A study of external surface pressure effects on the properties for lithium-ion pouch cells

Lithium-ion pouch cells are widely used in electric vehicles because of their high energy density than other structures. There is an unavoidable external surface pressure between the cells in the process of packing and driving of electric vehicles. The influence of external surface pressure on the main properties of the lithium-ion pouch cell has been studied, which is of great significance to packing batteries and reusing retired cells. In this study, a testing device applied for the measurement of constant external surface pressures of lithium-ion pouch cells was first proposed and the different pressure stress-strain distribution on the external surface of cells under semirigid material pads were analyzed by simulation. The effects of pressure on the capacity, internal resistance, and open circuit voltage of fresh and aged LiNi_xCo_yMn_zO₂ (NCM) lithium-ion pouch cells are analyzed through experiments under 1 Mpa external surface pressure. The results show that the internal resistance of fresh cells tends to decrease. The average percentage of the maximum reduction of internal resistance is 13.28%. The experiments also demonstrate that the capacity of aging cells increased by 2.3%. Irreversibility of capacity improvement indicates applying appropriate external surface pressure can improve the secondary utilization efficiency of aging cells.     

A comparative study of the carbon dioxide transcritical power cycle compared with an organic rankine cycle with R123 as working fluid in waste heat recovery

The organic rankine cycle (ORC) as a bottoming cycle¹ to convert low-grade waste heat into useful work has been widely investigated for many years. The CO₂ transcritical power cycle, on the other hand, is scarcely treated in the open literature. A CO₂ transcritical power cycle (CO₂ TPC) shows a higher potential than an ORC when taking the behavior of the heat source and the heat transfer between heat source and working fluid in the main heat exchanger into account. This is mainly due to better temperature glide matching between heat source and working fluid. The CO₂ cycle also shows no pinch limitation in the heat exchanger. This study treats the performance of the CO₂ transcritical power cycle utilizing energy from low-grade waste heat to produce useful work in comparison to an ORC using R123 as working fluid.Due to the temperature gradients for the heat source and heat sink the thermodynamic mean temperature has been used as a reference temperature when comparing both cycles. The thermodynamic models have been developed in EES² The relative efficiencies have been calculated for both cycles. The results obtained show that when utilizing the low-grade waste heat with the same thermodynamic mean heat rejection temperature, a transcritical carbon dioxide power system gives a slightly higher power output than the organic rankine cycle.