enables prolonged use of the battery system without significant performance de-rating.
2. Novel diagnostic techniques which inform more intelligent battery management system, that enables the system to be pushed to the limits of its capabilities.
3. System Packaging Modelling design that enables the efficient packaging and layout of all the system in a way that optimises weight, package size and distribution.

Imperial College London will develop physics based models of lithium-ion battery packs which are able to quantify the benefit of different thermal management systems. It will inform computational aided engineering tools to enable performance optimisation. This model will be combined with Dukosi's state-of-the-art battery monitoring system, providing additional intelligence to the system for estimating states such as State-Of-Available-Power (SOAP) and State-Of-Health (SOH) for advanced control applications. Novel diagnostic techniques will also enable control techniques which prolong battery lifetime. Aston Martin Lagonda will then implement these key innovations into their product range which has a key focus on high-performance applications and a clear pathway to commercialization. This approach is key to the realisation of high performance electric propulsion vehicles, while it will enable also application to other vehicle types via Dukosi and Imperial College.

The battery design tools that form as a result of the BAFTA project will enable optimised and intelligent battery pack performance/control, as well as a framework for accelerated development - which is essential as the demand for electric vehicle powertrains booms."