Authors:

Alvaro Miguel

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About Paper:

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft are gaining considerable interest due to their potential to improve urban mobility and eliminating the use of carbon-based fuels. Studies show that short-term flights can be up to 50% more inefficient than long-term flights, indicating that eVTOLs provide a viable option for improved business models and more sustainable transportation. Providing sufficient energy density to eVTOLs has been a major challenge because of extreme high-power demand. Non-equilibrium operation of the battery, coupled with electrode heterogeneities, can cause non-uniform heat generation and non-linear electrochemical performance. This study aims to understand the impact of electrode heterogeneities from manufacturing variability on eVTOL performance and safety. The role of heterogeneities in a lithium-ion battery is evaluated by modeling the thermo-electrochemical performance of three different eVTOL architectures targeting short- and long-range missions. The model allowed for visualization of the spatio-temporal evolution of potential fields and transport descriptors along the electrode, providing insight on locations of maximum heat generation, thermal stress and regions of high and low intercalation capacity. This reveals mission phase changes than cause non-linear performance, which can be used to mitigate variability in electrode manufacturing and minimize performance loss. The work demonstrates that mission-specific design of eVTOL batteries, along with an understanding of electrode heterogeneity under high power conditions, is extremely important for performance, safety and manufacturability of eVTOLs. Therefore, analysis of heterogeneities on eVTOLs can help create a feedback loop, providing valuable insights to electrode manufacturing towards enhanced performance and utility of eVTOLs for various applications.

Source:

Purdue University / 2023

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Co-authors:

Alvaro Miguel