In today's attempts to electrify everything, a prototyping problem arises. What works as a laboratory model does not work in reality. Harnessing and storing energy safely across the grid and in vehicles, trucksAnd aircraft is a very complex problem that sometimes simplified models cannot solve.
“IN electrificationat its core it is a combination of electromagnetic effects, heat transferand structural mechanics in complex interaction,” says Bjorn SjödinSenior Vice President of Product Management at a Stockholm-based software company. KOMSOL.
KOMSOL is an engineering research and development software company that strives to model not just one phenomenon (such as the electromagnetic behavior of a circuit), but rather All the relevant physics that needs to be modeled to develop new technologies under real-world operating conditions.
Engineers and developers gathered in Burlington, Massachusetts from October 8 to 10 for the COMSOL conference. annual Boston conferencewhere they discussed engineering modeling using multiple simultaneous physics packages. AND multiphysics modelingas the emerging field is called, has become a component of electrification research and development that is becoming more than just a nice-to-have.
“Sometimes I think some people still look at modeling as a fancy research job,” says Nilufar Kamyaabchemical engineer and application manager at COMSOL. “Because they see it as a replacement for experimentation. But no, experiments still need to be done, although experiments can be done in a more streamlined and efficient way.”
Maybe Multiphysics Large-scale electrification?
Multiphysics, says Kamyab, can sometimes be only half the story.
“I think when it comes to batteriesthere's another appeal of simulation, she says.scale— how batteries can be studied in different scales. You can get in-depth analyzes that, if not very complex, I would say are impossible to do experimentally.”
This is partly due to the fact that batteries exhibit complex behavior (and uncontrolled reactions) at the cell level, but also in unpredictable new ways at the battery level.
“For most people who model batteries, thermal management is one of their main concerns,” says Kamyab. “You run this simulation so you know how to avoid it. You recreate the faulty cell.” She adds that multiphysics modeling from thermal escape allows battery designers to safely test how each design performs even under the most extreme conditions to prevent any battery problems or fires before they can occur.
Wireless charging systems is another area of electrification that has its own thermal challenges.. “At higher power levels, local heating of the coil changes its conductivity,” says Nirmal Paudelleading engineer of the company Verst Engineeringconsulting firm based in Needham, Massachusetts. And this, as he notes, in turn can change the entire circuit, as well as the design and operation of all the elements that surround it.
Electric motors And power converters similar modeling savvy is required. According to Electrical Engineer and Senior COMSOL Application Engineer Vinesh Gurusamythe old ways of developing these age-old electric workhorses are proving less useful today. “The recent surge in electrification across a variety of applications requires a more holistic approach to enable the development of new, optimal designs,” says Gurusamy.
And freight transport: “As for the trucks, people are investigating, Is it worth using batteries?? Should we use fuel cells?? – says Sjödin. “Fuel cells are very multi-physics friendly: fluid flow, heat transfer, chemical reactions and electrochemical reactions.”
Finally there is electrical network myself. “This network is designed for a continuous supply of electricity,” says Sjodin. “So when you have power sources [like wind and solar] by constantly switching off and on, you have completely new problems.”
Multiphysics in the design of batteries and electric motors
This holistic approach to engineering modeling can also have unforeseen benefits, says Kamyab. in Berlin automotive engineering company IAVFor example, develops power transmission systems that combine batteries of different formats and chemical compositions in one housing. “Sodium ion can't give you the energy that lithium-ion “,” says Kamyab. “So they came up with a mixture of chemicals to get the benefits of each, and then developed temperature control this is consistent with all chemical compositions.”
Jakob Hilgert, technical consultant at IAV, recently contributed to Industry Case Study of COMSOL. In it, Hilgert described the design of a dual-chemical battery pack that combines sodium ion cells with a more expensive lithium solid-state battery.
Hilgert says the use of multiphysics modeling allowed the IAV team to compare the different properties of the two chemicals to each other. “If we have some cells that can operate at high temperatures and some cells that can operate at low temperatures, it is useful to use the exhaust heat from the faster-running cells to heat the lower-speed cells, and vice versa,” Hilgert said. “That's why we came up with cooling system this moves energy from cells that want to be in a colder state to cells that want to be in a hotter state.”
According to Sjödin, IAV is part of a broader trend in a number of industries that are being impacted by the electrification of everything. “Algorithmic improvements and hardware improvements are multiplying each other,” he says. “This is the future of multiphysics simulation. It will allow you to simulate ever larger and more realistic systems.”
According to COMSOL's Gurusamy, GPU accelerators and surrogate models can significantly improve the capabilities and efficiency of electric motors. Even components as seemingly simple as the windings of copper wire in the motor core (called stators) provide parameters that multiphysics can optimize.
“A major frontier in electric motor development is expanding. power density and efficiency has been taken to new levels, with temperature management becoming a key concern,” says Gurusamy. “Multiphysics models combining electromagnetic and thermal modeling… include temperature-dependent behavior of stator windings and magnetic materials.”
According to Paudel, the simulation is also changing the world of wireless charging. “Traditional design cycles change the geometry of the coil,” he says. “Today, integrated multiphysics platforms enable the exploration of new charging architectures,” including flexible charging. textile and smart surfaces that adapt in real time.
And batteries, according to Kamyab, continue to strive for higher power densities and lower prices. This changes not only the industries that already use batteries, e.g. consumer electronics And electric cars. Higher capacity batteries are also driving new industries such as electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft (eVTOL).
“The reason a lot of the ideas we had 30 years ago are becoming reality is because we now have batteries to power them,” says Kamyab. “This has been a bottleneck for many years… And as we continue to push battery technology forward, who knows what new technologies and applications we will make possible in the future.”
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