Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM
Fraunhofer Institute for Industrial Mathematics ITWM
Aufladen der Batterien des Elektromotors. Demontage der Batterie
© freepik
Charging the batteries of the elecric motor. Disassembling the battery of an electric vehicle engine. Car service

In the ABBA-VEEB project, based on the simulation software BEST, a significantly broader applicable design platform is being developed and fundamentally tested both for the virtual design and for the virtual testing of current battery cells for e-mobility.

© freepik

Battery Simulation BEST Supports Virtual Development of Novel Battery Cells

Project ABBA-VEEB (Extension of the battery simulation BEST to a design platform for the virtual development and testing of battery cells)

The BEST (Battery and Electrochemistry Simulation Tool) simulation software developed at our institute is currently being used by experts in the automotive industry for the development of lithium-ion batteries. Among other things, it is used to evaluate fundamental design decisions on the pore scale of the electrodes and the battery cell. BEST is a technology leader in this field, but it is restricted so far to the usual lithium-ion batteries and a small, highly specialized group of applications.

New electrode materials and electrolyte concepts such as solid electrolytes are only partially covered by current simulation technology. In addition, the questions of aging and damage of the battery cell over the life cycle are only in part considered so far and the use of the detailed battery models in the battery management system is currently not universally possible.

Developing and Testing Battery Cells for E-Mobility With Digital Twin

In the ABBA-VEEB project, a significantly broader applicable layout platform will be developed and tested based on BEST - both for the virtual design and for the virtual testing of current high-performance batteries for e-mobility. The following technological developments are necessary/required for this:

  • the development of a cross-scale battery cell simulation for a wide range of applications and materials
  • Further development of the simulation infrastructure in terms of performance, flexibility and usability
  • the development of simulation solutions to evaluate the aging and cycle stability of battery cells by considering the electrochemical and thermomechanical effects

High Performance Center Simulation and Software Based Innovation, State Ministry and EU Put Project on a Broad Basis

The project is entitled »ABBA-VEEB Development of the battery simulation BEST into a layout platform for the virtual development and testing of battery cells«. It is being worked on within the framework of the »Simulation and Software-Based Innovation« performance center and is an essential aspect in the current orientation of the performance center to strengthen technology development in the field of electric mobility at the Kaiserslautern location.

The funds are sourced from the Rhineland-Palatinate Ministry of Science, Further Education and Culture and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) within the framework of the objective »Investments in Growth and Employment« (IWB).

Regarding efficient numerical methods and model reduction techniques for the acceleration of algorithms, we use the existing intensive cooperation with the AG Technomathematik of the Rheinland-Pfälzische Technische Universität Kaiserslautern-Landau (RPTU). Furthermore, we have a long-standing research cooperation in the field of battery simulation with Prof. Dr. Arnulf Latz from the Institute of Technical Thermodynamics at DLR Stuttgart.

Carbon-Binder-Domain (CBD)
© Fraunhofer ITWM
Carbon-Binder-Domain (CBD): We extended the battery model of the active material microstructure (red) by a new carbon-binder-domain (green). Since we do not want to resolve the porous substructure of this CBD explicitely, we developed an effective description that allows for electronic as well as ionic charge transport in this domain.
Multiscale Battery Simulations
© Fraunhofer ITWM
Multiscale battery simulations: We extended the available physics-based methods on micro- and meso-scale by network-models for the macroscopic scale that describes electronic and ionic charge transport. The special feature in our approach is that we derive the parameterisation of the network elements from the physical material properties of the battery materials. This approach combines the advantages of quickly solvable equivalent circuit models with the predictive power of physics-based approaches.

Subsequently Transfer to the Industry

Concrete possible follow-up projects for industrial qualification and applications of the developed methods are

  • the use in battery development as an extension of BEST (automotive industry)
  • the use as battery model for battery testing or for battery management of mobile as well as stationary energy storage systems.
  • the development of a software solution and subsequent licensing (with the ITWM spin-off Math2Market in Kaiserslautern)


Duration of the Project:

01.07.2018 until 30.09.2021

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