SUstainable Reversal oF metallic Adhesive Connections Tailored for Augmenting Net zero Transportation (SURFACTANT)
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Sheffield
Department Name: Nuclear AMRC
Abstract
Proposal context
Ambitious net-zero targets and society's expectation for a continuous 'on-demand', clean, secure, and sustainable energy commodity necessitates a significant expansion in the UK's electrical infrastructure. The DfT's 2022 report "Taking Charge: the electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure strategy" and the APC's automotive battery end-of-life value chain roadmap, published in June 2023, highlight strategic economic benefits associated with this challenge. Regional and UK-wide prosperity, allied with extending battery life provides the support needed to grow a second hand EV market to allow vehicles to be more affordable, whilst simultaneously improving environmental stewardship through improved recycling and a reduction in demand for critical raw materials, further reducing energy usage.
The challenge the project addresses and how it will be applied to this:
Extending battery life through tactical replacement or repair of battery cells and / or modules provides a manifold of benefits and offers new market opportunities for the transportation sector. Presently, battery designs and those sub-assembly electrical connections between cells and busbars are created using fusion or solid-state bonded processes producing non-reversible joints; i.e., separation of joints is a destructive activity if they are to be replaced, repaired or recycled. Mechanical methods have been investigated and used for early designs, but these are vulnerable to 'efficiency drop-off' triggered by 'resistance ageing', resulting from thermal and corrosive activities between the connection interfaces and loosening of connections caused by random vibrations. The University of Sheffield, Heriot-Watt University and the University of the West of Scotland will develop a sustainable manufacturing process for battery applications, enabling assembly, non-destructive disassembly and reassembly between electrical connections to achieve full recovery of the cells and busbars.
Our EPSRC funding request brings together expertise from across multifarious engineering disciplines: surface engineering and flow dynamics; materials science; joining; AI; and tooling design. We will utilise outputs from previous EPSRC funding projects; e.g., 'NASCENT' to accelerate capability to produce a reversible solution.
Ambitious net-zero targets and society's expectation for a continuous 'on-demand', clean, secure, and sustainable energy commodity necessitates a significant expansion in the UK's electrical infrastructure. The DfT's 2022 report "Taking Charge: the electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure strategy" and the APC's automotive battery end-of-life value chain roadmap, published in June 2023, highlight strategic economic benefits associated with this challenge. Regional and UK-wide prosperity, allied with extending battery life provides the support needed to grow a second hand EV market to allow vehicles to be more affordable, whilst simultaneously improving environmental stewardship through improved recycling and a reduction in demand for critical raw materials, further reducing energy usage.
The challenge the project addresses and how it will be applied to this:
Extending battery life through tactical replacement or repair of battery cells and / or modules provides a manifold of benefits and offers new market opportunities for the transportation sector. Presently, battery designs and those sub-assembly electrical connections between cells and busbars are created using fusion or solid-state bonded processes producing non-reversible joints; i.e., separation of joints is a destructive activity if they are to be replaced, repaired or recycled. Mechanical methods have been investigated and used for early designs, but these are vulnerable to 'efficiency drop-off' triggered by 'resistance ageing', resulting from thermal and corrosive activities between the connection interfaces and loosening of connections caused by random vibrations. The University of Sheffield, Heriot-Watt University and the University of the West of Scotland will develop a sustainable manufacturing process for battery applications, enabling assembly, non-destructive disassembly and reassembly between electrical connections to achieve full recovery of the cells and busbars.
Our EPSRC funding request brings together expertise from across multifarious engineering disciplines: surface engineering and flow dynamics; materials science; joining; AI; and tooling design. We will utilise outputs from previous EPSRC funding projects; e.g., 'NASCENT' to accelerate capability to produce a reversible solution.
