Mathematical modeling of the nickel/metal hydride battery system
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Chemical Engineering
A group of compounds referred to as metal hydrides, when used as electrode materials, is a less toxic alternative to the cadmium hydroxide electrode found in nickel/cadmium secondary battery systems. For this and other reasons, the nickel/metal hydride battery system is becoming a popular rechargeable battery for electric vehicle and consumer electronics applications. A model of this battery system is presented. Specifically the metal hydride material, LaNi{sub 5}H{sub 6}, is chosen for investigation due to the wealth of information available in the literature on this compound. The model results are compared to experiments found in the literature. Fundamental analyses as well as engineering optimizations are performed from the results of the battery model. In order to examine diffusion limitations in the nickel oxide electrode, a ``pseudo 2-D model`` is developed. This model allows for the theoretical examination of the effects of a diffusion coefficient that is a function of the state of charge of the active material. It is found using present data from the literature that diffusion in the solid phase is usually not an important limitation in the nickel oxide electrode. This finding is contrary to the conclusions reached by other authors. Although diffusion in the nickel oxide active material is treated rigorously with the pseudo 2-D model, a general methodology is presented for determining the best constant diffusion coefficient to use in a standard one-dimensional battery model. The diffusion coefficients determined by this method are shown to be able to partially capture the behavior that results from a diffusion coefficient that varies with the state of charge of the active material.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 206553
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-37551; ON: DE96007101; TRN: AHC29607%%71
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: TH: Thesis (M.S.); PBD: Sep 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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