A prototyping problem is emerging in today’s efforts to electrify everything. What works as a lab-bench mockup breaks down in reality. Harnessing and safely storing energy at grid scale and in cars, trucks and planes is a very difficult problem that simplified models sometimes cannot touch.
“In electrification, at its core, you have a combination of electromagnetic effects, heat transfer and structural mechanics in a complex interplay,” says Bjorn SjödinSenior Vice President of Product Management at a Stockholm-based software company COMSOL,
COMSOL is an engineering R&D software company that seeks to simulate not only a phenomenon – for example, the electromagnetic behavior of a circuit – but also All Relevant physics that needs to be simulated for the development of new technologies in real-world operating conditions.
Engineers and developers for COMSOL gathered in Burlington, Mass., October 8-10 annual boston conferenceWhere he discussed engineering simulations through multiple physics packages simultaneously. And multiphysics modelingAs an emerging field, electrification has emerged as a component of R&D that is becoming more than just a nice to have.
“Sometimes, I think some people still see simulation as a fancy R&D thing,” says Neelofar KamyabA chemical engineer and applications manager at COMSOL. “Because they see it as a replacement for experiments. But no, experiments still need to be done, although experiments can be done in a more optimized and effective way.”
Can Multiphysics measure electrification?
Multiphysics can sometimes only be half the game, says Kamyaab.
“I think there’s another attraction when it comes to simulation when it comes to batteries,” she says. “This is multi-scale– How batteries can be studied at different scales. You can achieve thorough analysis that is, if not very difficult, I would say impossible to do experimentally.
In part, this is because batteries manifest complex behavior (and emergent reactions) at the cell level, but also in unexpected new ways at the battery-pack level.
“For most people who simulate battery packs, thermal management is one of their primary concerns,” says Kamyaab. “You do this simulation so you can learn how to prevent it. You recreate a cell that is bad.” She says multiphysics simulation of thermal runaway enables battery engineers to safely test how each design behaves even in the most extreme conditions – so that any battery problems or fires can be prevented before they occur.
Wireless charging systems are another area of electrification that has its own thermal challenges, “At high power levels, localized heating of the coil alters its conductivity,” says Nirmal Paudela chief engineer Verest EngineeringAn engineering consulting firm based in Needham, Mass. And that, he notes, can in turn change the design and performance of the entire circuit as well as all the elements that surround it.
Electric motors and power converters require similar simulation understanding. According to electrical engineer and senior applications engineer at COMSOL Vignesh GurusamyThe old methods of developing these century-old electrical workhorse technologies are proving less useful today. “The recent surge in electrification in various applications demands a more holistic approach as it enables the development of new optimal designs,” says Gurusamy.
and freight transportation: “For trucks, people are checking, should we use batteries, Should we use fuel cells?Sjodin says. “Fuel cells are compatible with multi-physics—fluid flow, heat transfer, chemical reactions, and electrochemical reactions.”
Finally, there is the electrical grid itself. “The grid is designed for a continuous supply of electricity,” Sjodin says. “So when you have power sources (like wind and solar) going off and on all the time, you have a whole new set of problems.”
Multiphysics in Battery and Electric Motor Design
Taking such a holistic approach to engineering simulation may also yield unexpected benefits, says Kamyab. Berlin-based automotive engineering company iavFor example, Powertrain is developing systems that integrate multiple battery formats and chemistries into a single pack. ,sodium ion can’t give you that energy lithium ion Can give,” says Kamyab. ”So they came up with a mix of chemistries, to get the benefits of each, and then designed a thermal management that matches all the chemistries.”
Jacob Hilgert, who works as a technical advisor at IAV, recently contributed COMSOL Industry Case StudyIn it, Hilgert describes the design of a dual-chemistry battery pack that combines sodium-ion cells with more expensive lithium solid-state batteries.
Hilgert says using multiphysics simulations enabled the IAV team to tease apart the different properties of the two chemistries. Hilgert said, “If we have some cells that can operate at higher temperatures and some cells that can operate at lower temperatures, it is beneficial to take the exhaust heat of the higher-running cells to heat the lower-running cells, and vice versa.” “That’s why we came up with a cooling system that transfers energy from cells that want to be in a cooler state to cells that want to be in a warmer state.”
According to Sjodin, IAVs are part of a larger trend of industries being affected by the electrification of everything. “Algorithmic improvements and hardware improvements multiply together,” he says. “This is the future of multiphysics simulation. It will allow you to simulate larger and larger, more realistic systems.”
According to Gurusamy, GPU accelerators and surrogate models allow huge leaps in electric motor capabilities and efficiency. Even seemingly simple components like the copper wire windings (called stators) in the motor core provide parameters that Multiphysics can optimize.
“A primary frontier in electric motor development is taking power density and efficiency to new heights, with thermal management emerging as a major challenge,” says Gurusamy. “Multiphysics models that combine electromagnetic and thermal simulations … incorporate temperature-dependent behavior in stator windings and magnetic materials.”
Paudel says simulation is also changing the world of wireless charging. “Traditional design cycles alter the 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 according to Kamyaab, batteries are continuing to move toward higher energy density and lower cost. Which is not only changing industries where batteries are already used, like consumer electronics and EVs. High-capacity batteries are also driving new industries such as electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft (eVTOL).
“The reason why many of our ideas from 30 years ago are turning into reality is because we now have batteries to power them,” says Kamyaab. “That was the bottleneck for many years. …And as we advance battery technology, who knows what new technologies and applications we’ll make possible next.”
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