Integrated Computational Materials, Process and Product Engineering – IC-MPPE 2022

The development of the key components of battery-electric and fuel cell vehicles, namely the battery pack and fuel cell system including the related cooling system and hydrogen/air media supply for the latter, is closely linked to different challenges with regards to performance, lifetime and safety. In the case of battery-electric vehicles, the engineers must specifically take care of the proper selection of the battery cell type, the related packaging and thermal conditioning under different real-world driving and charging scenarios. For fuel cell electric vehicles, the sizing of the fuel cell stack and the related hydrogen/air supply system as well as the proper cooling system dimensioning are decisive for the overall system efficiency and achievable lifetime.
In the above context, scalable multi-physics simulation is adopted to support the development engineers in the different phases of the development process, from concept layout, to detailed component and sub-system development, to virtual integration and calibration. Depending on the specific development tasks, different simulation methods and tools are applied. These comprise behavioral models, usually neglecting geometrical details and reflecting components and sub-system behavior in a 0D/1D manner, and geometry resolving methods providing a detailed 3D space- and time-resolved insight into the various mechanical, fluid-flow, thermal, electrical and electrochemical processes.
Following a brief introduction of the methods and tools adopted, their application to support typical engineering tasks related to the development and optimization of batteries and fuel cell systems is presented. The overview of typical battery related development tasks comprises performance optimization, hazard prevention and lifetime assessment under real-world scenarios. The selected fuel cell related applications range from detailed anode and cathode flow-field design and membrane-electrode assembly component selection, to stack media supply and thermal management analysis, to system layout and components sizing. Finally, an outlook on future research and development needs is given.