Electrochemical Modeling and Simulation of a Three-Electrode Lead Acid Cell
Authors: Subramaniam Akshay , Jang Taejin , Kolluri Suryanarayana , Majumdar Diptarka , Charab Rayan , Trinidad Francisco , Jimenez Daniel , Subramanian Venkat R. 
Published: February 2020

The low initial cost, ease of manufacture and relatively mature state of technology make lead-acid batteries the most popular energy storage choice for a variety of applications. Lead-acid batteries exist in different designs and configurations, each suitable for different use cases and performance targets such as cycle life, rate performance, and cost. Further performance and design improvements remain of significant salience to battery manufacturers.1–3 Electrochemical modeling can greatly complement the product development process by enabling the quick evaluation new lead-acid designs, reducing the amount of testing and validation required, and their attendant temporal and economic demands. Several continuum-level models with varying predictive capabilities have been reported in the literature. These have been used to examine the effect of various material and cell design parameters on performance.4–7

This talk describes an electrochemical modeling study for a lead-acid test cell comprising two positive electrodes engaging a single negative electrode. The one-dimensional electrochemical model employed herein is adapted from classical porous electrode models for flooded lead-acid cells. Along with the porous electrode, separator and reservoir domains of a single cell model, the test cell includes additional cathode and reservoir regions. This configuration may be observed in the terminal plates in a commercial battery layout. Classical electrochemical models,4,6 which analyze a single repeat unit in a full battery, are extended to this non-standard configuration by modeling additional porous electrode and reservoir regions. The non-standard model necessitates appropriate boundary conditions to define the coupling between electrochemical variables in different regions, since the symmetry boundary conditions typically used are no longer applicable. The modified model equations and new boundary conditions are then simulated using a finite-difference scheme for discharge and compared against experimental data for standard performance tests, namely C20, Reserve Capacity (RC) and Cold Cranking Amperage (CCA). The salient modeling and simulation differences with a standard lead-acid model are also discussed, as are the trends in predicted electrochemical variables. We expect this model to be of substantial utility in guiding the evaluation of new battery designs through the improved prediction of performance in the test cell configuration.

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by EXIDE Technologies. The authors also acknowledge financial support from the Department of Chemical Engineering and the Clean Energy Institute at the University of Washington.

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