RII Track-4:NSF: Enable Next-Generation Solid-State Batteries via Dynamic Modeling and Control: Theory and Experiments

该项目旨在通过促进对新兴固态电池（SSB）的理解来推进储能系统的最新技术，通过动态建模、控制和实验来实现改进的安全性和性能。当前的锂离子电池（LIB）在过充、热漂移和机械滥用过程中表现出严重的安全漏洞和故障倾向。与此同时，航空、长途卡车和电动汽车等电力关键领域的电气化也推动了对电池性能向更高能量密度发展的追求。由于固态电解质取代了LIB中使用的液体电解质，SSB可以显著提高能量和功率能力。该项目的成功是向前迈出的关键一步，释放SSB的全部潜力，以实现更高的热稳定性、更高的能量密度和更快的充电能力。可靠的固态电池的开发可以大大提高电化学储能系统的能量和动力能力，同时降低成本，从而使电气化交通的传播更快，加速美国向环境可持续经济的过渡。这项研究基础设施改善轨道4 EPSCoR研究人员项目将为橡树岭国家实验室的一名助理教授提供奖学金，并为一名研究生提供培训。该项目设想了一个变革性的方案，融合了电池材料特性和动态控制的好处，突出了三个科学贡献。首先，一个整体的多物理场模型，可以研究SSB系统中不同长度和时间尺度的功能连接。除了提供设计指导外，多物理场模型还为优化控制提供了丰富的信息，可以安全地引导系统轨迹，同时仍然提供关键性能指标。其次，这些多物理模型是由偏微分方程（PDEs）控制的，其中非线性、参数不确定性和安全约束提出了巨大的控制理论挑战。该研究将推动不确定和非线性抛物型PDE系统的非线性控制理论，以揭示SSB的全部电化学电位，并将作为一种工具，可以进行安全约束感知控制。第三，将进行全面的实验验证，包括硬件在环实验和死后材料表征。目的是揭示基于多物理场模型的控制在多大程度上提高了能量密集SSB的安全性和性能。这一努力的关键是与ORNL的密切合作，ORNL为高维多物理场建模和最先进的电池材料表征设施提供了先进的计算技术，使用广泛的电子显微镜来发现SSB降解模式。该项目将培育多种新技术，每一种技术都可以体现出自给自足的研究方向，对未来的储能创新产生巨大影响。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project aims to advance the state-of-the-art in energy storage systems by promoting the understanding of emerging solid-state battery (SSB) to realize improved safety and performance via dynamic modeling, control, and experiments. Current Lithium-ion battery (LIB) has exhibited serious safety vulnerabilities and propensity to failure during overcharging, thermal excursions, and mechanical abuses. Meanwhile, electrification of power-critical sectors such as aviation, long-haul trucks, and electric vehicles also promote a quest for pushing the battery performance envelope towards even higher energy density. The SSB can produce significant improvements in energy and power capability thanks to the replacement of the liquid electrolyte used in LIB by a solid-state counterpart. The success of this project constitutes crucial steps forward to unleash the full potentials of SSB to achieve enhanced thermal stability, increased energy density, and faster charging capability. The development of reliable SSB can substantially enhance the energy and power capability of electrochemical energy storage systems while reducing costs, thus enables a faster dissemination of electrified transportation and accelerates the transition towards an environmentally sustainable economy in the United States.This Research Infrastructure Improvement Track-4 EPSCoR Research Fellows project would provide a fellowship to an Assistant Professor and training for a graduate student at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The project envisions a transformative scheme that fuses the benefits of battery material properties and dynamic control, highlighted by three scientific contributions. First, a holistic multiphysics model that enables investigations of functional connections across different length and time scales in SSB systems. Besides providing design guidance, multiphysics models offer rich information for optimal control that safely steers the system trajectory while still delivering on key performance metrics. Second, these multiphysical models, however, are governed by partial differential equations (PDEs) in which nonlinearity, parametric uncertainty, and safety constraints present formidable control-theoretic challenges. This research will advance nonlinear control theory of uncertain and nonlinear parabolic PDE systems to reveal the full electrochemical potentials of SSB and will serve as a tool with which one can perform safety-constraint-aware control. Third, a comprehensive experimental validation will be conducted, including hardware-in-the-loop experiments and post-mortem material characterization. The objective is to uncover the extent to which the multiphysics model-based control improves the safety and performance of energy-dense SSB. The key to this endeavor is a close collaboration with ORNL who provides advanced computational technologies for high-dimensional multiphysics modeling and the state-of-the-art battery material characterization facilities to discover SSB degradation patterns using a broad range of electron microscopies. Multiple new techniques will be cultivated within this project - each can manifest self-sufficient research directions with tremendous impact on future energy storage innovations.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.