Bottlenecks to Fast Charging of Lithium-Ion-Insertion Cells for Electric Vehicles

Customers of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles may place a premium on the ability to quickly recharge the battery. However, several fundamental bottlenecks limit the charge acceptance of the battery pack at high rates. In this work, an isothermal, physics-based model is used for simulating the performance of a dual lithium-ion-insertion cell at various galvanostatic charge rates at room temperature. Simulation results show that the cell can be charged to ~ 55% SOC and 10% SOC at 3C and 10C rates respectively during the constant- current step before the cut-off potential is reached for the system under consideration. The various limitations are quantified in terms of their contributions to the cell overpotential. Simple expressions are provided to quickly evaluate limitations wherever feasible.