Electrochemical and thermal models improve 4680 battery cell understanding
Parameterisation of NMC and LFP 4680 cells for electrochemical and thermal modelling
Computational Engineering, Finance, and Science
Summary
Modeling lithium-ion battery cells like Tesla's NMC811 and BYD's LFP can help predict their temperature and voltage behavior during charging and discharging. The authors developed detailed models that describe both the chemical and heat changes inside these large cylindrical cells. They carefully set parameters based on real cell designs and tested their models with experimental data, showing good accuracy in tracking temperature and voltage patterns. This work helps understand what simpler models miss, such as uneven heating or voltage changes caused by how different particles behave inside the battery.
What this means in practice
- •For battery engineers: Use validated battery parameters to more accurately simulate the thermal and electrochemical performance of 4680 cells during design and testing.
- •For battery test labs: Identify thermal characteristics of 4680 cells and their fixtures from temperature data alone, improving experimental setup and data interpretation.
Authors
Remus Teodorescu, Nicolai A. Weinreich, Berke Bilgin, Yi Zhuang, Wenzel Prochazka
Abstract
An electrochemical-thermal model of the 4680 cylindrical cell is presented: a Doyle-Fuller-Newman model of the electrode stack coupled to a two-node thermal balance of the roll and the can (a thermal DFN, TDFN), solved by an implicit finite-volume scheme. Two cells are parameterised from teardown geometry and open literature, with every value tagged by provenance: the Tesla NMC811/graphite tabless cell and the BYD FC4680 LiFePO4 multi-tab cell. The reaction heat is evaluated at the open-circuit potential of the particle-mean concentration, which restores the heat of mixing. Both sets are calibrated in the same way, with the test fixture identified from the measurement alone. Against the 1C and 2C charge test of Ank et al., the calibrated NMC set follows the mean can temperature within 0.52 and 1.46 K, with a contact heat of 0.94 mOhm matching the authors' estimate for their holder. For the LFP cell, 1C and 2C discharges to 2.0 V were measured on the authors' bench; the fixture conductance (0.337 W/K) follows from the energy balance and the heat capacity (277 J/K) from the cooling. With the end-of-lithiation drop of LiFePO4 restored in the cathode open-circuit potential, the calibrated set follows the can temperature within 0.44 K (1C) and 0.76 K (2C), reproduces the peaks and the relaxation after cut-off. What remains is what a single can node and a single representative particle do not describe: the axial gradient of the NMC can under contact heating, and a gradual decline of the LFP voltage before the knee at 2C, which points to the distribution of particle states in the electrode. The parameter sets (BPX, CSV) and the bench data are openly available.