An Experimental and Computational Study on the Orthotropic Failure of Separators for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Marian Bulla, Stefan Kolling and Elham Sahraei
Additional contact information
Marian Bulla: Altair Engineering GmbH, Eupener Str. 129 BT D, 50933 Cologne, Germany
Stefan Kolling: Institute of Mechanics and Materials, Technische Hochschule Mittelhessen, Wiesenstr. 14, 35390 Giessen, Germany
Elham Sahraei: Electric Vehicle Safety Lab (EVSL), Temple University, 1947 N 12th St, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA

Energies, 2020, vol. 13, issue 17, 1-17

Abstract: In the present study, the mechanical properties of a dry-processed polyethylene (PE) separator are investigated in terms of deformation and failure limits. The focus is set on the anisotropic mechanical behavior of this material. A deeper understanding of the damage mechanism is important for further safety and crashworthiness investigations and predictions of damage before failure. It has been found that separator integrity is one of the crucial parts in preventing internal short circuit and thermal runaway in lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries. Based on uniaxial tensile tests with local strain measurement, a novel failure criterion for finite element analysis (FEA), using the explicit FEA solver Altair Radioss, has been developed to predict the effect of high mechanical loads with respect to triaxiality, large plastic strain and orthotropy. Finally, a simulation model of a PE separator was developed combining the novel failure criterion with Hill’s yield surface and a Swift–Voce hardening rule. The model succeeded in predicting the anisotropic response of the PE separator due to deformation and failure. The proposed failure model can also be combined with other constitutive material laws.

Keywords: polyethylene separator; elasto-plasticity; orthotropy; failure criterion; finite element model; safety; crashworthiness (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/17/4399/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/13/17/4399/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:13:y:2020:i:17:p:4399-:d:404247

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().