COMSOL Multiphysics Improves Battery and Grid Designs
A prototyping problem emerges in current efforts to electrify everything. What works as a laboratory model does not work in reality. Safely harnessing and storing energy at grid scale and in cars, trucks and planes is a very difficult problem that simplified models sometimes cannot solve.
“In electrification, at its core, you have this combination of electromagnetic effects, heat transfer and structural mechanics in a complex interaction,” explains Björn Sjödinsenior vice president of product management at the Stockholm-based software company COMSOL.
COMSOL is an engineering R&D software company that seeks to simulate not just a single phenomenon (e.g. the electromagnetic behavior of a circuit), but rather all the relevant physics that must be simulated to develop new technologies under real operating conditions.
Engineers and developers gathered in Burlington, Massachusetts, October 8-10 for the COMSOL event. Boston annual conferencewhere they discussed technical simulations via multiple simultaneous physics packages. And multiphysics modelingas this emerging field is called, has become an element of electrification R&D that is becoming more than just an accessory.
“Sometimes I think some people still think of simulation as a sophisticated R&D activity,” says Niloofar Kamyabchemical engineer and applications manager at COMSOL. “Because they see it as a replacement for experiments. But no, experiments still need to be done, even if they can be done in a more optimized and efficient way.”
Can multiphysics expand electrification?
Multiphysics, Kamyab says, can sometimes only be half the game.
“I think when it comes to batteries, there’s another appeal when it comes to simulation,” she says. “It’s multi-ladder— how batteries can be studied at different scales. You can get a deep analysis that, while not very difficult, is, I would say, impossible to do experimentally.
This is partly because batteries reveal complex behaviors (and uncontrollable reactions) at the cell level, but also in new, unpredictable ways at the battery level.
“For most people doing battery simulations, thermal management is one of their main concerns,” says Kamyab. “You’re doing this simulation to learn how to avoid it. You’re recreating a malfunctioning cell.” She adds that multiphysics simulation of thermal runaway allows battery engineers to safely test the behavior of each design, even in the most extreme conditions, to stop any battery problems or fires before they occur.
Wireless charging systems are another area of electrification, with their own thermal challenges. “At higher power levels, localized heating of the coil changes its conductivity,” explains Nirmal Paudelchief engineer at High performance engineeringan engineering consulting firm based in Needham, Massachusetts. And that, he notes, can in turn change the entire circuit and the design and performance of all the elements around it.
Electric motors and power converters require similar simulation know-how. According to COMSOL Senior Electrical and Application Engineer Vignesh Gurusamythe old methods of developing these centuries-old electrical technologies are proving less useful today. “The recent rise of electrification in various applications demands a more holistic approach as it allows the development of new optimal designs,” says Gurusamy.
And the transport of goods: “For trucks, people investigate, Should you use batteries? Should we use fuel cells?” says Sjodin. “Fuel cells are very respectful of multiphysics: fluid flow, heat transfer, chemical reactions and electrochemical reactions.”
Finally, there is the power grid itself. “The network is designed for a continuous supply of electricity,” explains Sjodin. “So when you have sources of energy [like wind and solar] by turning it off and on all the time, you find yourself facing completely new problems.
Multiphysics in battery and electric motor design
Taking such a holistic approach to engineering simulations can also yield unforeseen benefits, says Kamyab. Automotive engineering company based in Berlin IAV, for example, develops transmission systems that integrate multiple battery formats and chemistries into a single pack. “Sodium ion can’t give you the energy that lithium ion can give,” explains Kamyab. “So they came up with a mix of chemicals, to take advantage of the benefits of each, and then designed thermal management that matched all the chemicals.”
Jakob Hilgert, who works as a technical consultant at IAV, recently contributed to a COMSOL industrial case study. In it, Hilgert describes the design of a dual-chemistry battery combining sodium-ion cells with a more expensive solid-state lithium battery.
Hilgert says that using multiphysics simulation allowed the IAV team to compare the different properties of the two chemistries. “If we have cells that can operate at high temperatures and others that can operate at low temperatures, it is beneficial to use the exhaust heat from the higher-performing cells to heat the lower-performing cells, and vice versa,” Hilgert said. “That’s why we developed a cooling system that moves energy from cells that want to be in a cooler state to those that want to be in a warmer state.”
According to Sjodin, IAV is part of a broader trend across a range of industries affected by the electrification of everything. “Algorithmic and hardware improvements multiply together,” he says. “This is the future of multiphysics simulation. It will allow you to simulate increasingly larger and more realistic systems.”
According to Gurusamy, GPU accelerators and surrogate models enable greater advancements in the capabilities and efficiency of electric motors. Even seemingly simple components, like the windings of copper wire in a motor core (called stators), provide parameters that multiphysics can optimize.
“One of the key frontiers in electric motor development is pushing power density and efficiency to new heights, with thermal management becoming a major challenge,” says Gurusamy. “Multiphysics models that combine electromagnetic and thermal simulations… incorporate temperature-dependent behavior in stator windings and magnetic materials. »
Simulation is also changing the world of wireless charging, says Paudel. “Traditional design cycles change coil geometry,” he says. “Today, integrated multiphysics platforms enable the exploration of new charging architectures,” including flexible charging textiles and smart surfaces that adapt in real time.
And batteries, according to Kamyab, continue to advance toward higher power densities and lower prices. This doesn’t just change industries where batteries are already used, like consumer electronics and electric vehicles. Larger-capacity batteries are also spurring new industries like electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft.
“The reason many of the ideas we had 30 years ago are becoming reality is that we now have the batteries to power them,” Kamyab says. “This has been a bottleneck for many years. … And as we continue to advance battery technology, who knows what new technologies and applications we will make possible next.”
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