Parallelization of a finite element solver for chemo-mechanical coupled anode and cathode particles in lithium-ion batteries

Summary

Two chemo-mechanical coupled models for electrode particles of lithium-ion batteries are compared. On the one hand a Cahn­Hilliard-type phase-field approach models lithium intercalation, phase separation and large deformations in phase transforming cathode materials like lithium iron phosphate. On the other hand a chemo-mechanical particle model for lithium intercalation and large deformations for an anode material such as silicon is studied. The comparison of two different ways to define the deformation gradient for the large deformation approach and the two different material properties lead to differences in the resulting quantities and equations for the coupling of the chemo-mechanical model. The usage of an adaptive solution algorithm as well as the parallelization of the finite element solver via the message passing interface concept results in a more reasonable computation time to perform two-dimensional simulations. Both materials are numerically investigated and the results are compared from a physical point of view. When fast charging a battery, higher stress values are reached, which can cause a shorter cycle life. A strong scalability analysis shows good performance for the assembling, however a saturation occurs in the performance of the solver used.