CD-adapco has released the STAR-CCM + Battery Simulation Module, designed to simulate spirally wound lithium-ion battery cells, which could help the automotive and battery industries more quickly design and develop advanced electric drive vehicle power sources.

Development was developed in  conjunction with Battery Design LLC, Johnson Controls, Inc., and A123 Systems and co-sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and began in August 2011. The spiral cell software was developed within the first year of a multi-year award. 

This computer simulation technology project was one of three chosen to support the DOE's CAEBAT program to reduce petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. DOE's Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy provided the funding and goals of the project include developing battery engineering tools to design cells and battery packs; validating the accuracy of those tools; shortening prototyping and manufacturing processes; improving overall battery performance, safety, and life; and reducing battery costs.

"Proliferating simulation methods in the new and rapidly changing field of lithium-ion battery development is the goal of the CAEBAT (Computer-Aided Engineering for Electric Drive Vehicle Batteries) project," said Ahmed Pesaran, Energy Storage group team leader at the NREL. "By including such models in to their mainstream product, CD-adapco is supporting the Department of Energy to meet these goals." 

"It is CD-adapco's strategy to collaborate with experts in emerging fields, such as electrochemistry, to develop customer focused solutions," said Steve Hartridge, Director of Electric&Hybrid Vehicles at CD-adapco. "By capturing the process, data and knowledge of experts involved in this project, CD-adapco enables a wide audience to begin applying simulation methods to the design of lithium-ion cells."